Sunday, April 19, 2026 at 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM
LACMA, Los Angeles
Celebrate National Poetry Month with local poets in the galleries of the exhibition [*Collecting Impressionism at LACMA*](https://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/collecting-impressionism-lacma). At this drop-in program, you'll be given opportunities to slow down, notice details, and connect with the art with local poets from RENT Poet and Melrose Poetry Bureau, who will collaborate with you to create original ekphrastic poems on a typewriter inspired by your experience of Impressionist artworks. Then, take your unique poem home with you. **Brian Sonia-Wallace** is a City of Los Angeles Master Artist, an L.A. County Public Artists in Development Fellow, and the former Poet Laureate of West Hollywood. He is the author of *The Poetry of Strangers* (HarperCollins) and *Maze Mouth *(Moon Tide Press). His work appears in *Rolling Stone*, The* Guardian*, *LitHub*, *Rattle*, and *American Poets*, and he has performed at venues including the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Kennedy Center. He is founder of RENT Poet, which has brought thousands of custom poems into public spaces. **Nayeli Adorador-Knudsen** is a poet, performer, and cultural worker dedicated to bringing poetry into public life. She is the founder of Melrose Poetry Bureau, a traveling typewriter poetry business that transforms sidewalks, festivals, and community gatherings into intimate spaces of connection through custom, on-the-spot poems. Rooted in the radical literary legacy of the Bay Area, her work bridges activism, artistry, and community, proving that poetry is not only meant to be read, but lived. **Aryeh-Or** is a multi-disciplinary artist whose diverse creative pursuits draw from an equally diverse personal background. Black, Jewish, and Indigenous, Aryeh-Or is also the son of LGBTQ parents. An accomplished actor, writer, director, musician, and poet, Aryeh-Or consistently aims to uplift, inspire, and empower the collective consciousness of humanity through the power of the arts.