By Kit Stolz
Poetry in the 805 survived the pandemic and is alive and well in cafes and schools and libraries all around Ventura County, say local poets young and old, who speak with enthusiasm about what poetry has given them, as individuals and for their careers.
“I just felt called to it”
In high schools around the county, a national spoken poetry competition called Poetry Out Loud — bolstered by an innovative poetry slam competition that takes place at the high schools in the Oxnard Union High School District — encourages poetry among high schools students, and feeds into a youth poet laureate program that runs alongside the county poet laureate program.
During the pandemic, Oxnard’s own Angelina Leaños was named the Ventura County Youth Poet Laureate in 2021, and remained for two years in the post…which was extended into a second year due to COVID-19. Becoming a poet at an early age, Leaños said, did wonders for her career. Currently a second-year Masters of Fine Arts student at California State University, Fresno, she spoke enthusiastically about the experience.
“I’m not quite sure to this day why I agreed to it,” Leaños said of the Poetry Out Loud competition that began their work in poetry. “I was not a very confident person and I really did not like public speaking at all, but I think I just felt called to it for some reason, you know? Like, why not?”
Although the youth poet laureate and the older Ventura County adult poet laureate programs run on separate tracks, both are supported by the state-backed Ventura County Arts Council.
Leaños spoke admiringly of the mentoring she received from Fernando Salinas, an instructor at several county schools, and the former manager of the poet laureate programs. She also spoke of friendship with the county’s most recent poet laureate, Santa Paula’s Luzmaria Espinosa, who has worked extensively with young people, in the Heritage Valley and beyond.
“Luzma is really a wonderful person and a wonderful poet,” Leaños said. “Oftentimes we would be paired up together. It was wonderful to get to know her outside of our positions, to bond and to talk about our writing and what we wanted to do with it.”
Finding beauty and meaning in the words
For her part, Espinosa said that although as county poet laureate from 2020 to 2024 she is not required to teach or participate in school programs for young people, she chose to spend a great deal of time mentoring, especially in the Santa Paula schools, because she grew up in Santa Paula, and poetry meant a great deal to her in a strict family where books and poetry were not much valued.
“I would tell students a little bit about some of the struggles I had, or read them some of my poems about my experiences, “ Espinosa said. “I’ve had students who have written to me and said that they really appreciated it and that they thought that they didn’t like poetry until they heard mine.”
Despite growing up in a Spanish-speaking household, Espinosa loved reading in English as well as Spanish and admired the famous American poet Robert Frost in particular. She said she wanted to give students who were quiet, as she was as a girl, the chance to experience the meaning and beauty of poetry for themselves. As an example, she cites in interviews the classic poem from Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken,” with its famous conclusion:
Two roads diverged in a wood and I—
I took the road less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Ventura County is seeking nominations
This fall, the road less traveled by will be open to new poet laureate nominations — both adult and youth — and applicants for the first time since the pandemic.
Ventura County has had three poets laureate in the last 10 years: Mary Kay Rummel (2014-17), Phil Taggart (2016-2019) and Luzmaria Espinosa (2020-2024). Local poets who have resided for at least two years in the county are encouraged to apply. The position comes with a small annual stipend of $500.
Leaños said that she found considerable success as the youth poet laureate and in taking part in poetry readings all around the county, from Oxnard to Ventura to Thousand Oaks to Westlake Village. Her signature poem was “Mi Amor,” or “My Love,” in which she references her poetic muse.
“Mi amor,” Leaños recited in conclusion, “you are worth so much more than any community gives you credit for. You’ve helped me find my voice when I struggle to find myself. So let me read to you in every poem, in every art form that I show them until the end of time, the reason I love and the reason I live. I’ll make sure everyone knows how important you are in everything I write.”
The Ventura County Arts Council will be accepting nominations for Poet and Youth Poet Laureate through Oct. 31, 2024. There are several options to apply and/or nominate a poet.
Poets can be nominated for the position by using the online form found at: form.jotform.com/242386842042153.
The Ventura County Arts Council also offers a PDF that can be filled out:
vcartscouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/2024-Poet-Laureate-Nomination-Form.pdf
The completed form can be emailed as an attachment to:
poetry@vcartscouncil.org.
Or print out the form and send it via post to:
Ventura County Arts Council
646 County Square Drive, Suite 154
Ventura, CA 93003
For more information on the Ventura County Arts Council,
visit vcartscouncil.org.
For more information on poetry in Ventura County,
including local readings and open mics, visit the Ventura County Poetry Project at vcpoetryproject.org.
