{"id":272625,"date":"2026-04-17T13:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T13:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/272625\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T13:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T13:52:08","slug":"sacramento-celebrates-national-poetry-month-with-festivals-book-crawl-and-live-readings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/272625\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento Celebrates National Poetry Month With Festivals, Book Crawl and Live Readings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n April may be
\n the cruelest month<\/a>,
\n according to poet T.S. Eliot, but it\u2019s a big month for the
\n written word. Since 1996, it has been celebrated as National
\n Poetry Month in the U.S., and it also contains Drop Everything
\n and Read Day (April 12), World Book and Copyright Day (April 23),
\n and Independent Bookstore Day (April 25). Capital Region readers
\n can join the celebration at events highlighting local poets,
\n publishers and more.\n<\/p>\n

Sacramento Book
\n Festival<\/p>\n

\n The Sacramento Book
\n Festival<\/a>, hosted by
\n the Sacramento branch of the California Writers Club, is set to
\n take place April 19 at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center. This is
\n the festival\u2019s third year, with co-chair and local author J.
\n Scott Coatsworth saying the event has grown significantly since
\n its test run at McKinley Park Farmers Market in 2024.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t crazy busy, but the
\n people that came bought books, so there\u2019d be times where no one
\n was walking by, but in four hours we still sold like 20 books per
\n booth,\u201d Coatsworth says. \u201cObviously there was a hunger for it, so
\n we decided to do the real thing and set up to run the festival
\n this last year.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n That second event featured over
\n 130 authors, while this year\u2019s has grown to feature over 270. One
\n returning author from last year is Sharon
\n Fujimoto-Johnson<\/a>, a
\n children\u2019s book writer and illustrator based in Roseville.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson, a children\u2019s book writer and illustrator
\n based in Roseville, will be taking part in this year\u2019s Sacramento
\n Book Festival. (Photo courtesy of Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson)\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe wonderful thing about doing
\n festivals like this is getting to meet readers and potential
\n readers,\u201d Fujimoto-Johnson says. \u201cI found this festival was very
\n diverse in the sense there were so many authors of different
\n backgrounds. I felt like it was a very inclusive space, and
\n that\u2019s super important to me personally.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n In addition to author panels and
\n readings, the event features food trucks, coffee vendors and a
\n passport stamp hunt. The latter offers prizes that include season
\n passes to B Street Theatre and free dinners at Zocalo, among
\n others.\n<\/p>\n

Sacramento Book Crawl<\/p>\n

\n The
\n Sacramento Book Crawl<\/a> is a three-day event held across various
\n bookstores to celebrate Independent Bookstore Day. Taking place
\n April 24-26, the book crawl is organized by Read the Region, a
\n collective of various independent bookstores in the Sacramento
\n area.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis will be our sixth year as a
\n group celebrating Independent Bookstore Day as a collaborative of
\n indie bookstores here in Sacramento,\u201d says Sue Richards, owner of
\n Crawford\u2019s Books. \u201cRead the Region began as a way for us to
\n celebrate each other but also let people in Sacramento know we
\n have a pretty thriving independent bookstore community and
\n explore the other stores in a really fun way.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n There will be 14 bookstores
\n participating in the crawl this year, and readers who make
\n purchases at these shops can enter into a raffle for prize
\n baskets valued around $200 in goods, including various gift
\n certificates and bookstore merch.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n The front entrance to Crawford\u2019s Books at 5301 Freeport
\n Boulevard. Owner Sue Richards said the independent bookstore
\n community in Sacramento was tight-knit, with shop owners being
\n open to helping one another. (Photo by Jacob Peterson)\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe used to have a minimum
\n payment of $10 to get into the raffle, but when we had 10 stores
\n that was $100, which is asking a lot of people,\u201d Richards said.
\n \u201cIt\u2019s really just showing up, participating and coming out to
\n support the events and authors that really matters.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Richards notes that Independent
\n Bookstore Day is generally the busiest day of the year for
\n Crawford\u2019s.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cMy sales quadrupled for the
\n day,\u201d Richards says. \u201cThis really helps us as bookstores, because
\n you\u2019ve got Christmas and then a slump, and this kind of gets us
\n up until summer. It\u2019s at least 200 to 300 people, and that\u2019s just
\n at my store.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Sacramento Poetry
\n Center<\/p>\n

\n The Sacramento Poetry Center<\/a>
\n holds its Sacramento Poetry Week
\n in October, but it has plenty planned for National Poetry Month.
\n President Patrick Grizzell says there will be a focus on
\n education around poetry.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe have several additional
\n workshops going on this month, one being the haiku workshop,\u201d
\n Grizzell says. \u201cIt\u2019s being put on by a poet named Vincent Kobelt<\/a>, who is a teacher and has been working with
\n this idea of adding a graphic element to it, a flipbook, as part
\n of teaching people about haiku.\u201d Grizzell says the haiku
\n workshop, set for April 22 at the center, is a fun, educational,
\n all-ages event.\n<\/p>\n

\n The poetry center will also hold
\n an April 26 workshop on cordels \u2014 inexpensive, often homemade
\n literary pamphlets sold in Brazil since the 1930s \u2014 hosted by
\n award-winning poet and novelist Mary Mackey<\/a>. Mackey will read some cordels and help
\n attendees make their own.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n The Soft Offs, a band who mixes music and poetry, performers at
\n the Sacramento Poetry Center, April 12, 2025. The band has
\n performed at the center for 13 years, helping to raise funds for
\n the various events it runs throughout the year. (Photo by Jacob
\n Peterson)\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe cordel is kind of an early
\n version of a zine, very often a political statement or a
\n political poem handcrafted by common folks,\u201d Grizzell says.
\n \u201cPeople do like to make zines these days; it seems to be a real
\n big deal, so we\u2019ll be teaching people how to do this.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Grizzell says the center is also
\n preparing for the 40th anniversary of Sacramento Poetry Day
\n (now Sacramento Poetry
\n Week<\/a>), set for October
\n 26. He said there is a conference planned for later this year to
\n coincide with the day, and as such they pared down the number of
\n events this April.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cLast year we did 32 events in 30
\n days, it was nuts,\u201d Grizzell says. \u201cPart of what we did the last
\n couple years was incorporate aspects of what we would generally
\n do in a conference, but since we\u2019re doing the actual conference
\n this year we thought we\u2019d back off a little from filling up
\n April.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Drunk Poetry and Into the
\n Canon<\/p>\n

\n For those who need a little
\n liquid courage \u2014 or a meal \u2014 to launch into lyricism,
\n Sacramento\u2019s bar and restaurant scene is ready to receive you.
\n Andru Defeye, Sacramento poet laureate emeritus, is helping
\n organize two such events:
\n Drunk Poetry<\/a>
\n April 19 and
\n Into the Canon<\/a>
\n April 26. Both are fundraisers
\n aimed at supporting October\u2019s Sacramento Poetry Week.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cDrunk Poetry is at the Torch
\n Club, Sunday before Sunday Sessions with the Lab Rats,\u201d Defeye
\n says. \u201cIt\u2019s a whole day of entertainment. It\u2019s a wild series of
\n literary games we play to really bring poetry to life in a whole
\n different way.\u201d Tickets are available on Eventbrite on a
\n name-your-price basis.\n<\/p>\n

\n Meanwhile, Canon restaurant will
\n host Into the Canon, bringing together various poets to read
\n while attendees enjoy food prepared by the Michelin-recognized
\n restaurant. Tickets are $30 on Eventbrite and include
\n food.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThese are the top tier poets
\n from Sacramento, the poets who\u2019ve really put the city on the
\n map,\u201d Defeye says. \u201cWe\u2019ve got laureates from other cities,
\n Tama Brisbane<\/a> from Stockton, Angela Drew<\/a>, aka SheSpitsFire \u2014 she\u2019s from Modesto \u2014
\n just a lineup of incredible poetry.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Defeye notes that both
\n fundraisers are an important part of being able to celebrate
\n Sacramento Poetry Week.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThese fundraisers fund the cash
\n prize contests and allow us to pay artists for their
\n contributions to the curriculum we use,\u201d Defeye says. \u201cThere\u2019s
\n been a cut or two to funding as far as the arts go from this
\n administration, and we\u2019ve definitely felt that these last few
\n years.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Defeye says it took a lot of love
\n and support from the community to put together Poetry Week last
\n year, and he and other artists wanted to use National Poetry
\n Month to make sure people could be compensated for the work they
\n put into the event this year.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cAs those funding streams tighten
\n up, it forces us all to really look at what\u2019s important to us to
\n have in our communities, and to fund and support those things,\u201d
\n Defeye says. \u201cAnd it has created this groundswell for really
\n authentic and organic support for the arts. People have kind of
\n realized that if you don\u2019t come out to shows and get behind
\n efforts to activate the arts in the community, it may not
\n happen.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n \u2013\n<\/p>\n

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