{"id":268541,"date":"2026-04-15T04:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T04:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/268541\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T04:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T04:42:10","slug":"poet-laureate-hopes-community-writing-project-help-dispel-myths-about-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/268541\/","title":{"rendered":"Poet laureate hopes community writing project help dispel myths about poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Cap\u00f3-Garc\u00eda at a poetry reading for Pages in the Park (Photo courtesy of Paola Cap\u00f3-Garc\u00eda).<\/p>\n

The Spanish word \u201capertura\u201d means \u201copening.\u201d More specifically, the action of opening something, or the beginning of something new.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Paola Cap\u00f3-Garc\u00eda, San Diego\u2019s current poet laureate, said that this definition reflects the what she hopes participants in her new community-based poetry project, Apertura 2026, will experience.<\/p>\n

In her poem Wild<\/a>, Cap\u00f3-Garc\u00eda wrote: \u201cLately I\u2019ve been thinking about the difference between blooming and blossoming \u2026The internet tells me that blossom refers to the flowers of fruit-bearing plants\/While bloom can be any ol\u2019 flower in the act of opening \u2026 but what is a body in bloom? \u2026 Blooming is the wild body unmarred by the limits of the world \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Paola<\/a>2025-2026 San Diego Poet Laureate Paola Cap\u00f3-Garc\u00eda (Photo courtesy of Paola Cap\u00f3-Garc\u00eda).<\/p>\n

Much like the concept of blooming in her poem, she said that she hopes to inspire others to be open to new ideas, sharing their stories and channeling their experiences through poetry.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Apertura, in collaboration with Burn All Books, a North Park publisher and zine archive, will culminate in three zine publications composed of resident submissions. Each issue will have a unique theme \u2013 youth poetry, justice and a multi-lingual edition \u2013 which Cap\u00f3-Garc\u00eda said are designed to allow participants to see themselves in the \u201clandscape of poetry of San Diego.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Each theme was inspired by Cap\u00f3-Garc\u00eda\u2019s passions and experiences, including her background as a teacher and her Puerto Rican heritage. She also said that previous collaborations with programs such as Poetic Justice<\/a>, a non-profit arts-in-corrections organization, inspired the theme for the second zine edition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While people may feel intimidated by poetry \u2013 some words she\u2019s heard to describe it are \u201cpretentious,\u201d \u201coverly complicated\u201d or even \u201ccringey\u201d \u2013 her \u201cbig mission is to dispel these myths.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think anyone is able to come up with a really beautiful line, or thought, or way of looking at something. And so, I want people to feel empowered by poetry to do that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is another way to be part of Apertura beside submitting poems for the zines. In May, Cap\u00f3-Garc\u00eda and local filmmaker Victor De La Fuente will host multi-lingual \u201cvideo poetics\u201d workshops, where participants will turn a poem they\u2019ve written into an experimental short film.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Twelve individuals will be selected for the workshops, which will take place each Saturday in May. Every weekend will focus on a different element of the project, starting with a poetry workshop hosted by Cap\u00f3-Garc\u00eda on May 9 and ending with video editing and critique on May 30.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Video Poetics project done by Angelina Amaniel at High Tech High Media Arts, where De La Fuente and Cap\u00f3-Garc\u00eda were teaching partners. (Video courtesy of Media Arts Channel on YouTube and Victor De La Fuente).<\/p>\n

\u201cI think right now is a particularly good moment to use art, any art form, to process individual or collective grief,\u201d she said, adding that she hopes people feel inspired to \u201cprocess how they\u2019re feeling about the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

All poems for the zine editions<\/a> must be submitted by Aug. 1. When filling out the form, poets will be able to choose the edition in which they want to feature their work. Applications for the video poetics<\/a> workshop are due Wednesday. Both forms can be found on Cap\u00f3-Garc\u00eda\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The video poetics projects will be screened at the Athenaeum Art Center starting in October. A final showcase for Apertura will be held at the art center in November with live poetry readings and free copies of the zines. The display will remain at the art center until January 2027. After the showcase, copies of the zines will also be available at Burn All Books and other local bookstores.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cap\u00f3-Garc\u00eda at a poetry reading for Pages in the Park (Photo courtesy of Paola Cap\u00f3-Garc\u00eda). The Spanish word…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[5282,983,117016,74,76,75,5050],"class_list":["post-268541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-arts","tag-north-park","tag-poet-laureate","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}