'Poetry in Public' Series Celebrates Community Voices and Transit
release date: April 25, 2025
This spring, join The Seattle Public Library and poet Laura Da’ for a guest-curated event series that spotlights Poetry in Public, a project that honors and fosters local voices. Formerly known as Poetry on Buses, Poetry in Public celebrates community-created poetry in one of our most vital shared spaces: transit.
Over the past two years, Poet Planner Laura Da’ and 4Culture worked with Community Liaisons to develop community poetry workshops and do outreach in their communities around the theme Places of Landing, which embraces the poetry of our daily lives. All King County residents were invited to submit poems on this theme, which were shared with the public on transit.
Starting with a kickoff event on Tuesday, April 29, Da’ has planned three Poetry in Public events at the Central Library, featuring the works of community liaisons and guest readers who submitted to the Poetry in Public program. This series is supported by The Seattle Public Library Foundation.
Poetry in Public Programs at The Seattle Public Library
- Indigenous and Latine/x Communities in Focus: Tuesday, April 29, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Central Library, Level 1 Microsoft Auditorium. Join D.A. Navoti (Indigenous Community Liaison), José Luis Montero (Spanish-Speaking Community Liaison), and featured community members as they highlight their own work and share poetry from the Poetry in Public project. Registration is required.
- Youth Community in Focus: Saturday, May 10, from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Central Library, Level 1 Microsoft Auditorium. Join Guest Curator, Laura Da’ (Poetry Planner), Sierra Nelson (Youth Community Liaison), and featured community members as they highlight their own work and share poetry from the Poetry in Public project. Registration is required.
- African-American and Filipino Communities in Focus: Tuesday, June 17, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Central Library, Level 1 Microsoft Auditorium. Join Miz Floes (African-American Community Liaison), Troy Osaki (Filipino Community Liaison), and featured community members as they highlight their own work and share poetry from the Poetry in Public project. Registration is required.
About guest curator and Poet Planner Laura Da’
A member of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe, Laura Da’ is a poet and a public school teacher who studied creative writing at the University of Washington and the Institute of American Indian Arts. She is the author of the collections “Instruments of the True Measure” (2018), “Tributaries” (2015), and the chapbook “The Tecumseh Motel (2016). Da’ is the winner of the Washington State Book Award and 2016 American Book Award and her work has appeared in the anthologies “New Poets of Native Nations” (2018) and “Effigies II” (2014). Da’ is the current Poet Laureate of Redmond and a recent writer-in-residence at Hugo House.
The Library frequently works with guest curators to develop community-responsive programming. See our guest curator page for more information.
About Poetry in Public
Every day, thousands of people use transit — to commute to work, visit family, go to school and return home. It’s a unique public space, rich with stories. For a short while, all of us are moving in the same direction. Poetry in Public fills that space with poems written by the person across the aisle, that kid in the back, and the professional poet alike. The 2023-2025 theme, Places of Landing, embraces the poetry of our daily lives by honoring the movements, places, and feelings that tell the stories of our days. Everyone can be a poet! Poetry in Public is presented by 4Culture, King County Metro, and Sound Transit.
About The Seattle Public Library
The Seattle Public Library believes that the power of knowledge improves people's lives. With 27 locations and a Mobile Services unit, a digital and physical collection of 2.9 million items, and thousands of programs a year, we bring people, information and ideas together to enrich lives and empower community.
Contact the Library’s Ask Us service by phone at 206-386-4636 or by email or chat at spl.org/Ask. Staff are ready to answer questions and direct you to helpful resources and information. Find out about our future plans at www.spl.org/StrategicPlan.