By Marie-Elena Schembri

When Andru Defeye became Sacramento’s Poet Laureate in February 2020, he hadn’t yet heard of Sacramento Poetry Day, declared more than 30 years ago by Sacramento Mayor Anne Rudin. Last week, however, Defeye was an integral part of expanding on Rudin’s 1986 vision; turning the city into a platform for poets and performers with daily open mics, free poetry curriculum and other events during the first-ever Sacramento Poetry Week.

The week-long celebration was a collaboration between Defeye and Allison Joe, a senior policy advisor in the mayor’s office. “We wanted to highlight the poets and the events that are really making Sacramento the Poetry Capitol of California, which it was officially declared two years ago by city council,” Defeye said.

Sacramento Poetry Week included the launch of a pilot program offering mental health resources for poets through a collaboration with Sacramento Native American Health Center and free K-12 poetry curriculum for educators. The curriculum was designed to meet core California education standards for poetry, language and comprehension. 

Including works by musician and NPR Tiny Desk Winner The Philharmonik,  former Sacramento Poet Laureate and artist/activist Jose Montoya, bilingual lessons and optional live Zoom sessions with local poets, the curriculum “looks and feels like the city,” according to Defeye.

With bilingual events hosted by Sol Collective, an open mic at Bear Dive hosted by Speak Out! Sac and Sac Queer Takeover, and additional events at the Torch Club and Sacramento Poetry Center, the week centered on uplifting diverse voices, themes and poetic style, culminating on Saturday, Oct. 26, Sacramento Poetry Day. 

Poets were posted at three Sacramento Regional Transit stations where members of the public and poets received free fare for presenting a poem. A poem in hand also earned entrance to the Crocker Art Museum for the day, which included performances by featured poets Rhony Bhopla, Emmanuel Sigauke, Aeisha Jones, Patrick Grizzell, Cloudy and Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas, and an open mic event.

Lilliana Mendez-Soto, a Sacramento-based poet who attended several of the week’s activities including the Open Poetry Night at the Crocker, called the museum’s event “fantastic” and said the week had been “a wonderful immersion” of eclectic poetry events.

For Denisha “Coco” Blossom — poet, author and educator — having a whole week dedicated to poetry is “something big.”

“Poetry was not always recognized in Sacramento,” Blossom said, shortly after performing during the Mahogany Urban Poetry Series on Wednesday night. Mahogany, now in its 25th year, is where up-and-coming poets like Defeye cut their performing teeth.

From the stage, Dufeye acknowledged the group’s impact on the city’s poetry community. “This is where you came to find out if you were really a poet. There was someone who would let you know if you needed to read the room,” he said to laughter from a room full of poets and artists.

“Sacramento Poetry Week wouldn’t be what it is without Mahogany,” Defeye said. Blossom credited Defeye for bringing community spaces like Mahogany, where young artists of color find an avenue to express themselves through spoken word (and often song), to the forefront of the poetry scene.

“It’s very big for us because we’re just now getting the shine. We’re getting the shine that’s due. Like they said, Mahogany has been going on for 25 years. This is where we had church. And so now for Sacramental Poetry Week to be including that and shining light on the spoken word artists and including us in the genre of poetry, it’s just, it’s a blessing. It’s only up from here,” Blossom said.

Blossom is the associate director of Sacramento Area Youth Speaks and one of this year’s recipients of the Sacramento Poetry Day award. Other recipients include Mahogany host Russell Cummings, 2021 National Youth Poet Laureate Alexandra Huynh, Sacramento Poetry Center president Patrick Grizzell, Sacramento Poetry Center’s Tule Review editor Susan Kelly-DeWitt, Dahlak Brathwaite of HBO Def Poetry Jam fame, and Hart Senior Center’s Olga Browne. Poets Camille Janae, Hurrikane and Graciela B Ramirez also share the honor, along with educator and member of Escritores del Nuevo Sol writing group. 

During the awards gala Sunday night, each poet was awarded a copy of the Sacramento City Council’s resolution, adopted earlier in the week, honoring their contributions to Sacramento and officially declaring Sacramento Poetry Week.

At the Oct. 22 City Council meeting, Defeye took advantage of what may be his last time before the council as Poet Laureate to advocate for poetry and poets in Sacramento.

“I just organized a citywide activation that would reach over a million people with a free tool for self-empowerment, mental health and deeper community connection — if you all support it like this resolution says you’re gonna,” he said, before launching into a poetic, rhythmic plea for continued support:

“But too often there isn’t money in the budget for poetry like there is for military equipment, the police or homeless sweeps. You should hear those poems and the poems of the youth declaring their purpose and place in our city, and the poems of the parents finding their way with no road map and poems from the elders finding joy and hope to hold on. The whole city is a verse if you learn to listen to it like one. You can see the poetry in motion when hopes and dreams become real, as we speak ourselves into existence.”

This story was funded by the City of Sacramento’s Arts and Creative Economy Journalism Grant to Solving Sacramento. Following our journalism code of ethics and protocols, the city had no editorial influence over this story and no city official reviewed this story before it was published. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, Capital Public Radio, Outword, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review, Sacramento Observer and Univision 19. Sign up for our “Sac Art Pulse” newsletter here.