Santa Clara County Poets in the Schools: CPITS 50th Anniversary : What a Celebration!

What a great event, what great friends, what great poems. The 50th anniversary symposium for California Poets in the Schools was well attended and filled with memories and joy. We spent three days together in Petaluma, we listened, we read, we wrote. We danced.

The setting was gorgeous; warm during the day, cool at night, foggy in the morning.

Read about the event (and about the power of CPITS) in this fine article from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Maureen Hurley is a teacher poet with California Poets in the Schools, a collective of professional poets who bring literary craft into classrooms. This weekend they celebrated the group’s 50th anniversary with a conference at IONS retreat center in Petaluma, but before it began, Hurley took time to introduce the group and explain why and how they take poetry into classrooms.

Photo of the crazy poets by Maureen Hurley

I drove up with Erica Goss (poet-teacher in training from Los Gatos, and current Los Gatos Poet Laureate) and Amanda Chiado (poet-teacher from Hollister, area coordinator in San Benito County who also teaches in and around San Jose).

My new friend Jessica Wilson Cardenas -- amazing young and fierce poet from LA -- took a whole bunch of fantastic photos of the weekend, and she's generous enough to share them globally on Facebook here. Three of them are to the left here: Erica, Amanda, and me reading during the marathon open mic session on Saturday night.

(My html skills are not good enough to position these photos elegantly, but I hope you can see how much fun we had.)

Kathy Evans addressing the opening night diner honoring so many long-time teachers and supporters.

Al Young, former California Poet Laureate, addressing the group as Key Note Speaker Saturday morning. You can see the State Senate Resolution created for us by Senator Mark Leno's office on the left.

Me and Maureen, before dinner, love in the time of poets.

Me and Maureen, after our photographer had a glass of wine!

Saturday night we were delighted and entertained and mesmerized by the spoken word artistry of Josh Healey. Here I am trying to look as cool as he was.