Youth Poet Laurate Amanda Gorman Offers Words of Hope Amind Coronavirous Pandemic
By Brian Dunlap
Los Ángeles native Amanda Gorman, the U.S.’s inaugural youth poet laureate, is offering Americans some words of inspiration to help get through this stressful time. Her words, like all poetry, helps people understand the world around them, to help contextualize and organize discordant aspects of our lives. Former Poet Laureate of Los Ángeles Luis J. Rodriguez says, “Her poetry draws on deep ideas, images, stories and concerns. She exudes confidence in her voice, her presentation and in the social issues she considers paramount.”
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As the weeks of the “stay at home” order pass by, more and more virtual literary events are cropping up from L.A. writers, open mics and literary organizations. The following event is a reading hosted by Saturday Afternoon Poetry, as part of their 2020 San Gabriel Valley Poetry Festival, tomorrow. Saturday. Read a poem or two by a poet that has helped you get through this pandemic so far. Or your poet friend or by that poet that inspired you to write. It’s a Zoom reading. Most of all Enjoy interacting with other like minded humans.
During this time of social distancing, many writers in the L.Á. literary community are holding virtual events from workshops to open mics to readings and book clubs in an effort to keep us all connected to each other and our humansess. Below is one such event, hosted by Long Beach poet Nancy Lynée Woo. 
We have seen over the last week, artists and musicians posting videos of them singing, performing or reading from their work or livestreaming their performances and readings. It’s a chance to keep people connected to each other during a time of isolation and sickness. It’s also a chance at self care, something to enjoy and take one’s mind off the worries and stress of the Coronavirus and all its effects.
Poets and book lovers braved L.A.’s rush hour traffic. It was a Thursday. February 27th. The destination was Diehl Marcus & Company in Hollywood, a Curio Dealer and Event Space of finely curated antiques, home decor and accessories from around the world. The crowd arrived for Ingrid M. Calderon-Collins’ release party for her poetic memoir Let The Buzzards Eat Me Whole.
Atelier Manferdini & Portraits and Landscapes at SCI-Arc College & University
Christine Carter & The New Adolescence at Polytechnic School, Pasadena
Ronan Farrow, Emily Bazelon, Attica Locke, Michael Connelly and Colson Whitehead are among the finalists for the 40th annual Los Angeles Times 
For the next installation in our interview series with contemporary poets, Peter Mishler corresponded with Victoria Chang. Victoria Chang’s books include OBIT (April 2020), Barbie Chang, The Boss, Salvinia Molesta, and Circle. Her children’s picture book, Is Mommy?, was illustrated by Marla Frazee and published by Beach Lane Books/Simon & Schuster. It was named a New York Times Notable Book. Her middle grade novel Love, Love will be published by Sterling Publishing in 2020. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Sustainable Arts Foundation Award, the Poetry Society of America’s Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award, a Pushcart Prize, a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, and a Lannan Residency Fellowship. She lives in Los Angeles and is the program chair of Antioch’s Low-Residency MFA Program.
The new Long Beach Youth Poet Laureate (LBYPL) program is being formed by The Long Beach Public Library and the Arts Council for Long Beach in order to provide local kids with literary arts, civic engagement and performance opportunities.
Los Angeles Literature 