Poetry in Residence is a series of workshops designed to explore creative writing with visual inspirations from current exhibitions. Led by Orange County’s first poet laureate Natalie J. Graham, participants are invited to explore works from Tony Lewis: CASUAL T and past exhibition Alice Neel: Feels Like Home to create poems in response to their discoveries culminating in a reading of their new works.

Poetry Reading

Join us for Poetry in Residence: Poetry Reading featuring invited poets Cynthia Alessandra Briano, Danielle Mitchell, and F. Douglas Brown reading and discussing new poems in response to exhibitions Tony Lewis: CASUAL T and past exhibition Alice Neel: Feels Like Home.

Session I and Session II workshop participants are invited to join and read their poems created in our galleries. The event is followed by an optional celebratory happy hour at our Verdant bar!

Cynthia Alessandra Briano is a literary activist and community organizer. She is Director of the Rapp Saloon Reading Series First Fridays, an @HIUSA hybrid event and literary arts series, which centers voices of Black, Indigenous, and POC writers in a multilingual and international setting. She is also Founder of Love On Demand Global, an organization which creates custom-ordered poetry for charity. She earned a B.A. from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and a M.F.A. from UC Riverside. Cynthia teaches at Cal. State University Fullerton as a lecturer in the African American Studies Department.

Danielle Mitchell  is an intersectional feminist, writer, and teaching artist. She is host of The Poetry Lab Podcast and an artist for the California Creative Corps. Her work has appeared in journals such as Hayden’s Ferry Review, Vinyl, Four Way Review, Connotation Press, Nailed Magazine, and others. She is the author of Makes the Daughter-in-Law Cry, winner of the Clockwise Chapbook Prize (Tebot Bach, 2017). She holds bachelor’s degrees in Women’s and Gender Studies and Creative Writing from the University of Redlands and is an alumna of the Community of Writers in Olympic Valley.

F. Douglas Brown is the author of two poetry collections. His first book, Zero to Three, was selected by Tracy K. Smith for the 2013 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. He is both a Cave Canem and Kundiman fellow, and his poems have appeared in numerous journals and magazines. Brown proudly sits on the advisory circle for the Lorca Latinx Poetry Prize and the boards for Beyond Baroque and Cultural Daily. Currently, he teaches at Loyola High School of Los Angeles, where he serves as the Director of the Office of Equity and Inclusion.

Admission is free and no tickets required!