Established Inglewood  ·  Fourth Fridays

A room
for spoken
verse.

Once a month, on the fourth Friday, we gather to read poems aloud — the ones we've written, the ones we've carried, the ones we've been waiting to say out loud. Free, walk-in, always.

The next gathering What it is
Cherry Blossom Poetry Collective logo — open book with quill and cherry blossoms
The Collective

Built for our own community.

We started this because Inglewood deserves it. A dedicated room for the literary arts and spoken word — somewhere local talent has a microphone, somewhere the door asks nothing of you. So we built one, in our own community, on our own block.

This isn't a competition. It isn't a workshop. It's a platform — a microphone for the poet writing in private, a two-hour audience for the artist still waiting for a room of their own. Free on purpose, because artistic expression should never need a ticket.

On the fourth Friday of every month, this room is open to people who come to listen and people who come to read. Made in Inglewood, in partnership with Wisdom's Sisters, a nonprofit lifting women's voices across Los Angeles.

The Second Reading

Volume Two.

No. 02 · Fourth Friday
02The Second Reading
Friday Evening
June 26, 2026
Doors 7:00  ·  Reading 7:30  ·  Open Mic 8:45 — 11:00
Free
Walk-in welcome
All ages · Bring a poem
Fragrance of Elegance storefront on Crenshaw Boulevard at night, with cherry blossom window display
View in Maps →
The Venue

Fragrance of Elegance

10925 S. Crenshaw Blvd, Suite 106
Inglewood, CA 90303
Get Directions Opens in Maps Apple Maps Google Maps

Free parking on site. Walk in. Find a seat.

Your Host

A name we're honored to announce.

Conney D. Williams arrived in Los Angeles in 1981 — an Air Force veteran from Shreveport, Louisiana, the sixth of eleven children, and a former Pentecostal minister still searching for his voice. He found it in Leimert Park.

For more than two decades, Conney has been a foundational presence in the Los Angeles literary community. He served as Artistic Director of The World Stage Performance Gallery in Leimert Park and facilitated its legendary Anansi Writers Workshop, where generations of LA poets have come up. In 2014, he co-founded World Stage Press with Hiram Sims — the Southern California small press that now anchors his most recent collection.

He is the author of three books of poetry — Leaves of Spilled Spirit from an Untamed Poet (2002), Blues Red Soul Falsetto (2012), and The Distance of Observation (World Stage Press, 2021) — and has released two CDs of poems set to music, River & Moan and Unsettled Water. His work has aired on KJLH and KPFK, been performed at USC, UCLA, the Black Arts Festival, and the Leimert Park Village Book Fair, and was featured on the L.A. Public Library's Poems on Air by City Poet Laureate Lynne Thompson.

That Conney holds the mic in this room each month is a rare honor and a long friendship made visible. We could not have asked for a more fitting voice to open the night.

Read His Work
"Every day is an opportunity to live, breathe, create — to love." — Conney D. Williams
The Bill

Two voices at the microphone.

This month the bill brings two featured poets to the mic — both rooted deep in the Los Angeles poetry tradition. One a World Stage Press author, the other a Cave Canem Prize winner.

Pam Ward

Los Angeles · UCLA · novelist, poet, publisher

Pam Ward is a Los Angeles writer and UCLA graduate — a California Arts Fellow, a Pushcart nominee, and a founding member of the Leimert Park Book Fair. She has spent decades putting the city's stories on the page.

She is the author of the novels Want Some Get Some and Bad Girls Burn Slow (Kensington), and the poetry collection Between Good Men & No Man at All — published by World Stage Press, the Leimert Park press her host Conney helped build.

A 2025 Cultural Affairs Trailblazer and recipient of the ’26 LA Get Down Wordsmith Award, she runs Short Dress Press, a community imprint for local poets.

F. Douglas Brown

Poet · educator · DJ

F. Douglas Brown is a poet, educator, and DJ. He is the author of ICON and Zero to Three, which won the 2013 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, selected by Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith.

A Cave Canem and Kundiman fellow, named one of Poets & Writers’ notable Debut Poets, he teaches African American Poetry at Loyola High School and sits on the board of Beyond Baroque.

He co-founded un::fade::able — the Requiem for Sandra Bland, an ongoing poetic memorial.

The Archive

Volumes past.

Every reading becomes part of the record. As we film them, each poet’s set and the open mic will live here — a growing book of the room.

Volume One · May 22, 2026 · The First Reading
Hosted by Conney D. Williams  →

Billy Burgos

Belize-born · Leimert Park-grown · poet, illustrator, designer

Billy Burgos was born in Belize and moved to Los Angeles at eight years old, settling in Leimert Park where he still lives — and writes, and paints, and shows up to the room. He is a triple threat: poet, illustrator, and graphic designer, and his work in each medium feeds the others.

Billy is an active member of the same Anansi Writers Workshop that Conney once facilitated — the World Stage's legendary writing circle. He has hosted Beyond Baroque's First Sunday Reading, facilitated their Wednesday-night workshop, and run Word Ballast, a poetry talk show on which he's interviewed Nikki Giovanni, Nikky Finney, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Jericho Brown, and Nick Flynn. The L.A. Poetry Festival named him a "newer poet to watch" in 2009.

His Faces of Poetry portrait series — pen-and-ink and acrylic studies of L.A. poets — has shown at Beyond Baroque and The World Stage, and he was commissioned to paint Amiri Baraka for the Leimert Park Book Fair. His first collection of poetry, Eulogy to an Unknown Tree, was published by Writ Large Press in 2013.

Eulogy to an Unknown Tree 2013 · Writ Large Press Buy →
"My writing room is the city of Los Angeles." — Billy Burgos, in The Rumpus
Billy’s Reading
Reading video — coming soon

Jessica D. Gallion a.k.a. YELLAWOMAN

Louisiana-born · Los Angeles-living · published author, poet, curator

Jessica D. Gallion writes from Louisiana into Los Angeles. A published author and poet, she's also a poetry events curator — and co-host of the Anansi Writers Workshop at The World Stage in Leimert Park, the same legendary writing circle that anchors so much of L.A.'s spoken-word lineage.

Her work and her presence move through rooms most poets don't enter: she has collaborated with Rupi Kaur, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Los Angeles Public Library, the Broad Museum, El Silencio Mezcal, Coca-Cola, Compton College, and many others.

Her poetry drops you into a deep pot of gumbo with no ladle in sight.

"Drops you into a deep pot of gumbo with no ladle in sight." — On Jessica's poetry
Jessica’s Reading
Reading video — coming soon
The Open Mic
Open-mic video — coming soon
Brought to You By

Fragrance of Elegance, in partnership with Wisdom's Sisters.

Fragrance of Elegance
Fragrance of Elegance
Candles, soap & body care
Inglewood, CA
foecandles.com →
Wisdom's Sisters
Wisdom's Sisters
Lifting women's voices
Los Angeles
wisdomssisters.org →
Media Partner
Poet Runner
Poet Runner
Spoken-word radio & podcast
Hosted by Rafael F. J. Alvarado & Richard Modiano
YouTube Instagram
Three Ways In

However you arrive, arrive.

i.

Come to listen.

The simplest doorway. Walk in, bring a friend or come alone, and let the room read to you for two hours. No cover, no pressure, no list at the door.

See the next date →
ii.

Read at the open mic.

Eight to ten slots open at every gathering, first-come the night of. One poem each, four minutes or less. Your first time counts. Just walk in.

See the next date →
iii.

Submit a featured set.

We invite featured poets each month. Send three poems and a few sentences about your work. We read every submission with care.

Submit your work →
Submit Your Work

Want to feature?

Send three poems and a few words about you. We read every submission with care. If your work is a fit for an upcoming room, we'll reach out.

Replies come from cherrybpoetry@gmail.com. Could take a couple weeks during busy months.
Lend a Hand

Help build the room.

Setting chairs, working the door, photographing the night, helping with sound. The Collective is community-built — every volunteer makes the room possible.

We'll be in touch with what's needed for the next gathering.

The monthly dispatch.

One short letter on the first of each month: the next gathering's date, the featured poets, and a single poem from last month's reading.