Inspired by the Venice Beach Poet’s Monument at ao the exterior wall of a police station, we organise since 2022 each year, L.A. Poetry Downtown, poets at the Poetry Train, poets selected for the 3rd L.A. Poetry Beach Festival will be invited to take part in several Los Angeles Poetry Downtown readings together with local poets from L.A. at Saturday, September 23.
Our local poets will meet and greet our guest poets at the Union Station and bring them afterwards to the following locations to read poetry together for +/- 60 minutes.
L.A. Poetry Downtown readings
11 am – 12 pm Union Station
800 N Alameda St, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Under the east portal arch of Union Station we have a marvellous podium in front of Richard Wyatt’s City Of Dreams. At this location poets will read poems about ao the American Dream, history of Los Angeles and travelling.
Poet: Anton Verboom
Photo: Erik van Loon
1 pm – 2 pm Skid Row History Museum and Archive
250 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90012
The Skid Row History Museum & Archive opened on April 11, 2015. LAPD animates the space with public conversations, movie screenings, revolving exhibitions, performative events and more, all addressing issues surrounding gentrification and displacement — locally, nationally and globally. Within the museum, is an extensive archive of Skid Row History – including planning documents, articles, videos, oral histories, audios, interview transcripts + more – available for casual and scholarly research located on 250 S. Broadway in Los Angeles.The museum and the Los Angeles Poverty Department was founded in 1985 by director-performer-activist John Malpede. LAPD was the first performance group in the nation made up principally of homeless people, and the first arts program of any kind for homeless people in Los Angeles.
Photo: Henriëtte Brouwers
4 pm – 5 pm Chevalier’s Books
133 N Larchmont Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90004
In the heart of Larchmont, you will find Los Angeles’s oldest indie bookstore, established in 1940 by by book maverick Joe Chevalier. (Pronounced shi-vah-lee-ay.) Nowadays Chevalier’s Books is run by Bert Deixler and Darryl Holter. In their bookstore one of LA’s youngest poet will read with a miner from West Virgina the best poems they wrote.
Photo: Owner
