Latest News
California Poets Confront Urgent Challenges Through ‘Poets on the Beat’ Project
Poets tackle the climate crisis, inequality and police violence in powerful essays.

What do poets have to say about the grim parade of challenges that we face?
Climate change. Racial and economic inequality. Democratic decline.
The abstract language that describes them can leave us cold. The human stories that make them all too vivid can leave us feeling overwhelmed — or wanting to tune out. A growing number of people avoid the news often or sometimes, according to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
The poet Adrienne Rich wrote that poetry can reach “into us for what’s still passionate, still unintimidated, still unquenched.” Poets can build connections and offer a fresh perspective by speaking to us in a language that is new and surprising.
This year, Capital & Main, working in collaboration with Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, asked California poets to tackle some of the most pressing issues we face in a series of essays. The poets selected to write the essays are former L.A. poet laureates Lynne Thompson and Luis Rodriguez; poets Shonda Buchanan, Suzanne Lummis and Sesshu Foster; and California poet laureate Lee Herrick.
I sat down with Hilda Weiss, curator of Poetry.LA. She asked me what poets bring to the table that’s different from journalism. “Poets come at things a little bit slant,” I told her.
Poets on the Beat blends reporting with poetry — and in some cases memoir. But above all, the pieces affirm the power of poetry in the face of difficulty. “Even as poets grieve, we affirm our connection to the world that sustains us,” Thompson writes in an essay that highlights how students respond to climate change.
The discussion about poetry’s connection to contemporary events will continue on Oct. 12 at Beyond Baroque, when I moderate a panel with three of the poets featured in the “Poets on the Beat” project, Thompson, Lummis and Buchanan.
In the meantime, you can explore the expanding list of essays at Capital & Main’s website. You’ll read about Rodriguez’s journey from factory worker to poet. Buchanan describes the poetic response to the murder of George Floyd and the long history of poetry that confronts the dehumanization of Black bodies. Lummis reflects on a summer like no other, noting that we can never look at how fire appears in literature the same way after so many devastating blazes.
All these poets, in their own way, assert the enduring strength of poetry to shape our understanding of the world’s challenges and our place within it.
Copyright 2023 Capital & Main

-
Latest NewsSeptember 24, 2025
Too Old to Keep Working, Not Enough Money to Stop
-
Latest NewsOctober 14, 2025
People in ICE Custody Face Invasive Strip Searches After Visits With Loved Ones
-
The SlickSeptember 22, 2025
New Mexico Governor Puts Finger on Scale in Oilfield Wastewater Vote
-
Column - State of InequalityOctober 9, 2025
California Joins New York in Trying to Fill a Void on Worker Protections
-
Column - State of InequalitySeptember 25, 2025
When Workers Unite, Even Disney Has to Listen
-
Latest NewsSeptember 23, 2025
ICE Is Transferring People in Its Custody Away From Family, Lawyers
-
Latest NewsSeptember 26, 2025
Assault on Accessibility Initiatives Hits Early Career Scientists Hard
-
The SlickSeptember 29, 2025
Is the Sun Setting on Pennsylvania’s Solar Future?