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Poets in the Schools
Mendocino County Poets in the Schools is a proud affiliate of California Poets in the Schools.
Our participating poets are a diverse and dedicated group of trained, published poet-teachers who bring their expertise and passion for poetry into classrooms for grades 7-12. These poet-teachers inspire students to appreciate poetry and nurture their own poetic voices, celebrating creativity, intuition, and intellectual curiosity through poetry and creative writing.
Each year, we publish an anthology of student poetry, and students also have the opportunity to participate in the Coast and Countywide Poetry Slams, showcasing their talent and creativity.
Teacher-Poets
Current Point Arena Poet Laureate, Blake More is a teaching artist of multiple paths including performance, video, media arts, painting cars and teaching. She is a longtime Mendocino Area Coordinator and poetry teacher with California Poets in the Schools. She hosts the monthly Third Thursday Poetry & Jazz event in Point Arena. She also hosts Be More Now on KZYX&Z FM Mendocino County Public Broadcasting and Cartwheels on the Sky on KGUA FM Gualala. Her most recent book is Dystopia Unplugged: Please Talk Back.
Learn more at bmoreyou.net.
Born in California, educated in Argentina and California. Activist, single dad, grandfather, instructor of modern languages (Spanish and French) at Santa Rosa, Mendocino, and Woodland Community Colleges. California Poet in the Schools since 1998. Poet laureate emeritus of Ukiah, Ca. Current member of the Ina Coolbrith Poetry Circle.
More than awards and publication, it is an honor to be invited to read and be acknowledged by fellow artists. However, the greatest honor is to so eloquently address hypocrisy that an artist is asked never to return and their work black-listed.
- Sleeping With Ghosts, Kulupi Press
- The Veil/El Velo, Kulupi Press
- Santa Clara University Review, 2002
- El Primer Concurso de Poesia Latinoamericana en Espaňol en San Francisco, Ca., 2011
- Poetry of Resistance, University of Arizona Press, 2016
- Deep Valley, poets Laureate of Ukiah 2001-18, Blue Mountain Press
Thomas Roberdeau has been teaching poetry on the Northcoast for several years, lately at Fort Bragg High School and at Mendocino Grammar School. He also teaches filmmaking with San Francisco Art & Film program in the Bay Area. He studied in the School of Communications at the University of Texas at Austin. He was one of the original instructors with the Mendocino Community School. His poetry has been published locally in the anthology "The Western Edge", in Joan O' Hanneson's "Woman in the Church", and he has also pubished a screenplay "Michael Strogoff" with Sun & Moon Press of Los Angeles. His anti-war films "The Hunt" and "The Peacemaker" have won several awards and been seen on PBS and the BBC. He won a production grant from the American Film Institute/NEA and a teaching grant from the California Art Council.
County Coordinator
Director - Learning and Enrichment