CALPOETS' 2020 SYMPOSIUM GOES VIRTUAL.  

Click here for a full conference schedule including Workshop Descriptions & Presenter Bios 

Click "Read More" for full conference description.

This cutting-edge, weekend virtual Poetry Symposium is geared towards all people 12-104 who have an interest in the literary arts – including poets, writers, teachers, students and more.  Offerings will include creative writing workshops, poetry readings, and presentations geared towards teaching poetry in community settings.  There will be a full menu of offerings Friday – Sunday, June 26-27-28.  Registration is required but registrants can pick and choose which workshops they participate in.  The conference will likely occur on ZOOM. The symposium is free.  Donations are encouraged.  

 

For 56 years, California Poets in the Schools has brought the powerful magic of poetry creation and performance to over one million students.  Our work is more important than ever!  Studies show that student involvement in the arts is linked to higher academic performance, increased standardized test scores, greater involvement in community service and lower dropout rates. 

 

Creativity is the #1 desired skill in today's job market.  Poetry instruction builds empathy and a sense of belonging in the classroom setting.  Poetry and the arts can be a powerful, healing tool for schools and communities recovering from natural disasters and other traumas such as gun violence.  This weekend conference is open to the public and geared towards literary teaching artists (for all audiences), classroom educators, poets, MFA candidates and more.  Content will be engaging for those brand new to teaching the literary arts and to the "old hats" among us.

The conference will be hosted as a Zoom Meeting.  Some of the workshops may have over a hundred attendees, while other workshops will likely be much more intimate.  We are excited to make the most of this versatile, virtual meeting space in order to strengthen our network and build community.

The Zoom meeting invitation will be sent to all registered participants 3-5 days before the event, and sent again the day before the event.  Only registered participants will receive the login information. You are welcome to attend the entire conference or pick and choose workshops that align with your interests.  There is no need to sign up for particular workshops in advance.  Simply log off and on to workshops using the Zoom link that will be provided.  

While phoning in to the symposium will be possible, for the best conference experience, we recommend logging in on a computer with a good wifi connection.  The conference will be set up so that each person in attendance will be visible to the rest of the group, however you can turn your own camera off or on.  All participants will be muted, however there may be moments when one or more participants is unmuted to share with the group.  If you are new to Zoom and interested in learning the basics, prior to the conference, we've provided some tutorials below. 

The CalPoets' 2020 Poetry Symposium is supported in part by the California Arts Council, Creative Sonoma,  the County of Sonoma and Poets & Writers.

 

Jane Hirshfield and Jason Bayani will both join us as creative writing workshop leaders, and readers. 

SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE: 

Click here for a full conference schedule including Workshop Descriptions & Presenter Bios 

Friday, June 26th 

2:20pm-2:30pm Introduction/Welcome  

2:30pm-3:45pm Keeping the Pen Awake: Poetry Workshop with Jane Hirshfield  

3:45pm-4:00pm Break  

4:00pm-4:30pm Poetry Reading with Jane Hirshfield   

4:30pm-5:00pm Q & A with Jane Hirshfield  

5:00pm-6:30pm Break  

6:30pm-7:30pm The Three Act Poem with Matt Sedillo  

7:30pm-8:00pm Break  

8:00pm-9:00pm Self-Expressions: Creating Accessibility Through Poetry with Kaiden Wilde  

 

Saturday, June 27th 

9:05am-9:15am Welcome   

9:15am-10:15am Outside-Inside Poetry Adventures with Karen Lewis   

10:15am-10:30am Break  

10:30am-11:30am Cracking the Code with the Secret Language of Poetry with Dan Zev Levinson  

11:30am-11:45am Break  

11:45am-12:45pm Making the Most of the Loom App for Poetry Writing Lessons & "Flip" Teaching Claire Blotter  

12:45pm-1:00pm Break  

1:00pm-2:00pm I'm Ekphrastic! How are you? with Jessica M. Wilson

2:00pm-2:15pm Break  

2:15pm-3:45pm Writing the Storm:  Poetry in Upheaval with Jason Bayani  

3:45pm-4:00pm Break  

4:00pm-4:30pm: Poetry Reading with Jason Bayani  

4:30pm-5:00pm Q&A with Jason Bayani  

5:00pm-6:45pm Break  

6:45pm-9:00pm Open Mic hosted by Fernando Albert Salinas  

 

Sunday, June 28th 

9:05am-9:15am Welcome 

9:15am-10:15am Online & On Fire - Creating a Virtual Open Mic Space with Tama L. Brisbane

10:15am-10:30am Break  

10:30am-11:30am Video Poetry Using Adobe Spark with Blake More  

11:30am-12:00pm Break  

12:00pm-1:00pm Lunch with the Youth Poet Laureates of Sonoma & Ventura  with Zoya, Genesis & Unique

1:00pm-1:15pm Break  

1:15pm-2:30pm Symposium Closing - CalPoets' Community Session with David Sibbet 

Click for full list of presenter bios.

Jane Hirshfield, in poems described by The Washington Post as belonging “among the modern masters” and by The New York Times as “passionate and radiant,” addresses the urgent immediacies of our time. Ranging from the political, ecological, and scientific to the metaphysical, personal, and passionate, Hirshfield praises the radiance of particularity and the consequence of the daily. Her poems and essays traverse the crises of the biosphere and social justice, abiding in the intersections of facts and imagination, desire and loss, impermanence and beauty— all the dimensions of our existence within what one poem calls “the pure democracy of being.”  Her nine poetry books include The Beauty, long-listed for the 2015 National Book Award; Given Sugar, Given Salt, a finalist for the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award; and After, short-listed for England’s T.S. Eliot Award and named a “best book of 2006” by The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, and England’s Financial Times. Hirshfield has taught at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Duke University, Bennington College, and elsewhere. Her work has been translated into over a dozen languages and set by numerous composers, including John Adams and Philip Glass; her TED-ED animated introduction to metaphor has received over 875,000 views. An intimate and profound master of her art, her frequent appearances at universities, writers’ conferences and festivals in this country and abroad are highly acclaimed.  Click to read more about Jane Hirshfield.  

Jason Bayani is the author of Locus (Omnidawn Publishing 2019) and Amulet (Write Bloody Publishing 2013). He’s an MFA graduate from Saint Mary’s College, a Kundiman fellow, and works as the artistic director for Kearny Street Workshop, the oldest multi-disciplinary Asian Pacific American arts organization in the country. His publishing credits include World Literature Today, BOAAT Journal, Muzzle Magazine, Lantern Review, and other publications. Jason performs regularly around the country and debuted his solo theater show “Locus of Control” in 2016 with theatrical runs in San Francisco, New York, and Austin. Click to learn more about Jason Bayani. 

 

The CalPoets' 2020 Poetry Symposium is supported in part by generous funding from The California Arts Council,  Creative Sonoma, The County of Sonoma and Poets & Writers.