Join us for an afternoon of art and poetry, Monday, May 30, 4-7PM

West Hollywood Poet Laureate, Brian Sonia Wallace and Pride Poets are descending on Artlounge Collective with a fleet of typewriters. Based on input from you, the poets craft on-the-spot poems, typed as a keepsake. Pride Poets at our Artlounge Collective event include Jay Baldwin, Jen Cheng, Jireh Deng, Jeremy Ra, Jose Rios, Syd Shaw, Timothy Nang, and Valerie, darling.

Before becoming an award-winning writer and poet, Brian set up a typewriter on the street with a sign that said “Poetry Store.” He quickly discovered something surprising: all over America, people want poems.

Brian asked countless strangers, “What do you need a poem about?” To his surprise, people opened up to share their deepest yearnings, loves, and heartbreaks. Hundreds of them. Then thousands. Around the nation, Brian’s poetry crusade drew countless converts from all walks of life.

Since 2019, Brian has worked with the City of West Hollywood to recruit, train, and employ 20+ LGBTQ+ poets in pop-ups for Pride month, writing custom poems celebrating love and the LGBTQ+ community for over 1000 individuals in-person and via their poetry hotline, which runs in June.

This work has been recognized through a Poet Laureateship with the City of West Hollywood in 2020-22 for it's founder, Brian Sonia-Wallace, as well as 2021 Laureate Fellowship with the Academy of American Poets and Mellon Foundation. It has been investigated as a public health intervention by students at the University of Michigan.