Registering for the open mic is required!  Signing up to read is first come, first served. You can add yourself to the reader's queue upon registration (below). 

Please join California Poets in the Schools for a community open mic at 7pm, Sunday, December 12th.  We will celebrate and hear poems from Ella Wen - newly appointed Youth Poet Laureate of Sonoma County and Kirsten Casey - Poet Laureate of Nevada County.  Angelina Leaños, Youth Poet Laureate of Ventura County, will emcee.  

The event is part of a quarterly series of open mic events meant to foster community amongst our network, and to highlight our fantastic poets.  Each event will spotlight one or two poets from the CalPoets' network as featured readers, and an emcee (also from the network). On the 12th, our featured readers will launch the event with a 15 minute reading (each) and then we'll then transition into an open mic.  

• teens 14+ & adults welcome
• register online & join link will be sent before the event
• event will occur on Zoom
• event will not be livestreamed
• there will be time for 20 open mic readers, give or take
• each reader will have 3(ish) minutes to read or perform
• reader slots are first come, first served... If you are interested in reading, please note in the registration form.
• thanks for bringing poems that are fit for all ages 14+

Emcee:

Angelina Leaños is a student at California Lutheran University with the hopes to become a published author, as well as an English teacher. In high school, she won the Poetry Out Loud competition both at the school and county level and has since returned as a coach to other participants. Leaños has had several poems published and organizes a monthly poetry open mic with the Ventura County Arts Council in partnership with the Oxnard public library.  She is the newest board member at California Poets in the Schools and the current Youth Poet Laureate of Ventura County.

Featured Readers: 

Ella Wen is a sophomore attending Maria Carilla High School in Sonoma County.  She proudly comes from a rich background of Chinese culture and a tightly knit family of four.  She was the Sonoma County Poetry Out Loud champion in 2021.   She has been published at Whoa Nelly Press and was a semifinalist in the 2021 Bay Area Ross Mckee Piano Competition.  Ella's greatest aspiration is to convey social awareness and new perspectives through the written voice.

Kirsten Casey  is the current Nevada County poet laureate, and an active California Poet in the Schools. Her poetry collection, Ex Vivo: Out of the Living Body, published by Hip Pocket Press in 2012, is inspired by odd stories, remarkable words, and the mysteries of the human body. Her second book of poetry, (with the working title Instantaneous Obsolescence,) explores historical and literary characters struggling with social media. In 2019, she taught high school workshops as part of the Academy of American Poets Laureate fellowship granted to Molly Fisk, to facilitate the poetry anthology, California Fire & Water, which responds to California’s climate crisis. She was a co-editor of the book, which includes one of her poems. Currently, she is an associate editor of the book Small, Bright Things, a collection of 100-word stories by teens, with local author and editor, Kim Culbertson. As laureate, she is writing poems celebrating local historical places, people and events. Also, she is holding community workshops to promote poetry and to make the process of its creation more accessible. She has lived in Nevada City for 28 years with her husband, and has three children in their twenties, who patiently assist her with technology.