Within Words We Are One
The seeds of poetry are abloom in Solano County. If your New Year’s resolution is to share your poetic creations with a welcoming, diverse community of writers or just enjoy live spoken word, there are plenty of local opportunities just waiting for you. On a …
Below are the expected dates of regular shows, barring unforeseen circumstances and federal holidays, there are many opportunities to read your poetry and hear spoken word performers in Solano County, ranging from all ages to 21+ events. Always check official Facebook pages and websites closer …
In an historic first Vallejo, California will appoint two poets to serve the community side by side as co-poets laureate, Jacalyn Eyvonne and Kathleen Herrmann. Their term will begin January 1st, 2024, and they will be proclaimed at city hall at a later date.
Vallejo Poetry Society extends our warmest congratulations to them both, and look forward to the many incredible projects they will create for the Vallejo poetry community in the coming years. We encourage all poets and local organizations to invite them to be featured performers and write occasional poetry for your special events.
Jacalyn Eyvonne is a widely published poet whose work has appeared in the The Oakland Tribune, and in the anthologies, Sistah’s With Ink (2013) and Wheelsong Poetry Anthology 3 (Wheelsong, United Kingdom, 2023). She is the author of several books, including I Am Not An Inconsequential Word(2022), Venting to Verse (2023), and has two forthcoming poetry collections, The Unyielding Weight of Words and The World in Black and Words. In addition her poem “The Talk” won 2nd place at the Jackson Book Festival poetry competition in Mississippi. Jacalyn is also a multi-talented visual artist with extensive experience in filmmaking, television production, and photography, and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Motion Pictures & Television from Academy of Art University at San Francisco. Based in Oakland in the 1990s she edited and published several volumes of the national magazine In the Company of Poets which she later transformed into a television show of the same name, producing several seasons that featured and interviewed a wide variety of spoken word artists. She currently organizes and hosts the Poetry and Monologues and KidsNFilm film festivals, and has an exhibit melding photography and poetry currently on display at the McCune. Jacalyn will be the city’s second African-American poet laureate. Visit Jacalyn’s website at: Visit Jacalyn’s website at: http://jacalyneyvonne.com
Kathleen Herrmann is an internationally published poet whose work appears in 14 anthologies worldwide, including I Can’t Breathe (Kistrech Poetry, Kenya, 2021), Friendship (Pure Slush, Australia, 2021), and Work & the Anthropocene (Ice Floe Press, Canada, 2022). The Benicia Herald has also published numerous poems by Herrmann. She is working on an upcoming collection entitled I Was There, Now I’m Here: Crossing Borders, featuring the stories of refugees. Kathleen won Best of Show in Poetry at the 2022 and 2023 Solano County Fairs, and has also received awards from the Ina Coolbrith Poetry Circle, including 2nd place in 2022 and 3rd place in 2023. She has featured for the Flyway Festival, Alameda Island Poets, Benicia First Tuesday Poets, and Napa Valley Writers Club. She is a regular and occasional host at Art Beat Poetry Hour on KZCT. A retired teacher, Kathleen holds a B.A. in English Literature from the University of California at Berkeley, and an M.A. in Teaching Leadership from St. Mary’s College of California, and hopes to hold workshops for the community and organize ekphrastic readings. Kathleen is also an experienced musician and singer, and hopes to meld the two art forms together to create a community song for Vallejo.
They follow in the footsteps of Vallejo Poet Laureate Jeremy Snyder who served a record four years, beginning in January 2020, hosting over 100 weekly open mic sessions for Poetry by the Bay via zoom. In addition he was a featured performer for many organizations, including the Empress Lounge with musical accompaniment, Beat Poetry Festival, Vallejo Poetry Festival, the Lake County Arts Council, Solano Library Foundation, and Richmond Arts & Culture Commission. He also hosted shows for Poetry Month at the JFK Library and Alibi Bookshop, was interviewed on the Bloom’s Rooted in Poetry podcast and KZCT radio, and had a piece published by Gnashing Teeth Publishing of Arkansas.
The poet laureate program began in 2015 after the tireless advocacy of Dr. Genea S. Brice, who served as the city’s first poet laureate, laying the foundation of the program and founding the Poetry in Notion poetry circle. She was followed by D.L. Lang in 2017 who published the anthology Verses, Voices, & Visions of Vallejo which features local poets.
The Poet Laureate is chosen by a committee of writers and performers, and this year included Renay Conlin of Vallejo Center for the Arts, Poet Laureate Emerita D.L. Lang, Pamela Herron, Melody Anderson-Brumidis, and Annalissa Quismoro.
Upcoming Vallejo Poet Laureate Jacalyn Eyvonne: https://www.facebook.com/jacalyn.eyvonne.author
Upcoming Vallejo Poet Laureate Kathleen Herrmann: https://www.facebook.com/poetlaureate4
Vallejo Poet Laureate Emerita Dr. Genea Brice: https://www.facebook.com/vallejopoetlaureate
Vallejo Poet Laureate Emerita D.L. Lang: https://www.facebook.com/PoetDLLang
In celebration of November’s Vallejo Art Walk and annual Vallejo Open Studios, Jean Cherie invites poets to write an ekphrastic poem to her life-size sculpture Edna & The Turtle Dove. This visual and poetic art collaboration will be held at the Temple Art Lofts Gallery in downtown Vallejo, California. Poets are …
Poetry by the Bay Address: 51 Daniels Avenue, Vallejo, CA Website: http://www.poetrybythebay.com Host: Keith Thompson Vallejo’s longest running poetry open mic! Poetry by the Bay meets at 51 Daniels street on the 4th Wednesday of the month at 7 PM. Open mic format. 4 minutes …
Applications are now closed. A new poet laureate will be chosen and announced in the coming weeks. Stay tuned. Thank you to all that applied.
The application for Vallejo Poet Laureate was due November 15th. Follow in the footsteps of Vallejo Poet Laureate – Genea Brice, D.L. Lang, Poet Laureate of Vallejo, CA, 2017-2019, and our current Vallejo Poet Laureate Jeremy Snyder and represent Vallejo in the poetry community. Please spread the word and share with any local poets you think would be interested. Paper copies will be available soon at Alibi Bookshop – Vallejo, CA and the JFK library in downtown Vallejo. It will also be available online at the Vallejo Center for the Arts website vallejoarts.org which is the official organization that sponsors the poet laureate program. Vallejo Poetry Society is just providing this article to spread the word.
Text of application images below provided for accessibility purposes:
VALLEJO POET LAUREATE CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
The Poet Laureate is dedicated to building community through poetry and encouraging a love of poetry among people of all ages.
The Poet Laureate is appointed by the Vallejo Center for the Arts and is recognized by the City of Vallejo.
MISSION
The mission of the Poet Laureate is to promote the influence of poetry and enrich the lives of citizens by sharing and encouraging the gift of poetry.
EXPECTATIONS
APPLICATION PROCESS
A general call for applications is made. The application will be available at www.vallejoarts.org and paper copies will be available at JFK Library and Alibi Bookshop.
APPLICATIONS MUST INCLUDE:
February 27, 2020 was the last time Poetry by the Bay met in person. It returns at 7 PM on March 22nd and every 4th Wednesday thereafter at 51 Daniels Street. Whether you can attend or not please help spread the word by posting this …
For over a decade Poetry by the Bay has provided The City of Vallejo with a FREE Spoken Word Open Mic show where thousands of poets have come and shared their work. We want to continue to be able to do this for the decades …
Beginning on Saturday morning, March 26, Vallejo writer Charles Kruger (columnist for The Rumpus and LitSeen, theatre and book reviewer, and published poet) will be debuting an online class in “Jack Grapes’ Method Writing.” Kruger’s work has received recognition in the New York Times, on “Harriet the Blog” (published by the Poetry Foundation), Berkeley’s NPR public radio affiliate, and the SF Weekly among other places.
Kruger began his studies with the much-admired writing teacher, Jack Grapes (founder of the Los Angeles Poets and Writers Collective) back in 2001 and is now hanging out his shingle (with Grapes’ blessing) as a teacher of Grapes “Method Writing” approach, which Grapes has been polishing for half a century of teaching.
Although always a writer, Grapes began his professional creative career training as an actor. And before that, he had youthful success as an athlete.
Grapes had noted that his athletic and acting coaches had a more systematic approach to training than his writing treachers. He began to consider whether developing (or experienced) writers could be guided to break down their writing process into concrete, specific drills, not unlike the way a golfer might practice a swing, or an actor might analyze a scene.
In time he developed a curriculum that:
Method Writing techniques are applicable to all genres of writing: poetry, memoir, fiction, essays and opinion pieces, book reviews, theatre reviews, TV and cinema, plays, even recipes.
In the Level One Introductory class to Method Writing students learn an approach that can reliably help them to:
If you are looking for a writing class to revisit some basics, jumpstart the doldrums, or start writing after dreaming of it too long, this one might be worth your consideration.
No class can turn you into a writer. But this one can give you the tools to practice and gradually become the writer you long to be or enrich the work of the writer you already are.
By the end of the eight week class in Method Writing, every student will have produced enough material to publish a chapbook (instructions on the process will be part of the curriculum).
There will also be guidance on how to develop a systematic approach to submitting work and getting published.
Method Writing students are all automatically invited to be members of the Grapes-founded “Los Angeles Poets and Writers Collective” (many members of which are not actually in Los Angeles), which provides multiple opportunities for publication in collectively published anthologies. There are no dues for membership in the collective. Anthology publications are funded through the modest contributions of the membership.
For further details about the class, click here.
(Covid-19) Summer by Juanita J. Martin Beaches are quiet Except the occasional Tide coming in As the sun burns its way through the atmosphere No sizzle from the grill Everyone’s inside— Dreaming of vacations they never had as pools of sweat bead guzzling water clinging …