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 SPC readings feature both published and unpublished writers, spoken word artists, performance poets, and poets who read from the page.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: Following our full reopening post-Covid, many of the costs associated with general upkeep of our facility (as well as rent going back to its pre-pandemic amount) have returned, and as with so many things, is now more expensive. SPC needs to continue improving our space at 25th and R Streets. We hope to make the space even more comfortable and useful as we welcome more people from the region. As more people use the space for workshops and the like, and as we increase the numbers of events, more wear and tear will occur, and we will occasionally need professional services. Additionally, hospitality costs are growing ever higher.
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. We are about to release an anthology of our workshop poets, and have started a new quarterly chapbook series. All of these, with rising paper and printing and other related costs, are going to cost more than ever to produce as we go forward. Our website costs, while not astronomical, add to the overall expense, and is an important resource for the community.
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, among them the US Poet Laureate Ada Limón, with whom we're in discussions to bring her to Sacramento next spring, as well as other poets of note, to keep in line 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. As the use of Zoom has waned dramatically, and in-person events come with additional costs, we are seeing those budget numbers rise.
Community service: One of the things we are in the process of 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.
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 43 year history, we have not always been a safe and supportive space for these communities.
Since 2020, The Sacramento Poetry Center has committed itself to correcting any mistakes and missteps and becoming a better advocate for communities of writers outside of our base. The board wishes to make the SPC not merely a safer space, but a space that is representative of all Sacramento poetry, and is inclusive and welcoming, and honors even more styles of writing from more communities.
This is an ongoing effort that takes time, healing and trust, and takes more work than just booking artists from different areas of Sacramento to read on one night. Our new board now features more directors than ever that identify as people of color, and women, and we now have directors from communities in Sacramento that have not felt safe or welcome at the SPC in the past. With this new board, and a newly introduced Code of Conduct addressing the important matters of inclusion and equity, we are making policy changes and programming changes that will make the SPC truly the center of Sacramento poetry.
Organization name
Sacramento Poetry Center
Tax id (EIN)
94-2614096
Mission Category
Arts, Culture & Humanities
Operating Budget
$0-$50,000
Organization Need
Funding: Program, Funding: Other, Technology
Demographics Served
Seniors, LGBTQIA+, General population
BIPOC Leadership
Board Chair
Local Counties Served
Sacramento
Equity Statement
Equity Statement
Address
1719 25th StSacramento, CA, US