West Hollywood's City Poet Laureate highlights the City of West Hollywood through the literary arts and, over a period of time, creates a new body of literary work that commemorates the diversity and vibrancy of the City. They serve as an official ambassador of West Hollywood’s vibrant literary culture, promoting poetry in West Hollywood, stimulating the transformative impact of poetry in the local community, and creating excitement about the written word.

Jen Cheng, our fifth West Hollywood City Poet Laureate, serves from October 2023 - October 2026.

Please scroll down for upcoming City Poet Laureate events. 

Since 2019, Jen Cheng has been writing poems for West Hollywood neighbors and visitors during WeHo Pride as a member of Pride Poets and as a typewriter poet with arts and community events around the Los Angeles area. With roots in social justice activism, Jen has been a performance poet and local cultural events producer. She is a California Arts Council Fellow, and 2025 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow! Jen’s work and poetry has been showcased with the City of West Hollywood’s WeHo Reads series, VCP Socal, and Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station bG Gallery. As a culture creator, Jen blends her East-West perspectives into a new form, Feng Shui Poetry, infusing five element wellness concepts into poetry. Her book, Braided Spaces, has themes of immigrant displacement, critical race feminism, and queer musings by a Chinese-American eldest daughter. Jen’s interviews and poems can be found in outlets such as the Beverly Press, Queer Slam, and on KPFK’s Poets Cafe. Jen is the founder of Palabras Literary Salon, celebrating BIPOC poets and writers. Jen blends East-West cultural influences as Feng Shui Poetry. Find her on IG and Bluesky @JenCvoice or JenCvoice.com.

For more information about the City of West Hollywood's City Poet Laureate program, please contact Mike Che, City of West Hollywood Arts Coordinator, at mche@weho.org.

Upcoming Events 

Celebrating Essential Poems of Pat Parker, a West Hollywood City Poet Laureate event

Saturday, November 15, 2025, 2pm-3:30pm

West Hollywood Library Community Meeting Room, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd.

Free, RSVP Requested: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/14582681 

Join West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng for a celebration of Essential Poems by Pat Parker. This in-person poetry reading celebrates Parker's poetry and her years in Los Angeles. Enjoy this reading hosted by Jen Cheng with Gabrielle Civil, Verlena Johnson, Ann Bradley, Mimi Gonzalez, and Monique Aya Parks. A moderated discussion of the poems will follow. Community partners Sinister Wisdom and Mazer Lesbian Archives will provide archival resources for viewing.

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Holiday Poetry Hotline: Writing Workshop

Saturday, December 13, 2025, 11am-1pm

West Hollywood Library Community Meeting Room, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd.

Free, RSVP requested

Join West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng and the West Hollywood Library for a workshop of poetry writing, inspired by The Poetry Pharmacy. Holiday stress doesn’t need to get us down when we have poetry to connect to our shared humanity. Discuss what poems might address what “conditions” and be inspired by poems that might prompt your own writing. This is a one-time writing workshop. No experience needed. Come with curiosity. RSVPs are requested. Please note: If participants want to help answer the calls during the live hotline on December 20th, they are required to attend this writing workshop on December 13th. Observers are welcome to attend and enjoy the poetic buzz of the poetry pharmacy..

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Holiday Poetry Hotline: Live Calls and Poem Prescriptions Workshop

Saturday, December 20, 2025, 2pm-5pm

West Hollywood Library Community Meeting Room, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd.

Free, RSVP required

Under the guidance of West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng, workshop participants will be answering phone calls live as operators to deliver “poem prescriptions” for callers. We practice the art of listening and choose a poem from our dispensary of curated poems. New operators will be teamed up with experienced operators. 

Please note: If participants want to help answer the calls, they are required to attend the writing workshop on December 13th. Observers are welcome to attend and enjoy the poetic buzz of the poetry pharmacy. Operators need to arrive early to get oriented before the hotline goes live at 2pm. RSVPs are required.

Poems by Jen Cheng 

Recipe for Creativity, Blessed by Ghosts of the Greats

Crack open songs of paved paradise on Sunset

Whisk in air of Grammy-winning music from The Troubadour

Cut a sprig of rosemary smelling history on Harper Avenue

Rub in soil from gardens of art deco apartments

Soak in sun by the gates of Morrison’s historic home

Sprout new seeds from a neighbor’s plant, poolside

Sauce up corn dogs from the haunted sound studio next to Shake Shack

Chop up drafts and let brilliant bits simmer

Flip to the acknowledgements of bestsellers at Book Soup

Build layers of a team like they did to boost you

Roll with friends you meet at library workshops

Wrap yourself with robes and

Light candles, chant under full moons to

Call upon

Ghosts of the Greats who wrote books, films, and songs to

Sprinkle glitter and persistence to

Never let go of dreams.

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‘Winter Memories’ (a poem for the City of West Hollywood for the holidays)

Gather the shimmering songs, quiet and loud.

It is winter and our sunny neighborhood loves a million colors, proud.

Cozy up with scarves and sweaters warm with memories of love.

Walk along rugged oak trees and bright bus shelters.

Visit with a cuppa and hear the hum that might be the next meme.

Your feet wander along and discover old and new beats:

Our winter wonders sans snow woo us to listen and stay a while.

Let the polyphony dazzle and tingle our hearts with delight.

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Joyous (a poem for the City of West Hollywood for the holidays)

Joyous tunes sing brightly

Orbits of lights string the streets

Yellow candles stir meditations with tea

Olive branches ask for peace

Upward arches forge iconic memories

Sweet glances swing love into the new year

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Painted Painter

By Jen Cheng, excerpt from upcoming book, Braided Spaces

I live in a box of paints 

And let them wash over me

Never mind any blurred lines

Different colors tint me each day

Shadows of others from last week

Some of base notes mix and

Mutate into something new

A blend unexpected and leaks

Wisps of quantum light

Dress me in rare treasures like 

Lapis Lazuli, gracing eyes 

of Cleopatra so intensely

Who wouldn’t want admirers

Like royalty, custom made

Tailoring and then catching

Something playful with something sure

So let them call me exotic

I will own it as my mirage

To lure them in like honey wine

Effervescent patterns so rich

Complements and boldness erase

Limits and systems so rigid

Perceptions from every angle

Reflect the multiple faces.

Past Events

City Poet Laureate Installation

Sunday, October 22, 2023, 5pm

Plummer Park Community Center, Rooms 5&6, 7377 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood

Featured music by ADA Trio, plant sculpture by Andi Xoch (Latinx with Plants), ASL interpretation by Sher Smith, and readings by 2021-22 Poet Laureate of Los Angeles Lynne Thompson and former and current West Hollywood City Poet Laureates Steven Reigns and Brian Sonia-Wallace. To see photos, click here.

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City Poet Laureate Writing Workshop: Writing Memorable Characters

Saturday, October 28, 2023, 10:30am-12:30pm

West Hollywood Aquatic and Recreation Center (ARC), Doheny Room, 8750 El Tovar Place

West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng and the LA County Library offer a workshop to inspire memorable characters using prompts and improv exercises to sharpen characters for writers of all levels. Whether it's narrative or poetry, bring your work-in-progress or start something new. We’ll create a safe space for you to discover fresh points of view.

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WeHo Reads x Literary Death Match

Wednesday, November 8, 2023, 7pm

West Hollywood City Council Chambers, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd.

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The West Hollywood Holiday Poetry Hotline

Call in to: 310-853-3952

Live Hotline: Saturday, December 23, 2023, 2pm-5pm

Listen to Recorded Poems: December 18-31, 2023 (Available 24/7)

Holiday stress doesn't need to get us down when we have poetry to connect us to our shared humanity. Inspired by The Poetry Pharmacy, the West Hollywood Holiday Poetry Hotline is designed and led by West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng to offer poetry and compassion during the winter holiday season. Dial in to the Live Hotline at 310-853-3952 on December 23 from 2pm-5pm to receive a "poem prescription" from a live reader or request a custom poem. Recorded poems will be available 24/7 from December 18-31. More information on the City's Holiday Arts programs: https://www.weho.org/community/arts-and-culture/holiday 

We are also seeking participants who wish to help with the hotline. Info below: 

Holiday Poetry Hotline: Writing and Reading Workshop, Part 1

Saturday, December 16, 2023, 2pm-4pm

West Hollywood Library Community Meeting Room, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd.

Free, RSVP required

Join West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng and the West Hollywood Library for a workshop of poetry writing and reading in preparation for the West Hollywood Holiday Poetry Hotline, inspired by The Poetry Pharmacy. Holiday stress doesn't need to get us down when we have poetry to connect to our shared humanity. Members of the public will be able to dial in to the Holiday Poetry Hotline and receive a 'poem prescription' from you. For those who want to share their voice on the Holiday Poetry Hotline on December 23, we will practice and record your voice reading poems curated by Jen Cheng in the last hour of the workshop. If scheduling is a challenge, you're welcome to do only Part 1 of this workshop. No experience needed. Come with curiosity. RSVPs are required. 

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Holiday Poetry Hotline Participant Workshop

Saturday, December 23, 2023, 2pm-5pm

West Hollywood Library Community Meeting Room, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd.

Free, RSVP required

Participants in Part 2 of this project are required to attend the Part 1 training aspect of this workshop on December 16.

Under the guidance of West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng, workshop participants will be answering phone calls live to deliver "poem prescriptions" for callers. We practice the art of listening and choose a poem from our dispensary of curated poems. Several Pride Poets will be on hand to write custom typewriter poems. RSVPs are required. 

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Feng Shui Poetry: A Writing Workshop

Saturday, December 30, 2023, 10:30am-12:30pm

West Hollywood Library Community Meeting Room, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd.

Free, RSVP required

End 2023 and greet 2024 with Feng Shui Poetry, a form created by West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng as way to write poetry with a new perspective through a lens of Feng Shui principles. What we have to say can go through a lens of feelings or themes to help it be more powerful. We can transform quiet whispers into something more clear or feelings into something actionable through a lens of Feng Shui principles. The five elements – Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, Wood – are a way to meditate on your message. This writing workshop is for adults. No experience needed. Come with curiosity.

Celebrating Civil Rights Heroes

Saturday, January 20, 2024, 1-6pm

Plummer Park Community Center, Rooms 5/6, 7737 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood

Free, RSVP Requested

Join West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng for an afternoon celebrating civil rights heroes.

• 1:30pm-3pm: A panel of civil rights leaders speak about building coalitions.
• 3:30pm-5pm: an edition of Palabras Literary Salon featuring BIPOC poets and writers sharing around the theme “visionaries.”
• Before, after and between these sessions enjoy a reception and shopping with arts vendors.

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Feng Shui Poetry: A Writing Workshop

Saturday, February 3, 2024, 10:30am-12:30pm

West Hollywood Library Community Meeting Room, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd.

Free, RSVP required

Prepare for the Lunar New Year with Feng Shui Poetry, a form created by West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng as way to write poetry with a new perspective. The five elements – Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, Wood – are a way to meditate on your message and transform your feelings into something actionable. No experience needed. Come with curiosity. Photos here.

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City Poet Laureate Writing Workshop: Writing Memorable Characters

Saturday, March 30, 2024, 10:30am-12:30pm

West Hollywood Library Community Meeting Room, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd.

Free, RSVP Required

West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng and the LA County Library offer a workshop to inspire memorable characters using prompts and improv exercises to sharpen characters for writers of all levels. In celebration of Women's History Month, there will be a component of the class about writing strong female characters. Whether it's narrative or poetry, bring your work-in-progress or start something new. We’ll create a safe space for you to discover fresh points of view. RSVP Required

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WeHo Reads: Asian Pacific Diaspora Talk Story

Wednesday, May 8, 2024 | 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.

Free to attend

West Hollywood Library Community Room, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd.

Hear from a panel of poets and writers during Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month as they share their stories, connect across the diaspora, and discuss what it means to be from the Asian-Pacific diaspora. Musical guest Jett Kwong opens this event by celebrating the panel of Asian/Pacific American authors, including Ryka Aoki, Curtis Chin, Jasmin Iolani Hakes, Angela Peñaredondo, and Fariha Róisín, and hosted by West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng.

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Holiday Poetry Hotline

December 1 – 31, 24 hours a day, (Recorded Poems)

Saturday, December 21, 2024, 2-5pm, (Live Custom Poems) 

Free, (310) 853-3952

Call into the Holiday Poetry Hotline at (310) 853-3952 hosted by West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng.

Recorded poems are available to listen to 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, during the entire month of December, featuring “poetry prescriptions” to respond to common ailments of winter blues. The hotline will feature poems from former and current West Hollywood City Poets Laureate.

On Saturday, December 21, 2024, from 2 pm to 5 pm, callers can enjoy live readings from the curated list of “poetry prescriptions” or request a custom poem written for them!

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Holiday Poetry Writing Workshop with Jen Cheng

Saturday, December 7, 2024, 2-4pm

Saturday, December 21, 2024, 2-5pm (must attend first workshop to participate)

West Hollywood Library Community Meeting Room, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd.

Free, RSVP Required: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/12121744

Inspired by The Poetry Pharmacy, West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng will host a two-part poetry writing workshop ahead of the winter holiday season. In the first part, find your spark by looking at poems that address certain “conditions” and workshopping your own writing. At the following workshop on December 21, participants will answer live calls and deliver “poem prescriptions” for callers. Attendance at the December 7 workshop is required to participate in the second event. No experience needed.

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WeHo Reads: Through a Lens Queerly

Wednesday, December 11, 2024 | 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.

Venue: West Hollywood City Council Chambers, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069

What makes a memory? What makes an idol? Through what lens do we examine ourselves and our community?

This discussion brings together a poet and author, a photographer, and a culture writer to discuss how they point a critical lens at themselves and their community. Charles Jensen is the author of Splice of Life: A Memoir in 13 Film Genres (Santa Fe Writer’s Project 2024) and the collection of poetry Instructions between Takeoff and Landing (University of Akron Press 2022). Manuel Betancourt is the author of The Male Gazed: On Hunks, Heartthrobs, and What Pop Culture Taught Me About (Desiring) Men (Penguin Random House 2024). Aaron Jay Young is a portrait photographer and the author of Queen (Padlock Publishing 2023).

West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng will read a poem to open the event. 

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Writing Workshop: Writing Strong Women Characters

Saturday, March 8, 2025, 10:30am-12:30pm

West Hollywood Library Community Meeting Room, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd.

Free, RSVP Required

West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng offers a writing workshop to inspire strong characters through character studies and improv exercises to sharpen details for writers of all levels and all genres. For this March edition celebrating Women's Herstory Month, there will be a component of character studies for writing strong women characters. 

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Poetry Scrabble

Saturday, April 19, 2025, 11am-2pm

West Hollywood Library Community Meeting Room, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd.

Free, RSVP Required, https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13230263 

Join West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng to play with this interactive sculpture in celebration of National Poetry Month!

Come with curiosity and play! As the word magnets are moved around, discover phrases developed together by our class to give us new writing inspiration. No writing experience needed. For Adults. Stay after class from 1 - 2 pm for a light reception and mingling with community members.

Attendance is limited, and advance registration is required to save your spot in the program.

Jen Cheng is the fifth West Hollywood City Poet Laureate, author of Braided Spaces, a California Arts Council Fellow, a fiction writer with Tin House Workshop, and a multidisciplinary storyteller who amplifies under-represented voices. She is a Teaching Artist with The Loft Literary Center and teaches with various centers like UCLA Extension and Tin House.

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WeHo Reads: Voices of Transformation

Wednesday, October 8, 2025 | 6:30–8 p.m. (PT)

In Person: West Hollywood Library Community Room, 625 N San Vicente Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069

Free, RSVP Requested

To achieve transformation, we must first imagine it. The fall season of WeHo Reads 2025 begins with four authors summoning their powers of creativity and advocacy. The participating writers delight in showing readers expansive visions of life, death, and all the sublime and horrific moments in between. 

This event brings together poets and authors with queer and marginalized perspectives on the transformative power of literature. Featuring: Gina Rae Duran, interdisciplinary artist, trauma-informed educator, and editor of The White Picket Fence: Stories of Individuality as Rebelliousness anthology, forthcoming from FlowerSong Press; Carlos Allende González, educator and author of Coffee, Shopping, Murder, Love and Love, or the Witches of Windward Circle; Myriam Gurba, activist and author of several books including Poppy State: A Labyrinth of Plants and a Story of Beginnings; and Dan López, editor and author of The Show House, named a Best Book of 2016 by Chicago Review of Books, and Part the Hawser, Limn the Sea.

West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng will open the event with the reading of a poem. 

Please note this event may contain explicit language and/or content. The event is free. WeHo Reads is a literary series presented by the City of West Hollywood. For more information and events, visit www.weho.org/wehoreads. 

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Voices of the Ancestors, a Poetry Reading

Sunday, October 12, 2025, 4-6pm

Fan Girl Café, 8157 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood

Free, RSVP Encouraged: bit.ly/lgbtqpoetry1012

In honor of LGBTQ+ History Month, West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng invites curious minds to a poetry reading: “Voices of Ancestors” on Sunday October 12, 2025 from 4pm-6pm at Fan Girl Cafe (8157 Santa Monica Blvd).  Ancestors include people in our lives that opened doors for us, that gave us a path and an invitation to possibility. We celebrate historic LGBTQ figures as well as anonymous ancestors. Featuring new poetry by José Enrique Medina (author of Rattle prize-winning Haunt Me), Steven Reigns (inaugural poet laureate of West Hollywood and author of Outliving Michael), Mariano Zaro (author of Decoding Sparrows), and Jen Cheng (author of Braided Spaces), this reading will honor themes that affect the LGBTQ+ community. From sapphic poetry to gender queries and queer identity, attendees are invited to join our discussion following the reading. All are welcome to this free event and RSVPs are encouraged with raffle tickets for a grand prize of a collection of books from these notable poets. Refreshments are available for sale at the cafe.

Jen Cheng will be sharing sapphic poems and other poems about ancestors from Braided Spaces and new writing. She is the Fifth Poet Laureate of West Hollywood and a 2025 Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets. For more poetry and community events, please follow @JenCvoice or visit JenCvoice.com

José Enrique Medina will be reading from Man Without a Skirt and Haunt Me, winner of the 2025 Rattle Chapbook Prize. Both books are haunted by ancestors — abuelas, uncles, and ghosts who refuse to stay silent. Medina writes in both Spanish and English, carrying forward the languages of his family while reshaping them for queer survival. For more info, find Medina on social media @medinawrites or www.medinawrites.com

Steven Reigns, inaugural poet laureate of West Hollywood, will read from his newest collection released September 2025. Outliving Michael is a memorial memoir in poetry about queer mentorship, friendship, AIDS, and loss.  For more information: stevenreigns.com

Mariano Zaro will be reading poems from Decoding Sparrows (What Books, Los Angeles) and from his forthcoming book The Weight of Sound (Walton Well Press). His work, focus on strangeness and impermanence, is also a tribute to anonymous/silenced ancestors in the queer community. More about Zaro: marianozaro.com

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Writing with the Poetry of Queer Ancestors with City of West Hollywood Poet Laureate Jen Cheng

Saturday, October 18, 2025, 11am-1pm

West Hollywood Library Community Meeting Room, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd.

Free, RSVP Required: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/14372133 

Poems from Sappho, Hafez, Federico Garcia Lorca, Andrea Gibson, Audre Lorde, and others will inspire your own writing in this class. No experience needed, just bring your writing instruments and come with curiosity!

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