Petaluma Poetry Walk celebrates 20th anniversary on Sunday

The streets of downtown Petaluma will be filled with art - of the written kind - on Sunday, Sept. 20 as the Petaluma Poetry Walk returns for its 20th anniversary.

Founded by Petaluma poet Geri Digiorno, who served as Sonoma County Poet Laureate during 2006-07, this year’s Poetry Walk offers readings from work from many genres

This year’s walk will have readings that are in many genres and cultures.

“We are pleased to have music combining with many, if not most of the poetry performances. It’s one of the best programs we have ever produced,” said Digiorno.

The walk kicks off at 11 a.m. at the Petaluma Seed Bank (199 Petaluma Blvd. North) with featured poets, Stella Beratlis, Phyllis Meshulam and Lisa Erin Robertson.

Starting at noon, poets Ed Coletti, Ka’ Lane Raposa and Oakland Chinatown-born poet Nellie Wong will read from their work at Riverfront Art Gallery (132 Petaluma Blvd. North.).

The walk continues at 1 p.m. at the Apple Box (224 B St.) with a mix of music and poetry by the art jug band Smooth Toad, which features Bob Ernst, Hal Hughes and G.P. Skratz. Poet-artist Nancy Keane and Petaluma bilingual poet Batriz Lagos will also be reading from their work.

Then at 2 p.m., the 2015 Sonoma County Poet Laureate, Mike Tuggle, with past poet laureate, Katherine Hastings, and editor of the Raleigh Review, Rob Greene, will be reading on the deck of the Apple Box near the River on B Street.

Copperfield’s Books (140 Kentucky St.) hosts the next Poetry Walk event at 3 p.m. with National Book Critics Poetry Award-winner Jane Hirshfield, beat poet David Meltzer and Julie Rogers, Meltzer’s wife.

The Phoenix Theater (201 Washington St.) presents a reading at 4 p.m. with Judy Steadman, a Petaluma poet and English teacher at Santa Rosa Junior College. She will be joined by her friends, students and Digiorno.

Avotcja, who mixes poetry with music performs at the Petaluma Historical Library & Museum (20 Fourth St) at 5 p.m., along with internationally known Native American performance poet Luke Warm Water, and poet Lucille Lang Day, of Wampanoag (Massachusetts) descent.

The walk’s final event begins at 6 p.m. at Aqus Café Foundry Wharf (189 H St.) and features the 2008-09 Healdsburg Literary Laureate Vilma Ginzberg, poet-musician Clara Hsu, harpist Susan T. Mashiyama and poet Elizabeth Carothers Herron.

Admission to all poetry walk events is free. For more information on the poets and to view the schedule, visit petalumapoetrywalk.org.