ac·cou·tre·ment
/əˈko͞odərmənt,əˈko͞otrəmənt/
noun:
additional items of dress or equipment, or other items carried or worn by a person or used for a particular activity. or words as our stories as documentation of our pasts, as person as neighborhood as community as collective. we carry ourselves in past, present, and in future, in our poetry, and we wear them in our voices and carry them in our hands and read them in our books.

Accoutrements: a public literary series is a program consisting of 16 bilingual (when possible) chapbook publications curated as accompaniments to poetry readings, visual art exhibits, and interdisciplinary events in collaboration with partners throughout Northeast Los Ángeles and presented at Avenue 50 Studio, Tierra de la Culebra Park, and other venues to be announced.

The chapbooks in the series will each feature emerging, elementary and high school student, well-published, and closet poets . Some of the chapbooks will be curated and designed around the monthly La Palabra poetry reading, which is one of the longest held open mic poetry readings in Los Ángeles, featuring both emerging and renowned poets, with an emphasis on poets of color. Some chapbooks will be curated and designed around, and will respond to the following themes slated for visual art exhibits at the second half of the 2019 season and first half of the 2020 season: 1) the environment 2) displacement, 3) technology, 4) Los Ángeles, 5) food justice, 6) language justice, 7) health, and more TBA, and all from the varied perspectives of people that make up Los Ángeles.

Avenue 50 Studio is concerned about the sustainability of our neighborhood and its culture, the chapbooks and documentation from the series will serve as an exciting and important way to highlight the unique cultural expressions and artistic treasures of our community, as told through the actual voices of the community. To have these expressions documented would provide an opportunity to foster intergenerational exchange for years to come. Each chapbook and accompanying photos and videos will be archived online, on our website, and maintained as collections in our soon-to-be established community library, for future educational and participatory use.

We hope you can join us in spirit, in words, and in person, for any or all of the events in our series. The latest call for poetry submissions can be found here.

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accoutrements: a public literary series is a project made possible with support from

California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit www.calhum.org for more information.