April 1 kicked off National Poetry Month, an event “inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996 . . . when publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools and poets around the country band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.” Although National Poetry Month is held every April, and Sacramento and its neighbors are celebrating in various ways, Sacramento is certainly no stranger to poetry and the banding together of poets. About poetry, bookseller Richard Hansen, aka The Book Collector (24th a

Opening the selection process for Sacramento’s new poet laureate is one of the highlights of the four-day Open Daily event put on by the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission. Other events include a talk on the role of public artwork in private development, a symposium on how arts organizations can raise funds and a workshop to train artists on how to teach art in schools. “This is the first time we’ve run the SMAC Open Daily as a full-blown four-day symposium,” said SMAC spokeswoman Veronica Delgado. “Our overall goal is showing how the creative sector is influencing the dynamics of the economy in Sacramento.” Events run from Wednesday through Saturday. For a full schedule, click her

Can poets unite and give voice to issues left unsaid?  100 Thousand Poets for Change, an international movement to promote serious social, environmental, and political change brought more than a dozen poets to two public parks: the Rose Garden at the State Capitol and Fremont Park. Saturday’s event was an international day of poetry, celebrated with 700 events in 550 cities in 95 countries in every continent but Antarctica. The multi-national event mixed politics and poetry in some odd and surprising ways. While a politicized poetry reading is not controversial in most countries, in some nation’s organizers risked harassment or arrest for expressing independent viewpoints with their wor

The Historical Guild Theater in Oak Park was alive with poetry, fashions and music for Ladies Night Out this past Saturday night, April 2, 2011. Award winning local poet and community leader Terry Moore hosted the sold out event as a benefit for the Center for Families and Fathers Sacramento. The Emcee for the evening was Petri Hawkins-Byrd, is best known as the bailiff on the television show Judge Judy. Hawkins-Byrd did a wonderful job keeping the audience laughing and the show moving with jokes, heart-felt commentary on the poetry and light-hearted introductions for the wide variety of local talent recruited by Moore for the occasion. The ladies night theme of the evening started off w

Introducing Sacramento's next Poet Laureate: Bob Stanley. Last month The Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission (SMAC) voted to ratify Stanley as Sacramento’s fourth Poet Laureate. Yesterday, he was officially introduced to the SMAC as Poet Laureate. In a charming introduction speech and reading, Stanley promised to see through his vision of increased awareness of poetry in our region. He also believes poetry can reach a broad audience. He said, “Poetry is something everybody can get into.” Stanley added, “I like it when it’s just right there on the page. You read it and you know it’s poetry, but you don’t exactly know why. But you get something from it, and you feel like you’ve learne