Poetry in the garden
On May 25, two Santa Monica College (SMC) English professors, Wilfred Doucet and Regis Peeples, hosted a poetry reading in the Giving Garden in Santa Monica, an event that had somewhat become a tradition. After a first reading that happened in December 2024, Doucet, Peeples, and Guzel Gjenasaj, co-organizer and Doucet’s former student, decided to bring it back.
The attendees invited were primarily SMC students from Doucet and Peeples’ English literature and creative writing classes. Their poems were read out loud and echoed around the Giving Garden, with Doucet’s hosting and funny comments inciting through, as well as the live jazz music of upright bassist Toku – a friend to Doucet and his partner, Tasha Thomas – who attended with his wife Quinoaa.
The backgrounds of both couples, Doucet and Tasha, and Toku and Quinoaa, added a political meaning to the reading accompanied by the flowers and vibes of nature. Both hosted “A Real Talk: Arts and Resistance,” a “literary synod” on March 2 in Venice, where there were assembled poets, YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles) cello teachers, and Haitian dancers performing art as a protest against the political vibes that were swaying since that time.
“(We were) feeling a need to respond in so many positive ways, with music, and poetry. We were trying to build a broader community with people who, you know, wanna see a better future,” Toku said. Toku preferred not to disclose his last name due to privacy reasons.
At the garden, one of the three works that Quinoaa presented was a poem titled “Earth Immigrants.” It centered on the very meaning of citizenship and every individual’s relationship with the land and space they live in. The piece won an SMC Global Citizenship Symposium award.
“I have a lot of poems about empathy for humanity. I started writing and the words started flowing.” Quinoaa said, who also didn’t disclose her last name due to personal preference. Her work, she said, “focuses on the balance of providing the world with light, while acknowledging the darkness that coincides with it.”
Ray S., a student at SMC about to transfer to a university in North Carolina, performed two poems throughout the event. Ray hasn’t chosen a major yet, but she shared that many of her poems were written under Doucet’s creative writing class.
“He is very encouraging, you’re getting more confidence in it… very supportive. And he has very good taste,” she said. Ray was not comfortable with sharing her last name due to privacy reasons.
Angelina Backrien, another SMC student and an anthropology major, shared the memory when they wrote their first poem. “I’ve written poetry since I was in middle school. There’s no boundaries or rules to it,” Backrien said. The power of self-expression, they said, allowed them to cope with their depression.
Among the reader-presenters were also Ray Jones, Zahria Eaves, and Del Mar Weilbacher, who were Doucet and/or Peeples’ students; there were other “more ‘professional’ poets” as well, as Doucet put it, including the two professors themselves, Thomas, and Tichina Ward-Pratt. They had “practiced their arts for (perhaps) longer time”, whose spaces were saved by Doucet to the very end.
The Giving Garden provided a safe space for the younger students of SMC and the more aged professionals alike, who expressed their political beliefs and shared what their poems were about – themes sad or delightful, many with intricate stories.
Gjenasaj, co-organizer as well as sister of the Giving Garden’s owner, shared her story with Doucet and how the venue, full of green, came to be built. “I took his African-American literature class and it was profound,” she said.
In the garden, there were rosemary, fennel and lavender, among “a lot, a lot” of colorful greens; there were also grapes, plums and avocado trees. Nasturtium, a plant with edible flowers, bloomed with “delicious” rose geranium. There was even a treehouse with “no nail in the tree,” Gjenasaj said.
“All this took a lot of work. To make the soil ready, then to plant, there was a lot of weeding… you know. It was built with community, we had a lot of gatherings here,” she said.
“That was the intention, to have a space to invite people to (appreciate) things.”