The gathering featured selected poets, an open mic, and changing in verse
The Malibu poetry community came together on Aug. 28 to celebrate and welcome the city’s fifth Poet Laureate Nathan Hassall.
Hassall follows Ann Buxie, who served a two-year term that began in 2021, and helped create the Malibu Poet Laureate program in 2019.
Buxie celebrated the conclusion of her term as Malibu poet laureate and was given a plaque for her recognition. The program featured poetry readings from former poet laureates and ended with a reading and insight into his new role as poet laureate from Hassall.
Ricardo Means Ybarra welcomed the community for attending the event and thanked Buxie for her time as poet laureate.
“I am so thrilled to be up here, this is a beautiful event, the poet laureate could not happen without all of you, all you poets, all you activists, it’s really a beautiful thing,” Ybarra said. “Ann you have been the most wonderful poet laureate, we have to thank Ann and Ellen [Reich] who is no longer with us, for bringing us here.”
Reich passed away on May 1, 2020, succumbing to cancer. She was appointed as the Malibu poet laureate by the Malibu City Council on March 11, 2019. Her term began on March 28, 2019, and would have concluded March 27, 2021.
“You [Buxie] and Ellen kept us going,” Ybarra said.
Ybarra remembered when Hassall started attending the caffeinated verses and said he was “immediately struck by his work.”
“There’s this elusive, concrete, quality to his poetry; it’s beautiful, his poetry is beautiful,” Ybarra said.
Hassall moved to the area just over five years ago and has already been a well-known member of the Malibu poetic community and hopes to expand the interest for creating and enjoying poetry across the network of creatives and artist that work in and around Malibu.
Malibu Arts Commissioner Lotte Cherin thanked the guests for attending and acknowledged Buxie and honored her with a special plaque and flower bouquet for her time as poet laureate.
The Malibu Community Anthology included “All Breathing Things,” edited by Buxie, with support from the Poet Laureate Committee and the Malibu Arts Commission. The anthology includes work from 35 poets.
“We’re so grateful for Ann for sharing her time, creativity, and expertise for these past two years with us as poet laureate for Malibu,” Cherin said. “We wish her the very best and look forward to seeing more of her and her work.”
Buxie thanked the community and City of Malibu for their support.
“They’ve [the city] have been phenomenal, along with Melissa [Stallings] at the library, it really has been phenomenal,” Buxie said.
Hassall thanked his family and friends for attending the event.
“We often hear poems recited at life’s milestones and occasions, such as this, or at weddings, birthdays, funerals, and that’s when many of us realize the true power the best poetry contains and emotionally rhythmic art form that holds within it mysterious quality,” Hassall said. “We often find it difficult to have a conversation uninterrupted by a buzz or a ding, so poetry asks us to pay attention, when writing it, we must focus on our inner states, what we’ve expereinced, what’s happening around us, what others have experienced, and as we put it onto the page, we may surprise ourselves, and realize that we may not always know who we are, or who we might become, so whether you are an established or aspiring poet, or otherwise, I encourage you to explore what feels trapped and buried under in these small bubbles under your flesh, release the knot caught in your throat and pay attention to what might need to be nourished or released.”
Looking forward to his two-year appointment, Hassall plans to continue to be an ambassador for poetry and an advocate for the art. He will continue to build on the momentum and success of poetry programs like Caffeinated Verse, a workshop led by special guest readers, and Jubilations, which Hassall calls “Ann Buxie’s Baby,” poetry gatherings that celebrate joy in a time of whelming possibilities, to give voice to the true nature of vitality modeled on the natural world, to attend to the power of love and joy.
“I hope that you’ll attend our events, where you’ll have a chance to listen to and share poetry, to write and delight in the hidden gifts it offers us,” Hassall said. “I’ll be carrying on the fine traditions of the caffeinated verse, our open mics featuring guest speakers and an open mic, jubilations and open-air poetry readings celebrating joy as well as hosting a new generative poetry workshop called, The Ripple Effect, and these are events for everyone.”
Hassall has also been working with students at Malibu Middle/High school and Webster Elementary.
“It’s so much fun helping kids generate poetry too,” Hassall said. “I hope that they find the tools earlier in life, because so many of us don’t get to do that or decide not to do that at some point, and I think if kids are excited about that, it excites me.”
coming next week.