In April, the City of West Hollywood celebrates National Poetry Month with a variety of events and exhibitions.

From April 1-April 30, the City of West Hollywood will honor living poets by displaying street pole banners along Santa Monica Boulevard featuring poets with selections of their poetry. Currently there are 17 poets honored, and each year, the West Hollywood City Poet Laureate selects two additional poets to honor. This year’s new honorees are Kate Gale and Elena Karina Byrne. Also during the entire month, the marquee of the Coast Playhouse will feature poetry from City Poet Laureate Kim Dower.

On Monday, April 2, 2018 at 6:30pm, the City Council at its regular meeting will proclaim April as National Poetry Month, and West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Kim Dower will read the new collaborative Citywide poem, “West Hollywood is for Dreamers.” As part of her annual project, City Poet Laureate Kim Dower collected answers to prompts from approximately 88 residnets and visitors to WeHo, and weaved together a Citywide collaborative poem from the answers. This year’s poem, titled “West Hollywood is For Dreamers,” can also be read at www.bitly.com/wehocitypoet. If you would like to receive an 11x17 printed poster, please e-mail Mike Che, Arts Coordinator, at mche@weho.org, with your request.

On April 25, 2018 at 7pm, inside the West Hollywood Library, Kim Dower has curated a poetry reading as part of the City’s WeHo Reads series. The event, “Route 66 Through The Eyes of Poets” builds on the success of last year’s “Sunset Strip Through The Eyes of Poets,” which was later recorded by radio station KPFK and re-broadcast. Participating poets include Laurel Ann Bogen, Elena Karina Byrne, Brendan Constantine, Yvonne Estrada, Bill Mohr, and Lynne Thompson. Admission is free. For more information and to RSVP: www.weho.org/wehoreads   

For more information on the City of West Hollywood’s City Poet Laureate program and National Poetry Month activities please visit www.bitly.com/wehocitypoet.

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