Village Poets will celebrate the New Year with Armenian American poet Shahé Mankerian and Los Angeles poet Jackie Chou for an exciting presentation on Sunday, Jan. 26 at 4:30 p.m. at Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga. There will also be an open mic, so attendees are invited to bring their best poems to participate. The reading starts at 4:30 p.m. and goes till 6:30 p.m. This reading is being sponsored by a grant from “Poets and Writers” and the California Arts Council.

Shahé Mankerian is the principal of St. Gregory Hovsepian School in Pasadena and the director of mentorship at the International Armenian Literary Alliance (IALA). He previously served as co-director of the Los Angeles Writing Project and is a recipient of the Los Angeles Music Center’s BRAVO Award for innovation in arts education. Mankerian’s debut poetry collection, History of Forgetfulness, was published in 2021 by Fly on the Wall Press (UK). The collection was a semifinalist for the Khayrallah Prize and a finalist for the Bibby First Book Competition, the Crab Orchard Poetry Open Competition, the Julie Suk Award, the Quercus Review Press Poetry Book Award and the White Pine Press Poetry Prize.

Jackie Chou is a Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee whose poem “Formosa” was a finalist in the 2023 Stephen A DiBiase Poetry Prize. Her work has also appeared recently in The Ekphrastic Review, Panoply Zine, Synchronized Chaos, Lothlorien Poetry Journal and Lee Herrick’s Our California project. Her two collections of poetry, Finding My Heart in Love and Loss and the Sorceress, published by cyberwit in 2023, can be found on Amazon.

Check out poems of these poets at www.villagepoets.blogspot.com.

Bolton Hall Museum is located at 10110 Commerce Ave. in Tujunga. Bolton Hall is a Los Angeles Historical Landmark built in 1913.