‘Great move’: CalPoets relocates headquarters to Santa Rosa

More poetry in K-12 schools and public spaces throughout Sonoma County. That is one of the goals this upcoming school year for CalPoets, a statewide literary nonprofit that moved its headquarters from San Francisco to Santa Rosa last month.

The move comes around the same time the nonprofit hired a new executive director, Meg Hamill, a Santa Rosan with about two decades of nonprofit experience.

“I think it’s a really great move,” said Jackie Hallerberg, a Sebastopol resident and president of the board of California Poets in the Schools, or CalPoets. “We are one of the most active counties in the state.”

The 54-year-old nonprofit sends poet-teachers to share verse, analysis and writing prompts with students during their residencies at a particular school. There’s also the Poetry Out Loud program, where students compete in recitation of famous poems.

Within the county, CalPoets reaches nearly 30 schools and 4,000 K-12 students, and within the state it reaches about 28,000 youth.

With the move to Santa Rosa, CalPoets plans to extend its reach, with more poets in schools, more poetry booths at art festivals, and poetry in parks and parking lots.

The nonprofit is still searching for an office in Santa Rosa.

Hamill worked as a CalPoets poet-teacher in the area from 2007 to 2013, then as CalPoet’s Sonoma County area coordinator from 2013 until last month, when she was named executive director.

She also worked part-time for the past 12 years at LandPaths, a Santa ?Rosa-based environmental conservation group.

“It’s really a dream come true to use everything I’ve learned,” said Hamill, 40. “It feels really great coming full circle to where my heart’s always been.”

Hamill was a shy seventh-?grader growing up in rural Maine when she was introduced to poetry. She found the art form to be a great way to get her thoughts out. “I was hooked for life,” she said.

Like most poet-teachers, she has published a couple of volumes of poetry, as well. Sending poets into the classroom allows students to see how an artist lives, she said.

“A lot of kids are looking for their ‘thing,’ and for a lot of kids it ends up being writing,” Hamill said.

“It’s so accessible. All you need is a pen and paper.”

Sonoma County has one of the most well-funded CalPoets programs, with grants from area organizations such as Creative Sonoma, the Community Foundation of Sonoma County and the Sonoma County Vintners Foundation.

“I think it’s fertile soil, really, for artists. And there’s a tremendous amount of support,” said Hallerberg, who worked with 750 third- through sixth-graders from January through May.

Sandra Anfang of Petaluma has been a poet-?teacher in Sonoma County schools for about four years. She has a book coming out this year, and she runs a monthly poetry reading at Aqus Cafe in Petaluma.

She recently taught at Prestwood Elementary School and Creekside High School in Sonoma. She has introduced students to the works of Li Po, a Chinese American poet; Gertrude Stein, the “lost generation” writer; Juan Felipe Herrera, the first Chicano U.S. poet laureate; and Jimmy Santiago Baca, a former inmate who taught himself to read and write in prison and went on to become an acclaimed poet.

“I come in and the kids are really captivated. They believe in the power and magic of creating something,” Anfang said.

Hamill said CalPoets has set aside funds for a couple of schools impacted by the October wildfires, which she plans to reach out to, and the door is always open for more poet-teachers with different backgrounds to reflect the county’s diverse population.

“Kids need to feel more connected to each other and also to school,” she said.

You can reach Staff Writer Susan Minichiello at 707-521-5216 or susan.minichiello@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @susanmini.