Our Youth Poet Laureate contest is open for 2025-2026! Go to the YPL Contest to read about the role, rules for applying, and more! Contest runs through March 3, 2025.
Jan 19
Second Tuesday Feb. 11: Joseph Rios & Vielka Solano
Don’t miss the Second Tuesday reading in February, when Fresno poet laureate emeritus Joseph Rios joins us to read with Vielka Solano at Bookish Modesto, 7:00 pm. Open mic follows featured poets; free! Read more about our poets.
Second Tuesday Feb. 11: Joseph Rios & Vielka Solano
Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center is pleased to present Second Tuesday Poetry featuring Vielka Solano and Joseph Rios
Date: Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Time: 7:00 pm PST
Where: Bookish Modesto, 811 W. Orangeburg Ave, in the Roseburg Square shopping center
Open mic following featured poets (3 min per poet); sign up at the event. Hosted by Gillian Wegener.
Vielka Solano
Born in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, Vielka Solano obtained her Doctor of Medicine degree from the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo. After immigrating to Modesto, California, Vielka started working for Golden Valley Health Centers, providing healthcare to the underserved, rural community of Patterson, California. Professionally and as a poet, Vielka’s work focuses on social injustice, the trauma of war, and domestic violence. She is the founder of “Poesia y Arte Curando el Alma,” an outreach program designed to give those who have suffered domestic violence a voice through the arts. She is the founder of Noche de Poesia and host of Grito de Mujer in Modesto. In 2019, Vielka was among the recipients of the Outstanding Woman of the Year award from the Stanislaus County Commission for Women, and has also received the Concilio Unsung Hero Award. Vielka is part of Influencers4Justice, a program funded by Blue Shield of California Foundation.
Joseph Rios
Joseph Rios headshot
Joseph Rios was born in the San Joaquin Valley in 1987. He is a Xicano writer and the author of Shadowboxing: Poems & Impersonations (Omnidawn, 2017), winner of a 2018 American Book Award. A Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University, Rios is the recipient of scholarships and fellowships from Community of Writers, CantoMundo, Letras Latinas, and the California Arts Council. Rios lives on Yokuts land in Fresno, California, where he served as poet laureate from 2022-2024. In 2024, he received an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship. He is the founder of Doña Helen’s, a poet’s residency at his grandparents’ longtime home in the San Joaquin Valley.
As an exuberant collection of relentless declamations against the existing economic order, “Shadowboxing” contains fresh poems of elemental protest, open reflections on politically motivated murders and disappearances, and lyric proclamations praising the inherent superiority of collective identity over the relic of the personal. —Sonja James, The Journal
Jan 19
Poetry Out Loud Contest Feb. 6
Come to Artist Lab at Prospect Theater on Thursday, January 6 at 6:30 pm to experience the Poetry Out Loud competition for Stanislaus County. Students from three high schools will compete; the winner goes to the state level competition. Excitement!
Poetry Out Loud County Competition
Come watch high school students compete at the county level for the Poetry Out Loud contest at the Artist Lab, 1218 K Street in downtown Modesto.
Through this program, high school students across the country participate in a dynamic poetry recitation competition that is designed to improve their public speaking skills, help build confidence, and teach them about literary history and contemporary life.
- Poetry Out Loud is a fun and dynamic way to introduce students to poetry.
- Poetry Out Loud builds self-confidence and helps develop social and emotional maturity.
- The thrill of competition encourages students to do their best and support their peers.
- Poetry Out Loud creates lifelong lovers of poetry and creative writing.
- Poetry Out Loud offers an opportunity for all types of students to succeed.
Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center is the local organization organizing and hosting the Stanislaus County POL contest.