A place for everyone’s words to be heard.
Vallejo Poetry Society was birthed at a most natural place for poets to hang out, a local cafe, in downtown Vallejo in May 2018. 3 local poets began this dream.
Erika Snyder, Daniel Badiali, and D.L. Lang are the co-founders of Vallejo Poetry Society.
VPS does not help sponsor nor organize events nor fund projects at this time. We currently operate as more of a news service to connect poets with events, performance opportunities, and publication calls. We wanted to provide local resources for our fellow poets to get connected and build their careers. When we hear about a poetry event here in Vallejo or an opportunity, we spread the word. Because we have not yet created a formal membership structure, anyone may join our mailing list to stay informed. There is no residency requirement.
We want all poets in our town and beyond to be successful, free to express themselves, and for a variety of voices to be represented in local poetry circles as is commensurate with Vallejo being the most diverse city in America.
If you’re in town, please get involved by attending Poetry by the Bay, Vallejo’s longest running poetry show, founded in 2008 by Kyrah Ayers, Poetry in Notion at the JFK Library, founded in 2015 by Genea Brice, and OZCAT Poetry Hour founded in 2018 by a coalition of Vallejo and Benicia Poets including poets laureate Johanna Ely, Tom Stanton, D.L. Lang and DJ Lala of OZCAT.
Check out our resources page for tips on how to grow your own poetic CV here in the bay area.
The Cafe of Dreams by D.L. Lang
Walked into a coffee shop with a collective of wordsmiths with performance highs wishing to be paid a bit more than pie in the sky.
Sat underneath a rainbow reciting verses
in a building marked by birthdays and lucky numbers, as the fortune cookie prophecies spoke of friendship.
We began to build the foundations of community, organizing the world for us all to be heard.