The Alhecama Theater at El Presidio de Santa Bárbara State Historic Park was a charming if not traditional park-like setting for Saturday’s Poetry in Parks event, hosted by Santa Barbara Poet Laureate Melinda Palacio. Featured poets included Perie Longo, Emma Trelles, Stephanie Berber Hammer, Monica Mody, Diana Raab, and Takunda Chikowero, a 4th-grader from Isla Vista School who won awards in the Martin Luther King Jr. Essay and Poetry Program and an Earth Day poetry contest.
Scott Green from California State Parks (Poetry in Parks is part of the Arts in California Parks program currently conducting more than 20 pilot projects in State Parks) welcomed dozens of guests to the historic theater and introduced tribal representatives Steve Villa and Marcos Lopez — the Chumash Kiyniw Singers — to begin the event with a traditional Chumash song. Other musical entertainment included performances by the UCSB Middle East Ensemble and the Gruntled, a contemporary music duo.
“I love the fact that we have poems and music together,” said Mody, reminding the audience that poetry and music are both among the earliest forms of communication.
“Poetry is actually the oldest word art in the world … all part of this amazing connection,” said Hammer, a relatively new Santa Barbara resident who gave herself an assignment to write a poem about each new street she encountered in Santa Barbara. One of the poems she shared was about Alice Keck Park Memorial Garden, which many mistakenly, or jokingly, refer to as Alice Keck Park Park (“Park” is actually Alice’s surname).
The event was a collaboration between Palacio in her role as Santa Barbara Poet Laureate, the California State Parks, the Santa Barbara County Office of Arts & Culture, the California Arts Council, the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation, and Poetry Out Loud.
