Praise for Santa Fe's poets during National Poetry Month
Mar. 29—Santa Fe's appetite for poetry has grown considerably in the past three decades, says Dorothy Massey, owner of Collected Works Bookstore & Coffeehouse.
"We are selling two to three times the amount of poetry that we used to," says Massey, who has owned the store for 28 years. "It used to be that people would come into the store and say, 'Ugh, poetry.' Generally, I don't think people are scared of poetry anymore."
It's not necessarily a local phenomenon. When the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry began naming Santa Fe youth poets laureate in 2019, foundation executive director Kelsey Brown says, fewer than 25 such programs existed nationwide. Now there are about 75, she says.
Both Collected Works and Witter Bynner plan public events in April that coincide with National Poetry Month, which has been recognized since 1996. The bookstore will host a reading by Santa Fe Poet Laureate Tommy Archuleta and New Mexico Poet Laureate Lauren Camp on Monday, April 1, while the foundation will name its 2024 youth poet laureate on April 13.
Brown has a theory about why poetry has gained popularity among young people.
"When Amanda Gorman was the national youth poet laureate and spoke at the inauguration of President Biden, [poetry] really took off across the country, and a lot more local youth poetry programs popped up," she says.
Rhyme time: National Poetry Month events
Celebration with two poets laureate: Tommy Archuleta, the Santa Fe poet laureate for 2024, and Lauren Camp, the New Mexico poet laureate for 2022-2025, will read from their works.
* 6 p.m. Monday, April 1
* Collected Works Bookstore & Coffeehouse
* 202 Galisteo Street
* 505-988-4226; collectedworksbookstore.com
A Night of Poetry: Attendees will hear poems by writers who recently completed an eight-week workshop at the National Hispanic Cultural Center.
* 6 p.m. April 10
* National Hispanic Cultural Center Library
* 1701 Fourth Street SW, Albuquerque
* 505-246-2261; nhccnm.org
Santa Fe youth poet laureate crowning: Celebrations and readings by youth poets.
* 3 p.m. April 13
* Jean Cocteau Cinema
* 418 Montezuma Avenue
Lauren Camp virtual reading: New Mexico Poet Laureate Lauren Camp wrote the collection In Old Sky about the nature at the Grand Canyon after spending time as an astronomer in residence there. She will read from the work in a Zoom webinar. The book is the first published by the Grand Canyon Conservatory.
* 5 p.m. April 18
* grandcanyon.org/experience-grand-canyon/events
Rockman-Levering reading: Barbara Rockman and Donald Levering normally organize the periodic Poets@Here Gallery readings. In April, they'll be the featured poets.
* 2 p.m. April 21
* Here Gallery
* 213 E. Marcy Street
* 562-243-6148; heregallerysantafe.com
Through Lines book launch and reading
* 4 p.m. May 5
* Collected Works Bookstore & Coffeehouse
* 202 Galisteo Street
* 505-988-4226; collectedworksbookstore.com
Gorman was named Los Angeles' first youth poet laureate in 2014, then the first youth poet laureate for the U.S. in 2017. She read her work The Hill We Climb at Biden's inauguration. At 22, she was the youngest poet to read at a presidential inauguration; she's now 26.
Massey credits the city, the state, and Witter Bynner, a Santa Fe nonprofit aimed at furthering poetry, with widening acceptance of the art form.
"The culture here [provides] a very safe and secure place for people to not be shy about putting words on paper — putting them in print, and putting it out for the world to see," she says. "I can't speak for other cities, but I can speak with pride about Santa Fe."
Collected Works' offerings include self-published poetry books. Massey calculates that Santa Fe has about 20 independent bookstores, which she doesn't see as competitors.
"It's like restaurants," she says. "If you've got a block with one restaurant, it doesn't do very well. If you've got a block with four restaurants on it, they all do better. We track [other bookstores], we put them on a card, and we give their telephone numbers and locations out to our customers so they can see the wide array of bookstores and offerings. Twenty independent bookstores in a city of about 100,000 people is an amazing statistic."
This year Witter Bynner published its first anthology of works by youth poet laureate winners and finalists, Through Lines. It features works by 20 poets, including 2023 youth co-laureates Jesse Begay and Maia Hillock-Katz; 2022 laureate Elena Gonzalez; 2021 laureate Oz Leshem; 2020 laureate Artemisio Romero y Carver; and 2019 laureate Hannah Laga Abram. It's available at bookstores, including Collected Works, for $10. The 87-page book includes brief biographies of the featured poets.
"We got 500 [printed] that I'm basically using for my students and to promote the program," Brown says. "This was never a money-making venture; it's more of a celebratory venture for the students."
The anthology marks five years of the Santa Fe program. It's not set to be published annually, although that could change.
Brown adds that Witter Bynner, named for a longtime Santa Fe poet who died in 1968, received support from a New York City youth literary arts organization in getting its youth poet laureate program off the ground a few years ago. That organization, Urban Word, directs the U.S. national youth poet laureate program.
"We got entries from students from across Northern New Mexico — from most of the high schools in Santa Fe, and we had some kids from Navajo Nation, we had kids from Taos and Española, Pojoaque, so it was a pretty far-reaching group. I put together five judges, and they judge the poets anonymously." Archuleta is among this year's judges.
Finalists — there generally are five or six — are invited to a public crowning ceremony to read their works. The winner receives $1,000 from the foundation, while runners-up get $100 each.
"When I asked the students to contribute to this anthology, not only did I want to give them copies of the book that they were going to be in, but I wanted to pay them for their work," Brown says. "It's a nominal amount, but being paid for their art validates that art is important, and that what they're doing has value."
