Poetry & Music in the Park Returns for August Event – ​​Santa Cruz Sentinel

Santa Cruz County Youth Poet Laureate Dina Lusztig Noyes (center) will read with Roberto Efren Osorio and Chloe Gentile-Montgomery at Santa Cruz County Parks’ Poetry & Music in the Park on August 4. (Shmuel Thaler – Santa Cruz Sentinel file)

SANTA CRUZ — William Shakespeare asked in the opening line of one of his sonnets, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” The poet was musing on the fleeting nature of summer, and it makes sense that Santa Cruz would host an event celebrating poetry in the waning days of summer.

That would be Santa Cruz County Parks’ Poetry & Music in the Park, a summer series featuring readings by local poets interspersed with concerts by local musicians in parks across the county. The next event is on August 11 at Brommer Street County Park with readings by Roberto Efren Osorio, Dina Lusztig Noyes and Chloe Gentile-Montgomery and music by Matt Harrison.

Efren Osorio is a native of McFarland in the San Joaquin Valley and graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in literature. He worked as a program assistant for the Santa Cruz County Youth Poet Laureate Program. His poetry has appeared in Thin Air, The Red Wheelbarrow, and TWANAS Press.

Lusztig Noyes is a rising senior at Pacific Collegiate School and Santa Cruz County’s first youth poet laureate. She wrote a full-length, unpublished young adult novel at age 13 and writes poems that focus on themes of mental health, gender, and growing up in her generation.

Gentile-Montgomery is a poet, ethnic studies lecturer, and activist. She has self-published a chapbook titled “Rustlings of the Spirit” and has also been featured in La Raiz, “Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology,” and Journal X.

Harrison is a musician from Santa Cruz. In addition to playing in the San Jose alternative rock band Periscope, he is also a solo acoustic guitarist playing a mix of originals and covers.

Farnaz Fatemi, the 2023-2024 Santa Cruz County Poet Laureate, will serve as the event’s master of ceremonies.

The event will take place from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. on August 4 at Brommer Street County Park, 1451 30th Ave. Poetry readings will take place from 2 to 3 p.m. It is free and open to all ages.