Poetry Happens Here
Santa Barbara is a thriving creative community which includes poets and poetry lovers of all kinds. Santa Barbara even has its own poetry press, Gunpowder Press, which includes local poets in its Shoreline Voices series.
Upcoming & Recent Poetry Events
- Parallel Stories – Memory Rehearsal: Eleni Sikelianos, SBMA, May 21Eleni Sikelianos will read from her latest genre-busting book at the SB Museum of Art.
- Blue Whale Reading: Jacob Herrera Spears and Laura Mullen, May 13Blue Whale Reading Series, featuring poets Jacob Herrera Spears and Laura Mullen. Wednesday, May 13, 5:30 pm, Unity of SB Chapel.
- Lowstate Writing Salon, May 12Writing community w/ big focus on play & sparking something weird. We’re about word games & praise kinks. Tues., May 12, 7pm, at Blue Owl.
- Poetry on the Plate: Celebrating an Anthology of Poems about SB Food & Drink, May 11Part of the SB Culinary Experience, a light supper at The Black Sheep and a copy of the new poetry anthology.
- James Crews and Brad Peacock, SB Public Library, May 8Vermont-based poets James Crews and Brad Peacock will share from their bestselling book, “Love Is for All of Us: Poems of Tenderness & Belonging from the LGBTQ+ Community & Friends.”
- Wonder and Awe Poetry Reading: SB Unified Student Poetry Contest Winners, May 4SB Unified School District students from grades PK-12 will read their winning poems on the theme “wonder and awe.”
- Solange Aguilar Book Release, May 1Celebrate the release of Solange Aguilar’s debut book, “Red Like Earth,” on May 1st from 4-8 pm at the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara.
- SB Elementary Students Poetry Display, Chaucer’s window, April 1-30Poems written by Santa Barbara elementary school students will be displayed for National Poetry Month in Chaucer’s Books front window, 3321 State Street, Santa Barbara.
- Student Poems Celebrating Color, SB Museum of Art, April 1-30Poems written by 3rd and 4th grade Santa Barbara students, inspired in part by the SBMA exhibit, “Remixed: Entwined Histories & New Forms.”
- An Evening with Martín Espada, UCSB Campbell Hall, April 29An evening with National Book Award-winning poet Martín Espada, presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures, Wed., April 29, 7:30 pm