The City of Malibu will unveil and dedicate its first two Poetry Stones on Sunday, October 7 at 5:00 PM at Legacy Park to commemorate the City’s Poet Laureate program. Two beautiful stone monuments in the gorgeous natural setting engraved with poems will forever inspire Malibu residents to think and dream! The event will feature readings by Malibu's first Poet Laureate Ricardo Means Ybarra and student poet Mandy Mulligan, local artists Ivo Spirov and Ako Eyong, and a reception with live music by Mike and Shannon of the local band Karma Dealers.
The first stone honors Ybarra’s tenure as Malibu’s first Poet Laureate. Ybarra’s poem “America,” a commission for Concert on the Bluffs 2017, is engraved on the black granite stone on the footpath in Legacy Park. The second stone bears an excerpt about poetry by Mandy, engraved on a Verde slab of marble. Mandy was one of Ybarra’s students at Juan Cabrillo Elementary School who participated in the Poet Laureate Workshops in the Schools, a program sponsored by the City of Malibu and the Malibu Cultural Arts Commission.
The Poet Laureate Committee has been working on this project for over a year and secured donations from agencies and individuals to pay for the stones. Sponsors of the Poetry Stones project include Concert on the Bluffs, Friends of the Malibu Library, the Malibu Arts Foundation, Michael and Kate Novotny, Ann Buxie, Ellen Cohen and Florence Weinberger. The event is sponsored by the County of Los Angeles Public Library and hosted by the City of Malibu Cultural Arts Commission and the Malibu Poet Laureate Committee.
For more information, visit www.MalibuCity.org/Poetry.