‘Rock star’ poet laureate to visit Yuba City
California’s “rock star” poet laureate will read his works at 6 p.m. Friday at the Sutter County Library in Yuba City.
Dana Gioia will be joined by the Yuba-Sutter Poet Laureate Jonathan Kinsman and local high school students.
“I believe that most people have a deep and meaningful response if they attend a good poetry reading,” Gioia said. “The hearing of poetry awakens something inside of them that makes them more alert to their own existence. I know this is the case from my own experience."
Gioia started as a businessman, writing during the night and on weekends. After 15 years, he decided to pursue poetry full time and hasn’t looked back.
“It was good for me to work in business because it put me in touch with very different people than I would have met at the university,” he said. “I understood that I wanted to write for a mixture of humanity and not just for professors.”
Gioia, 66, said he decided to create a tour to enrich the culture of all of California, not just metropolitan areas. He will be the first poet laureate to visit all 58 counties.
“It’s more meaningful for me as a poet to come to a small town than simply go to a bookstore in Berkeley or a classroom in Los Angeles,” he said. “I meet a broader variety of people and it has an impact on the broader cultural life."
Besides the people he meets on his travels, the most interesting aspect of the tour is visiting places he hasn’t been in about 50 years, he said.
“In a general sense, what I’m trying to do is bring the office of the poet laureate to the entire state,” Gioia said. “Ever since the ancient world, it’s been thought poets can speak for the common people.”
Yuba Sutter Arts Executive Director David Read hopes Gioia’s visit will facilitate a broader conversation about arts in the local community.
“If any of that resonates with people then it will be a must attend event for anyone in the community,” Read said.
He said Gioia is regarded almost as a “rock star” within the poetry community.
“He’s kind of like the state’s art ambassador,” Read said. “He is a pretty incredible guy and very downto-earth.”
The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.