SEATTLE’S POEM
Listen to Claudia Castro Luna, the city's first civic poet, read "Seattle's Poem" as you experience sights and sounds captured by Seattle Times videographers.
WASHINGTON POETIC ROUTES
Washington Poetic Routes is a digital poetry-mapping project that explores Washington’s rich geographical terrain, both in terms of landscape and in terms of the human relationships that unfold across the State.
Geography is inescapable. We are bound to the places we inhabit, the terrain we call home. My hope is that through writing and reading poems that tell of the places we call home written by Washingtonians of all ages and locations, we can learn a little bit more about our cities, towns, mountains, rivers, know a little more about our birds and fish, learn about the stories that define a particular place, read from a fifth grader what it is like to live in a place where eventide means ladders left leaning on apple tree orchards awaiting tomorrow’s harvest.
Selected Press
A Living Map of Washington State Poetry, by David Haldeman, April 11, 2019
SEATTLE POETIC GRID
Seattle Civic Poet, Claudia Castro Luna, launches a poetry map of the city. Seattle Poetic Grid (http://www.seattlepoeticgrid.com) is an interactive poetic cartography of the city and a culmination of Castro Luna’s two-year Civic Poet residency. The Grid brings Seattle’s poetic side to light. The project is intended to remain as a living testament of the city, and includes a link for those who would like to make their poetic contributions.
Many of the poems were collected during Castro Luna’s “The Poet Is In” program, a residency project with Seattle Public Library where she held drop-in poetry writing sessions at various libraries around the city. Aside from English there are poems in Spanish, Arabic and Japanese. There is a wide spectrum of voices and experiences represented, from youth poets and elementary school writers, to senior citizens and renowned poets like Denise Levertov, Theodore Roethke and Richard Hugo.
“The idea behind the map is to capture a sense of place through the poetic voices of Seattle residents. The poems come from citizens across every corner of the city, from individuals brand new to writing to some who are well established and beloved poets,” says Castro Luna.
(from Seattle.Gov Art Beat, written by Erika Lindsey)
Selected Press
Seattle’s Civic Poet Has Made a Poetic Map of the City, Amber Cortes. The Stranger SLOG. Jun 28, 2017.
Urban Planner Turned Poet Maps Seattle’s Story, Josh Cohen. Next City. July 5, 2017.
Ni Una Más
Conversation about seeking justice for femicide victims in Mexico through poetry, journalism and law with poet Claudia Castro Luna, lawyer Norma Ledezma Ortega and Seattle Times journalists Corinne Chin and Erika Schultz.
Join a virtual conversation on Thursday, November 19, at 6:00pm PST/9:00pm ESTwith Washington state Poet Laureate Claudia Castro Luna, Justicia para Nuestras Hijas founder Norma Ledezma Ortega, and Seattle Times visual journalists Corinne Chin and Erika Schultz focused on the missing and murdered women of Mexico. ProPublica investigative journalist Vianna Davila will moderate.