The Poet Laureate With A Bold Plan To Get Boyle Heights Students Into The Woods — And On The Stage - Beritaja

The precocious day sun was mounting complete Coldwater Canyon erstwhile the autobus arrived. Students from Boyle Heights’ Bravo High spilled retired into TreePeople, a quality reserve and nonprofit successful Coldwater Canyon Park, and took disconnected hiking.

As they looked about the sage and monkeyflower-lined path, their chatter quieted, and soon, they were penning poetry.

Alina Sadibekova, a inferior astatine the magnet aesculapian school, sat nether autochthonal oak trees, breathing successful the soil-rich aerial pinch a pen successful hand.

“Our metropolis is very busy, particularly surviving successful L.A. wherever everything conscionable goes connected and connected and it feels for illustration there’s ne'er a constituent wherever we could return a breath,” Alina said. “Going to the parks helped maine crushed myself.”

During a section travel to Gabrielino Springs and the L.A. River Gardens, Bravo High School students from Feng Shui Poetry successful the Parks activity connected poems inspired by the landscape.

(Genesis Sierra)

TreePeople, is 1 of galore greenish spaces she has visited pinch Feng Shui Poetry successful the Parks, a programme dreamed up by the West Hollywood writer laureate, Jen Cheng, successful business pinch Bravo High English coach Steve “Mr. V” Valenzuela. Cheng’s purpose is for poetry, quality and Chinese principles to animate a emotion for quality successful students different surrounded by concrete.

“I deliberation arsenic humans, we’re portion of nature, truthful being amended connected to quality really brings you much location to yourself,” Cheng said. She explains that feng shui, the ancient Chinese believe of arranging a abstraction to promote harmony, is based connected 5 earthy elements: water, wood, fire, world and metal.

“Feng shui, successful poetry, is simply a lens that you could usage to process large ideas utilizing your surroundings,” Cheng said. “You could say, ‘Let’s constitute about h2o moving down a river,’ not literally, but possibly arsenic a metaphor for migration.”

Feng Shui Poetry successful the Parks has assistance backing done 2026’s outpouring semester, but adjacent schoolhouse twelvemonth is still up successful the air. Cheng says she’s looking for different grants, but arsenic the Trump management cuts humanities funding, including National Endowment for the Arts grants, the options are scarce.

As the oldest of 5 increasing up successful Oakland, Cheng felt seen for the first clip erstwhile she discovered poesy successful simple school. It was inspired by her about cherished memories: section trips. At the time, her migrant family worked to the constituent wherever they were often “too engaged for nature.” During section trips, it was exciting, she said, to beryllium retired of Oakland’s municipality scenery and successful parks that felt uncommon successful her working-class experience.

Decades aft her simple schoolhouse section trips, arsenic a recently appointed writer laureate for West Hollywood, she envisioned a measurement to reflector this puerility experience.

Poets laureate, whose domiciled is to champion and promote poesy successful their community, are eligible for a $50,000 nationwide assistance done the Academy of American Poets to support “meaningful, impactful and innovative projects,” according to the AAP.

As a recipient of this grant, Cheng brought Feng Shui Poetry successful the Parks to life pinch 1 last summation — a coach pinch a passion for poetry, who could link her to a schoolroom of students.

Everyone she said to, she said, pointed her to the aforesaid personification — “Mr. V.”

Jen Cheng, left, and Steve Valenzuela, right, adjacent the Feng Shui Poetry successful the Parks reference pinch words of encouragement for the students who shared their poesy astatine Bravo High School connected Dec. 4, 2025. Both instructors person said that they were amazed by the emotion and productivity the students demonstrated successful their poems.

(Kayte Deioma)

A sanctuary for ‘lifesaving’ creativity

When you participate Valenzuela’s classroom, the walls are covered pinch dozens of CD sleeves, from Deftones to Rage Against the Machine. In the gaps, student artwork, notes and photos pinch existent and erstwhile students hang.

Valenzuela leads Bravo High’s poesy club, KEEPERS, and for the past fewer years, he’s guided the students to triumph awards astatine world poesy slam Get Lit.

“Poetry is expression, poesy is life-changing, lifesaving, which sounds very dramatic, but it’s not. Some of the things the students person written about are very traumatic,” Valenzuela said. “I’ve seen them activity done difficult experiences and travel retired of it utilizing poetry.”

One specified student is 17-year-old Paige Thibodeaux. “I utilized to deliberation it was amended to beryllium closed off, but passim this, I was capable to show my friends and peers who I am,” Paige said. “I didn’t deliberation that’s thing I could do and I’m present now.”

Paige, who lives pinch her family successful Compton, recalled having her defender up arsenic she walked done her neighborhood, wherever she said look done poesy felt inaccessible.

“I don’t spot a batch of kids doing things for illustration this,” she said.

Student poets, friends and family members stitchery earlier the commencement of the Feng Shui Poetry successful the Parks poesy reference and zine merchandise astatine Bravo High School connected Dec. 4, 2025.

(Kayte Deioma)

Working connected a book, she said, opened up a full caller broadside of her. She started to confide successful friends about stress, aliases things that bothered her, which different would person stayed inside.

‘I still don’t judge it’

Since August 2025, Paige and her classmates person developed their poems, received feedback from Cheng and submitted their last pieces to beryllium published arsenic a poesy collection.

The cover, designed by Bravo student Adrian Lopez, depicts a character wrapping about the spine. The poems are rooted successful their observations of existent affairs and autochthonal plants; the publication was completed successful December, erstwhile Valenzuela and Cheng planned for a reference and ceremony of their activity astatine Bravo High.

“Did you guys cognize your activity is going to beryllium publication crossed the country?” Cheng said to students successful people 1 day. “I’m sending it each the measurement to New York!”

“Feng Shui Poetry successful the Parks Vol. 1” is being printed arsenic a zine and will beryllium sent to bookstores and libraries from San Francisco to Chicago arsenic good arsenic the Library of Congress.

Students giggled and gasped successful disbelief. “No pressure, I guess,” 1 student joked.

“It’s really crazy, I still don’t judge it. It’s been a dream of mine,” Alina said. “I ne'er realized I could beryllium a published writer arsenic a inferior successful precocious school.”

The nighttime of the poesy reading, students, parents and friends gathered successful excitement successful Bravo High School’s library, settling successful rows earlier a azygous microphone. Out successful the hallway, the raucous chatter of teenagers echoed successful the halls, and cars honked connected the engaged thoroughfare extracurricular to prime them up. But wrong the haven of the library, location was a quiet settling among the crowd for the long-awaited show.

Alina Sadibekova sounds her poems “I Want to Fly” and “Messy” for the Feng Shui Poetry successful the Parks reference astatine Bravo High School connected Dec. 4, 2025. She says penning poesy complete the people of the programme “grounded” her and alleviated the accent of school.

(Kayte Deioma)

Aolani “Lani” Alarcon approached the mic to hushed voices. As the lights lowered, she thanked the crowd, the achromatic flower tucked successful her hairsbreadth catching the ray arsenic she recited her first poem, “White Sage.”

She says poesy didn’t ever travel easy to her. “One of the biggest things I struggle pinch is judgment, truthful opening up aliases penning about touchy subjects aliases things that mean thing to maine was hard,” Lani said. “Knowing that I wouldn’t beryllium judged, aliases that group would really for illustration what I write, intends a lot.”

The 16-year-old smiled arsenic she read, describing sage arsenic an ancestor’s prayer. Her adjacent poem, “Hummingbird,” delved into grief.

“You thatch maine that treatment isn’t forgetting,” she read, tears welling. “It’s learning to transportation emotion without breaking nether it.”

Manuel Alarcon, her father, was seated successful the crowd, clasping his hands successful rapt attention. When the readings had finished, he pulled Lani into a agelong embrace.

“These section trips, it exposed them extracurricular of metropolis life,” Alarcon said. “There’s much than opening a book, listening to a teacher. You request that extracurricular vulnerability to really understand life. And soul metropolis kids don’t person that. I want [my daughter] to beryllium portion of breaking a cycle.”

Valenzuela clapped loudly and shouted arsenic each student stepped disconnected the podium.

“When young voices, and voices from marginalized communities thin to beryllium silenced, sometimes we internalize that and soundlessness ourselves,” Valenzuela said. “I want them to consciousness for illustration they could speak up.”

As Feng Shui Poetry successful the Parks carries connected for different semester— possibly its past — students proceed to research penning poesy successful the greens of L.A. parks. Some, for illustration 17-year-old Saneli Soto, definitive themselves on the way.

Saneli’s poem reads:

I’m utilized to actual floors
And actual walls.
I’m utilized to 5 communicative buildings.
I needed a quiet place. Where I could conscionable dishonesty successful the grass.