The Sacramento Poetry Center was founded in 1979 and has presented hundreds of readings and poetry workshops at venues all over Sacramento in the last 43 years. The SPC has held readings featuring Gary Snyder, Lucille Clifton, Robert Hass, Anne Waldman, Jane Hirshfield, Philip Levine, Maya Angelou, Galway Kinnell, William Stafford, and many other prominent national poets. We bring in poets from many local communities as well -- youth poets, senior writing groups, community colleges, and high schools. SPC readings feature both published and unpublished writers, spoken word artists, performance poets, and poets who read from the page.
In addition to the reading series, SPC publishes an annual literary journal, a quarterly journal, and special publications. SPC volunteers also work in schools to help young people write or perform their poetry. We have helped students in the Poetry Out Loud competition, and we have put on classes for incarcerated men at New Folsom State Prison. To bring poetry to more people, SPC also collaborates with many other organizations, from The Crocker Art Museum to 916 Ink, from the MIND Institute to Every Fourth Woman. We organize and present well over a hundred events or workshops every year, with an all-volunteer working board of directors.
The Sacramento Poetry Center's mission is to promote and advance the practice and application of poetry and the literary arts in our community, to enliven and extend the cultural boundaries of Sacramento's literary arena by creating and maintaining forums for local writers; to support and empower emerging and established poets, and to bring the best practitioners of the craft into the community.
Operating expenses: Since a full reorganization a few years ago, including new leadership, extended programming and a renewed focus on publishing, SPC has redoubled its efforts toward providing its unique services to the community. We’ve increased our honoraria budget; increased publications resulting in added printing costs; and have plans to add more teaching programs through workshops and lectures, which will result in increases in our budget for meeting artists’ fees. Increasing events also increases wear and tear on the space and occasional professional help is required, and while we also have a great group of volunteers to help with that, there are some things that we can’t do ourselves. Additionally, the expenses related to hospitality have increased, as have our costs for printing support materials.
Publishing: SPC publishes Tule Review, a nationally recognized literary journal, and while volunteers do all the editing work, production and distribution runs $2,500 a year. Our new periodical chapbook series, New Rivers will cost about $1200 per year. Maintaining our website, while not astronomical, is another real cost for a valuable community resource.
Honoraria for Poets: SPC offers honoraria to local poets who read for us. In addition to offering this very real support to local poets, we are planning to reinvigorate our efforts to bring more nationally known poets to the local audience, in keeping with our abiding mission. Over the years, we have brought many of the greatest poets in America to Sacramento, and it is a meaningful part of what we do.
Community service: One of the things we are continuing to developing is an outreach program that will include helping our youngest and most needy poets with small scholarships to attend literary events, workshops and the like that will encourage them their efforts.
This year we are adding a letter press to our stable of offerings, which will allow us to provide free or low cost printing of chapbooks, broadsides, flyers, bookmarks etc., which will add opportunity to many poets in the community. Young poets will be a key focus in this offering.
All of this helps us to keep most of our events and publications free to the public.
The Sacramento Poetry Center recognizes that many communities in Sacramento have been under-represented and under-supported in the literary community, often across racial and class and genre boundaries, leaving behind some of the finest local creatives in our region. The SPC further recognizes that in our 45 year history, we have not always been as good as we should always be as a safe and supportive space for these communities, nor as inclusive.
SPC has committed itself to being a space that is representative of all Sacramento poetry, and is inclusive and welcoming, and honors even more styles of writing from more communities.
Our board is more diverse than ever, as is our group of advisors and volunteers and we have created a Code of Conduct addressing the important matters of inclusion and equity, that is reflected in policy and programming changes that make the SPC truly the center of Sacramento poetry.
Organization name
Sacramento Poetry Center
other names
The Poet Tree Incorporated
1979
Mission Category
Arts, Culture & Humanities
Operating Budget
$0-$50,000
Organization Need
Funding: Program, Funding: Other, Technology
Demographics Served
General population, Seniors, LGBTQIA+
BIPOC Leadership
Board Chair
Local Counties Served
Sacramento
Equity Statement
Equity Statement
Address
1719 25th StSacramento, CA, US