Santa Clara County Youth Poet Laureate Applications are Open!
Join Us for our FREE March Programming
I’m a person who wears many hats (poet, writer, editor, educator, etc.) and one of the hats I wear is a co-Director for the Santa Clara County Youth Poet Laureate Program. Every year, we host a series of events to encourage youths (between 13-18) to apply to be our next Youth Poet Laureate.
This month, I humbly invite you all to attend any (if not all) of our free workshops!
Due to inclement weather, we are postponing Mia’s workshop. Please catch her on April 8 from 11-12pm!
Angelica Flores’ continues with this energy of immersing one’s self in their emotions with “Feel. Write. Speak”. Register here:
In this workshop, we will discuss the importance of tapping into your emotions and how emotions relate to poetry and creativity.
Then, you can register for an educational workshop for budding poets to practice performing their craft with the publisher of Sampaguita Press, Maria Bolaños:
In this relaxed, beginner-friendly workshop, we'll practice basic performance skills to prepare poets for non-competition open mics. We'll discuss how to find and sign up for events and how to prepare for a reading. At the end of the workshop, volunteers will have the chance to take to the zoom stage for supportive feedback from the group. Recommended materials: Bring 1 short piece to perform for the group, up to approximately 3 minutes long.
Then, with the skills Maria taught us in performance do we go back to the drawing board (or should we say writing board!) with Butch. Don’t forget to register!
Have you ever found that there are some ideas you can't just express in English? Writing multilingual poetry can give you the opportunity to speak with your clearest, freest voice. In this workshop, Butch will take you through the what, why, and how of multilingual poetry and you'll have an opportunity to generate your own!
And last but not least, we explore activism in poetry with Sofía. Register now!
What do you want to fight for? In this generative writing workshop, Sofía Aguilar will facilitate a group-led reading and discussion of three political poetry poems from revolutionary thinkers and writers, then offer a series of questions as prompts to create their own political poem, with an optional opportunity for sharing. Attendees will learn how to use and identify strategies for using poetry as a medium for social justice, call to action, community empowerment, protest against injustice, resistance to oppression, and meaningful change. This will be a free workshop for writers of any level with an emphasis on youth attendance, and will close the workshop schedule to encourage youth to apply to our SCC YPLP application.
And lastly, we want to connect name to face. Your three co-directors are Janice Lobo Sapigao, Karla Reyes-Santiago, and me!
Thank you so much! We’ll see you then!