April is Poetry Month, which means poetry galore. Visit slobookbike.com for more info, but here are the basics.
Poet CAConrad leads a Somatic Poetry Workshop at SLOMA on Tuesday, April 7 (6:30 p.m.; free at eventbrite.com). What he calls (Soma)tics are ritualized structures designed to elicit “extreme presence.”
On Wednesday, April 8, CAConrad offers an on-campus Craft Talk at Cal Poly (Building 002 0205; 4:10 p.m; free).
On Thursday, April 9, in SLOMA, CAConrad, Valentine Freeman, and SLO County Poet Laureate Caleb Nichols read their poetry (6:30 p.m.; free at eventbrite.com).
On Friday, April 10, Mistake Machine poetry zine will launch at MYLR Gallery (6 p.m.; free; readings by local and visiting poets).
On Sunday, April 12, Palm Theatre screens the 2014 biopic Set Fire to the Stars (1 p.m.; tickets at thepalmtheatre.com), in which an aspiring poet in 1950s New York (Elijah Wood) sets out to save his rebellious hero, Dylan Thomas (Celyn Jones). Thomas expert and Sheffield Hallam University English Professor Dr. John Goodby offers an introduction. A Q-and-A with Goodby and Nichols follows.
On Thursday, April 29, the GALA Pride Center hosts a Blackout Poetry Workshop (6 to 8 p.m.; free).
“The most exciting to me is CAConrad at SLOMA, but also I think the Dylan Thomas film at the Palm will be really cool,” Nichols said. ∆
This article appears in April 2-9, 2026.