New co-poets laureate want to bring Vallejo together through poetry

VALLEJO — In an unusual turn, and for the first time in Vallejo, a city selection committee named two poets laureate for a two-year term beginning on Jan. 1. 

Kathleen Herrmann and Jacalyn Eyvonne – both accomplished authors and educators – say they look forward to bringing Vallejo together through poetry.

The duo will make their public debut at the Mad Hatter Holiday Festival Queen's Court on Saturday at noon, and the appointment will be proclaimed at Vallejo City Hall at a future date.

While the dual role is a first for Vallejo, it is not unprecedented. Sacramento and Alameda have appointed two poets to the role in the past, and Richmond appointed a youth poet laureate to serve alongside the city’s adult counterpart in 2021.

D.L. Lang, who was Vallejo’s poet laureate from 2017-2019 and a selection committee member this year, said that both women aced their auditions. “There was a moment between their interviews that our two top candidates hugged one another and cheerfully wished each other well no matter the outcome,” Lang said. “We could all see they had a positive connection which will serve Vallejo well.”

The two instantly connected over their shared passion for poetry when they first met during Eyvonne’s Open Studios exhibit of intertwined photography and poetry from her upcoming book, "The Unyielding Weight of Words — Poems for Reflection, Healing and Love."

“It just seems like it's fate or something, because that was our first meeting, and we just talked and talked and talked,” Eyvonne said. “And then here two, three weeks later, we find that we're paired for this. I think we're going to have a really good two years.”

Herrmann also expressed delight at the arrangement. She said selection committee member Renay Conlin called, said the committee couldn't decide between them, and asked if they could both do it.  “That was brilliant!” Herrmann  said. “We certainly have overlapping interests and skills, and then we have complementary skill sets. I think the more each of us can bring to it, the fuller the program will be, the more resources we can offer to the community. So why not?”

With no stipend or funding for travel expenses, the shared job won’t cost the city any extra money. It will increase the duo's options and the likelihood that at least one poet laureate will be available to speak at special occasions. 

The two will begin meeting in December to solidify their future plans for broadening Vallejo’s access to poetry. They said they will restore the monthly “Poetry In Notion” reading at the John F. Kennedy Library that was launched by Vallejo’s first poet laureate, Genea Brice in 2015, and shut down at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Both women are published authors and educators with extensive resumes. 

Eyvonne’s first published poem appeared in the Oakland Tribune in 1991. It was a tribute to basketball player Magic Johnson, titled “It’s Magic,” after his announcement that he was HIV positive. She became the founding editor of “In The Company of Poets” magazine, an international publication that later followed with a cable access poetry show under the same title. She is the author of several books that range from poetry to short stories to a writing guidebook.

Eyvonne also has extensive experience in photography and filmmaking, blending the visual arts with words. She organizes the Monologues and Poetry and KidsNFilm film festivals and is developing a poetry-to-film project with the Vallejo Teaching Artists that she plans to launch in March. 

“I love working with kids,” Eyvonne said. “I'm really excited about seeing how we can move forward with more programs with the youth as well as bringing the entire poetry community together,” Eyvonne said. 

Eyvonne said that poetry can help both adults and young people make sense of their emotions during tumultuous times, and that her writing techniques and exercises can help them deal with their complex feelings in a healthy way. “The right words can really touch people of all cultures and all backgrounds. So I just think that it's a benefit to anyone,” she said.

Herrmann is a retired teacher and poet whose work appears in 14 poetry anthologies. She is working on an upcoming collection entitled “I Was There, Now I’m Here: Crossing Borders,” featuring the stories of refugees. She is also an experienced musician and singer and she hopes to blend poetry and music together to create a community theme song for Vallejo. She has performed frequently in Vallejo at Poetry by the Bay’s open mics and on OZCAT radio’s Thursday morning Art Beat Poetry Hour show. 

“I really want to make an extra effort to reach out to beginning poets or people who may not think of themselves as poets, but who are interested, and do some teaching workshops.” Herrmann said. “I also want to pick up the younger Vallejo demographic, and go to after school organizations and talk to Vallejo schools about coming in and doing workshops.”

Herrmann and Eyvonne will take the baton from Jeremy Snyder at the end of his unusual four-year term that ran from 2020 through 2023. Snyder’s term was extended to give him time to enjoy in-person events after the record-setting number of open mic poetry Zoom sessions that he held during the pandemic.