CORRECTION: City of West Hollywood Celebrates National Poetry Month in April

The City of West Hollywood will celebrate National Poetry Month in April with innovative events, including a poetry spa day and public exhibitions honoring poets and the art of poetry. National Poetry Month is the largest literary celebration in the world.

Throughout the month of April, the City of West Hollywood will honor living poets by featuring selections of their poetry on street pole banners along Santa Monica Boulevard. Currently, there are 49 poets honored, and each year the West Hollywood City Poet Laureate selects two additional poets to honor. This year's honorees are Shonda Buchanan and Mariano Zaro:

• Shonda Buchanan is a Pushcart Prize nominee, Oxfam Ambassador, USC Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities Fellow, and City of Los Angeles (COLA) Department of Cultural Affairs Master Artist Fellow. She is the author of five books, including the award-winning memoir, Black Indian, which won the 2020 Indie New Generation Book Award and was chosen by PBS NewsHour as a "Top 20 Books to Read" to learn about institutional racism. About to enter a 3rd printing, Black Indian begins the saga of her family's migration stories of Free People of Color communities exploring identity, ethnicity, landscape, and loss. Buchanan is also a faculty member in Alma College's MFA Program in Creative Writing. Buchanan is the recipient of the Brody Arts Fellowship from the California Community Foundation, a Big Read grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, several Virginia Foundation for the Humanities grants, the Denise L. Scott and Frank Sullivan Awards, and an Eloise Klein-Healy Scholarship. Consulting Curator Poet for The Broad Art Museum, Buchanan is also a Sundance Institute Writing Arts fellow, a PEN Center Emerging Voices fellow, and a Jentel Artist Residency fellow.

• Mariano Zaro is the author of six books of poetry: Decoding Sparrows, Padre Tierra, Tres letras/Three Letters, The House of Mae Rim/La casa de Mae Rim, Poems of Erosion/Poemas de la erosion, and Where From/Desde Donde. His poems have been included in the anthologies Monster Verse, Wide Awake, The Coiled Serpent, and in several magazines in Spain, Mexico, and the United States. Zaro's short stories have appeared in Portland Review, Pinyon, Baltimore Review, Louisville Review and Magnapoets. He is the winner of the 2004 Roanoke Review Short Fiction Prize and the 2018 Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing Short Fiction Prize. Since 2010, he has been hosting a series of video-interviews with prominent American poets as part of the literary project Poetry.LA. He is a professor of Spanish at Rio Hondo Community College in Whittier.

On Monday, April 1, 2024 at 6 p.m., the City Council of the City of West Hollywood will issue a commemorative National Poetry Monthproclamation, which will be received by West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng. The presentation will be viewable as part of the City Council meeting broadcast on the City's WeHoTV YouTube Channel. The City Poet Laureate Jen Chang will also debut a new poem that celebrates the City of West Hollywood, titled Recipe for Creativity, Blessed by Ghosts of the Greats (below, at end of news release).

With the support of an arts grant from the City of West Hollywood, Women Who Submit (WWS) presents Transformation - A Book Release Party on Saturday, April 13, 2024, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Plummer Park's Great Hall, located at 7377 Santa Monica Boulevard. Transformation is WWS' third anthology and features poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and drama from 42 women and nonbinary contributors across the world. The event will feature readings from Erika Ayón, Lisa Cheby, Liz González, Monona Wali, Aruni Wijesinghe, and Sandy Yang, music by DJ Langosta, and an expo of literary organizations and booksellers. For more information, please visit the City of West Hollywood's website calendar.

The WeHo Reads: Poetry Spa event will take place on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Respite Deck of the West Hollywood Aquatic and Recreation Center (ARC), located at 8750 El Tovar Place, adjacent to the West Hollywood Library. From 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., the public is invited to explore poetry at "spa stations" including Feng Shui Poetry, Poemaroma (essential oils), Lotus Poetry (origami), and other poetic experiences. At 7:30 p.m., attendees will gather at the Grand Staircase at sunset to hear all the poets share their words. Poetry Spa is a concept created by Brian Sonia-Wallace during his term as 2020-23 West Hollywood City Poet Laureate and is curated by current West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng.

WeHo Reads is a literary series produced by the City of West Hollywood's Arts Division and BookSwell. Additional support is provided by UCLA Extension Writers' Program and Poets & Writers, with media partnerships from Book Soup and Los Angeles Review of Books. Books will be available for sale by historic West Hollywood retailer Book Soup. This event is free to attend and RSVPs are requested. For more information and to RSVP please visit: www.weho.org/wehoreads.

Poets participating at the WeHo Reads: Poetry Spa event include:

• Terry Wolverton, author of eleven books, including her latest, Season of Eclipse, hosts the Poemaroma spa station.

• K. Toney is a griot, writer, musician, and educator who hosts the Listening Libations spa station where attendees get to mix poetry with soothing sounds.

• Brian Sonia-Wallace, author of Poetry of Strangers hosts the Poetry Bath spa station.

• Pride Poets members Timothy Nang will host the Lotus Poetry spa station and Jose Rios will host the Poetry Bingo spa station.

• West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng hosts the Feng Shui Poetry spa station which guides attendees through the Five Elements.

Attendees will receive raffle tickets for a drawing to win a grand prize tote bag containing work from the poets which include Jen Cheng's Braided Spaces, Timothy Nang's Lotus Children, Brian Sonia-Wallace's Maze Mouth, Terry Wolverton's Ruin Porn, and A. K. Toney's album Neo Griot & The Afrocentric Prince.

The community is also invited to visit Poetry Walk, a public art installation, located on the traffic median of Santa Monica Boulevard between Doheny and Almont Drives. This temporary public art installation, which was installed in April 2023, displays poetry next to pre-existing empty concrete plinths where sculptures are usually displayed. The poetry excerpts reflect on absence, longing, and that which is unseen or uncelebrated. Contributing poets are former West Hollywood City Poet Laureates Brian Sonia-Wallace, Steven Reigns, Kim Dower and Charles Flowers; and Tonya Ingram, a young poet who passed away in December 2022. The Poetry Walk can be experienced as written word or by listening to audio recordings. Members of the public were invited to submit their own short poems reflecting on absence, longing and the unseen, and select poems are posted on the City website.

During the month of April, with the support of an arts grant from the City of West Hollywood, Greenway Arts Alliance will present the 8th Annual LA Get Down Festival at the Greenway Court Theatre, located at 544 N. Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles. Past years' programming has included open-mics, workshops, poetry slams, performances, and more. As part of this festival, West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng welcomes the community to join her at the Greenway Court Theatre for a writing workshop, Feng Shui Poetry, on Saturday April 20, 2024 at 12 p.m. More information and links to purchase tickets for LA Get Down Festival events can be found at https://greenwaycourttheatre.org/la-get-down.

The City of West Hollywood began formally celebrating National Poetry Month in 2015 after launching its City Poet Laureate program in 2014. The West Hollywood City Poet Laureate serves as an ambassador of West Hollywood's vibrant literary culture and leads the promotion of poetry in the City, including assisting with its annual celebration of National Poetry Month.

For more information about the West Hollywood City Poet Laureate program or National Poetry Month activities, please contact Mike Che, the City of West Hollywood's Arts Coordinator, at [email protected] or at (323) 848-6377. For people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, please call TTY (323) 848-6496.

For people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, please call TTY (323) 848-6496.

For up-to-date information about City of West Hollywood news and events, follow @wehocity on social media, sign up for news updates at www.weho.org/email, and visit the City's calendar of meetings and events at www.weho.org/calendar. West Hollywood City Hall is open for walk-in services at public counters or by appointment by visiting www.weho.org/appointments. City Hall services are accessible by phone at (323) 848-6400 and via website at www.weho.org. Receive text updates by texting "WeHo" to (323) 848-5000.

For reporters and members of the media seeking additional information about the City of West Hollywood, please contact the City of West Hollywood's Public Information Officer, Sheri A. Lunn, at (323) 848-6391 or [email protected].

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