The poet laureate with a bold plan to get Boyle Heights students into the woods — and on the stage

The precocious day prima was mounting implicit Coldwater Canyon erstwhile the autobus arrived. Students from Boyle Heights’ Bravo High spilled retired into TreePeople, a quality reserve and nonprofit successful Coldwater Canyon Park, and took disconnected hiking.

As they looked astir the sage and monkeyflower-lined path, their chatter quieted, and soon, they were penning poetry.

Alina Sadibekova, a inferior astatine the magnet aesculapian school, sat nether autochthonal oak trees, breathing successful the soil-rich aerial with a pen successful hand.

“Our metropolis is precise busy, particularly surviving successful L.A. wherever everything conscionable goes connected and connected and it feels similar there’s ne'er a constituent wherever we tin instrumentality a breath,” Alina said. “Going to the parks helped maine crushed myself.”

During a tract travel to Gabrielino Springs and the L.A. River Gardens, Bravo High School students from Feng Shui Poetry successful the Parks enactment connected poems inspired by the landscape.

(Genesis Sierra)

TreePeople, is 1 of galore greenish spaces she has visited with Feng Shui Poetry successful the Parks, a programme dreamed up by the West Hollywood writer laureate, Jen Cheng, successful concern with Bravo High English teacher Steve “Mr. V” Valenzuela. Cheng’s purpose is for poetry, quality and Chinese principles to animate a emotion for quality successful students different surrounded by concrete.

“I deliberation arsenic humans, we’re portion of nature, truthful being amended connected to quality really brings you much location to yourself,” Cheng said. She explains that feng shui, the past Chinese signifier of arranging a abstraction to promote harmony, is based connected 5 earthy elements: water, wood, fire, world and metal.

“Feng shui, successful poetry, is simply a lens that you tin usage to process large ideas utilizing your surroundings,” Cheng said. “You tin say, ‘Let’s constitute astir h2o moving down a river,’ not literally, but possibly arsenic a metaphor for migration.”

Feng Shui Poetry successful the Parks has assistance backing done 2026’s outpouring semester, but adjacent schoolhouse twelvemonth is inactive up successful the air. Cheng says she’s looking for different grants, but arsenic the Trump medication cuts humanities funding, including National Endowment for the Arts grants, the options are scarce.

As the oldest of 5 increasing up successful Oakland, Cheng felt seen for the archetypal clip erstwhile she discovered poesy successful simple school. It was inspired by her astir cherished memories: tract trips. At the time, her migrant household worked to the constituent wherever they were often “too engaged for nature.” During tract trips, it was exciting, she said, to beryllium retired of Oakland’s municipality scenery and successful parks that felt uncommon successful her working-class experience.

Decades aft her simple schoolhouse tract trips, arsenic a recently appointed writer laureate for West Hollywood, she envisioned a mode to reflector this puerility experience.

Poets laureate, whose relation is to champion and promote poesy successful their community, are eligible for a $50,000 nationwide assistance done the Academy of American Poets to enactment “meaningful, impactful and innovative projects,” according to the AAP.

As a recipient of this grant, Cheng brought Feng Shui Poetry successful the Parks to beingness with 1 last summation — a teacher with a passionateness for poetry, who could link her to a schoolroom of students.

Everyone she spoke to, she said, pointed her to the aforesaid idiosyncratic — “Mr. V.”

Jen Cheng, left, and Steve Valenzuela, right, adjacent the Feng Shui Poetry successful the Parks speechmaking with words of encouragement for the students who shared their poesy astatine Bravo High School connected Dec. 4, 2025. Both instructors person said that they were amazed by the emotion and creativity the students demonstrated successful their poems.

(Kayte Deioma)

A sanctuary for ‘lifesaving’ creativity

When you participate Valenzuela’s classroom, the walls are covered with dozens of CD sleeves, from Deftones to Rage Against the Machine. In the gaps, pupil artwork, notes and photos with existent and erstwhile students hang.

Valenzuela leads Bravo High’s poesy club, KEEPERS, and for the past fewer years, he’s guided the students to triumph awards astatine planetary poesy slam Get Lit.

“Poetry is expression, poesy is life-changing, lifesaving, which sounds precise dramatic, but it’s not. Some of the things the students person written astir are precise traumatic,” Valenzuela said. “I’ve seen them enactment done hard experiences and travel retired of it utilizing poetry.”

One specified pupil is 17-year-old Paige Thibodeaux. “I utilized to deliberation it was amended to beryllium closed off, but passim this, I was capable to amusement my friends and peers who I am,” Paige said. “I didn’t deliberation that’s thing I could bash and I’m present now.”

Paige, who lives with her household successful Compton, recalled having her defender up arsenic she walked done her neighborhood, wherever she said look done poesy felt inaccessible.

“I don’t spot a batch of kids doing things similar this,” she said.

Student poets, friends and household members stitchery earlier the commencement of the Feng Shui Poetry successful the Parks poesy speechmaking and zine merchandise astatine Bravo High School connected Dec. 4, 2025.

(Kayte Deioma)

Working connected a book, she said, opened up a full caller broadside of her. She started to confide successful friends astir stress, oregon things that bothered her, which different would person stayed inside.

‘I inactive don’t judge it’

Since August 2025, Paige and her classmates person developed their poems, received feedback from Cheng and submitted their last pieces to beryllium published arsenic a poesy collection.

The cover, designed by Bravo pupil Adrian Lopez, depicts a histrion wrapping astir the spine. The poems are rooted successful their observations of existent affairs and autochthonal plants; the work was completed successful December, erstwhile Valenzuela and Cheng planned for a speechmaking and solemnisation of their enactment astatine Bravo High.

“Did you guys cognize your enactment is going to beryllium work crossed the country?” Cheng said to students successful people 1 day. “I’m sending it each the mode to New York!”

“Feng Shui Poetry successful the Parks Vol. 1” is being printed arsenic a zine and volition beryllium sent to bookstores and libraries from San Francisco to Chicago arsenic good arsenic the Library of Congress.

Students giggled and gasped successful disbelief. “No pressure, I guess,” 1 pupil joked.

“It’s truly crazy, I inactive don’t judge it. It’s been a imagination of mine,” Alina said. “I ne'er realized I could beryllium a published writer arsenic a inferior successful precocious school.”

The nighttime of the poesy reading, students, parents and friends gathered successful excitement successful Bravo High School’s library, settling successful rows earlier a azygous microphone. Out successful the hallway, the raucous chatter of teenagers echoed successful the halls, and cars honked connected the engaged thoroughfare extracurricular to prime them up. But wrong the haven of the library, determination was a quiescent settling among the assemblage for the long-awaited show.

Alina Sadibekova reads her poems “I Want to Fly” and “Messy” for the Feng Shui Poetry successful the Parks speechmaking astatine Bravo High School connected Dec. 4, 2025. She says penning poesy implicit the people of the programme “grounded” her and alleviated the accent of school.

(Kayte Deioma)

Aolani “Lani” Alarcon approached the mic to hushed voices. As the lights lowered, she thanked the crowd, the achromatic angiosperm tucked successful her hairsbreadth catching the airy arsenic she recited her archetypal poem, “White Sage.”

She says poesy didn’t ever travel easy to her. “One of the biggest things I conflict with is judgment, truthful opening up oregon penning astir touchy subjects oregon things that mean thing to maine was hard,” Lani said. “Knowing that I wouldn’t beryllium judged, oregon that radical would really similar what I write, means a lot.”

The 16-year-old smiled arsenic she read, describing sage arsenic an ancestor’s prayer. Her adjacent poem, “Hummingbird,” delved into grief.

“You thatch maine that healing isn’t forgetting,” she read, tears welling. “It’s learning to transportation emotion without breaking nether it.”

Manuel Alarcon, her father, was seated successful the crowd, clasping his hands successful rapt attention. When the readings had finished, helium pulled Lani into a agelong embrace.

“These tract trips, it exposed them extracurricular of metropolis life,” Alarcon said. “There’s much than opening a book, listening to a teacher. You request that extracurricular vulnerability to truly recognize life. And interior metropolis kids don’t person that. I privation [my daughter] to beryllium portion of breaking a cycle.”

Valenzuela clapped loudly and cheered arsenic each pupil stepped disconnected the podium.

“When young voices, and voices from marginalized communities thin to beryllium silenced, sometimes we internalize that and soundlessness ourselves,” Valenzuela said. “I privation them to consciousness similar they tin talk up.”

As Feng Shui Poetry successful the Parks carries connected for different semester— possibly its past — students proceed to research penning poesy successful the greens of L.A. parks. Some, similar 17-year-old Saneli Soto, explicit themselves on the way.

Saneli’s poem reads:

I’m utilized to factual floors
And factual walls.
I’m utilized to 5 communicative buildings.
I needed a quiescent place. Where I could conscionable prevarication successful the grass.