Poetry and Music

Get ready for a powerful and healing journey through poetry. In this safe space, Juan Pablo Luzuriaga, who was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and immigrated to the U.S. in 2000, will explore trauma, help participants reclaim their stories, and connect with ancestral wisdom through spiritual writing. 

Learn to write poetry that is larger than yourself in this informative session with Diane Frank. Working with the format of poetry being the language of the soul, she will show how poems take the flying leap to the magic place and how to write poetry larger than yourself. Discussions will include how to reach the transcendent core of a poem, what poetry offers to writers of other genres, and how poetry speaks through time. 

A conversation on how poetry, storytelling, music, and art help us survive, connect, and make meaning in a changing world. This eclectic panel of poets and artists will explore how creativity fosters healing, connection, identity, resilience, and hope during social and political crisis and challenging times.

What happens when writing begins not with a blank page, but with a sound, a landscape, or a fleeting moment caught on film? In this immersive multimedia workshop, participants will step into a series of vivid places with María Belén Luzuriaga Abad through original photography, documentary clips, and layered ambient soundscapes gathered from around the world. As the visuals and sounds unfold, writers will be guided through creative prompts designed to unlock memory, atmosphere, emotion, and story. Whether you’re an experienced writer or simply someone drawn to stories, this session offers a creative space to reconnect with observation, imagination, and the feeling of being transported somewhere new. 

A world without poets is a world without truth. From Homer to Joy Harjo the poetry of protest has been howled, sung, whispered in jail cells and in the halls of power until brick by brick, word by word the poets sing their truth and the world lightens, opens. The best poems howl against injustice and praise beauty in all its bruised and tender aspects. They conjure the world that should be. Former SLO County Poet Emeritus Dian Frank will focus on a moment, a memory, a dream, that will help hone the truth of our poem and clarify and empower our voice.