Arts Town Embraces Poetic License

Laguna Beach poets, arise. Lift your spirits and endeavor to become the town’s first ever poet laureate, commissioned to celebrate its artistic nature and legacy in the written word. Time is short. The candidate willing and able to become the city’s official ambassador of the creative writing community must apply by March 1.

The one-year position with a $10,000 honorarium calls for someone to promote the literary community and celebrate the written word, especially poetry. It emphasized bringing literary arts to people of all ages but with a special focus on the next generations of writers, story-tellers, critical thinkers and multi-media literary artists.

“When someone has the desire and talent to create words, be it prose or poetry or other hybrid forms, it’s an expression of the human condition and a gift to the community,” said Pat Kollenda, treasurer of the Arts Commission. The commission and City Council voted unanimously to expand its support beyond visual and performing arts to the written word with a poet laureate.

The candidate selected by juror Grant Hier, chair of liberal arts and art history at the Laguna College of Art and Design, will also create a new body of work celebrating Laguna Beach. Hence, local residency is a requirement.

Portfolios should be diverse with material submitted electronically.

Laguna’s search coincides with a similar hunt by Santa Barbara, which over the past decade has selected six poet laureates that serve two-year terms. Their tasks include promoting literary arts. A new book “What Breathes Us” features their work and their take on living and working in a wealthy, romantic seaside community.

The Library of Congress selects a national poet laureate every year. Last year, Juan Felipe Herrera, a son of Mexican immigrant field workers, served in the post. He is the author of 28 books.

Other cities ranging from New York to Dublin are incorporating poetry into visual representations to highlight their vistas and amenities, said local poet Ellen Girardeau Kempler, a committed proponent of literary festivals for Laguna Beach. She sees the establishment of a poet laureate as bringing that aim a step closer to reality.

While assumptions prevail that Laguna Beach is primarily a haven for visual artists, the city is also brimming with writers and poets and artists who incorporate writing into their visual work. There are poetry readings, workshops and groups like Third Street Writers and Laguna Poets. Dime Stories, once a Laguna Beach fixture now moves throughout Orange County. In 2012 crowds flocked to Sunset Serenades at Heisler Park to watch “Shakespeare’s Fool,” a send-up of the bard read by John Gardiner and Ava Burton and musically accompanied by Jason Feddy.

Gardiner, a writer, actor, poet and teacher, said he would be honored to represent the city’s writing community. “I went to the Arts Commission and City Council meetings where the concept and its budget were approved and everyone was enthusiastic about the program,” recalled Gardiner who has already applied for the position. “It raises interest in higher language, providing an oasis between twitters and tweets,” he said.

“I would begin at Thurston Middle School and move to the high school level to teach heightened writing that moves from page to stage,” Gardiner said.

He said an effective poet should pay as much attention to reading poetry as to writing it since poetry began as an oral art form to galvanize audiences.

Gardiner helped organize poetry festivals at the Laguna Beach library, where Laguna Poets regularly meet.

This year, the library will hold its 19th poetry contest, open to poets of all ages. “We will offer a theme for submission for the first time,” said branch manager Jon Gilliom. Inspired by Julia Alvarez’ book “In the Time of Butterflies,” it will be “Seaside Butterflies.”

Contestants may submit up to three poems, and awards will be given in all categories, said Gilliom. Contestants can submit forms at the library or email poems at [email protected]

Kempler, whose submissions to the Laguna library contest won her three first place awards and one second prize, wrote poetry as an undergrad at UC Santa Barbara. She earned a master’s degree in communications from Cal State Northridge, nudged by practicality.

But, poetry never lost its thrall. Over time, she attended several literary festivals in Ireland and is now in the process of publishing a poetry chapbook and a children’s picture book. “I take mobile photos and write an accompanying haiku every day that I publish on @placepoet on Instagram,” she said.

A poet laureate candidate, Kempler said that her ambition is to spread the gospel of poetry in the community. “While many feel intimidated by writing, poetry is accessible through songs and visual sources,” she said.