Category: community
-
Belonging Begins With Us
A project by San Mateo County Poet Laureate Aileen Cassinetto as part of the San Mateo County Office of Community Affairs Immigrant Services’ Welcoming Week 2021 Program Community poem contributors: Terry Adams, CSW/LGBTQ Commission Executive Director Tanya Beat, Marilu Bedolla, Megan Brown, Aileen Cassinetto, Eva Chen, Hilary Cruz Mejia, Portola Valley Councilmember Maryann Moise Derwin,…
-
Love in the Time of Covid-19
This community poem was completed on April 10, 2020. Aside from raising funds for the San Mateo County Health Foundation, this poem was read at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut on Memorial Day, May 25, 2020. It was also used as a resource by the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project in Minnesota and the Montgomery Independent…
-
BREATHE
This poem is part of an ecopoetry project by San Mateo County Poet Laureate Aileen Cassinetto made possible by The Academy of American Poets with funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Contributors: Cassandra Bousquet, Chloe Chou, Bellamy Cramer, Ronit Das, Arda Inegol, Samantha Ishikawa, Maya Kornyeyeva, Iris Li, Caroline Lim, Allen Mata, Hanna Docampo…
-
Speak Poetry Anthology, Vol. 1
From the introduction to Speak Poetry Vol. 1: When I was appointed Poet Laureate of San Mateo County, I was tasked with creating a poetry campaign to bridge and engage communities through the literary arts. My project, titled, “Speak Poetry,” is an ongoing conversation, where we’re given the opportunity to get to know people and…
-
Speak Poetry Anthology, Vol. 2
From the introduction to Speak Poetry, Vol. 2: We are the language(s) we learned, the dragons we slayed, the monsters we defeated, the “gods we created”—we are all of our stories and every story read to us. We are also everything that we have forgotten. For this anthology, I’ve sent out a call to all…
-
I Have a Dream: Inaugural Poems for a New Generation
From the introduction to I Have a Dream: Inaugural Poems for a New Generation: We begin with hope. This is perhaps why poems were traditional New Year’s gifts—for what is poetry but a stockpile of possibilities. The past year has been shaped by the coronavirus pandemic, by economic recession and racial unrest, by distance learning…
Speak Poetry in San Mateo County 