By Mary O’KEEFE

WE RISE is a program through Los Angeles County that “encourages wellbeing and healing through art, connection, community engagement and creative expression,” according to the WE RISE website.

In recognition of May’s Mental Health Awareness Month, WE RISE launched Art Rise, a series of 21 art exhibits/experiences that include local activities across LA County, community pop-ups and “digital experiences.”

The digital experiences include Self Care Sundays with Linda Nishio, a certified Iyengar Yoga instructor who will teach a class virtually, Drag Queen story hour and Drumming for Your Life (drum circle).

All of these experiences can be found at whywerise.la with a link to YouTube. One of the digital/virtual programs can be viewed in Crescenta Valley at the La Crescenta Library, “Why I Rise Poetry Celebration with Get Lit.”

Those driving past La Crescenta Library may have noticed the LED scroll in front of the building.

Leila Hamidi, artist and curator, is one of the organizers of the Art Rise event.

“Art Rise is a partnership with 12 museums in five neighborhoods,” Hamidi said.

The theme of the “Why I Rise Poetry Celebration with Get Lit” poems on display were “Love Letters in Light” and are original poems of 15 words or less that are 310 short messages of love, she added.

“I worked with five writers and they generated two-thirds of content,” Hamidi said.

The core writers were Victoria Change, féi hernandez, Jerry Quickley, Yesika Salgado and Imani Tolliver.

The project also included reaching out to the public for poetry. Hamidi said about 1,100 submissions were received. Poets were paid up to $1,000 to have their poems displayed at the various libraries. The poems, on LED scroll, will appear 24 hours a day through the end of May. They are displayed in English and Spanish and each location displays a unique poem each day.

Hamidi said she asked the poets to capture the issues faced throughout 2020 to present day, and to add how love can heal.

“To gently acknowledge the hardship of last year … the content they produced was an overwhelming act of beauty,” she said.

Hamidi added that displaying these poems at local libraries was a fitting exhibit because local libraries play a strong role in communities.

“Libraries are highly beloved places,” she said. “[In addition] they fill in the gap of essential services.”

During the pandemic many libraries became COVID-19 testing sites and then, later, vaccinations centers.

For more information on WE RISE visit whywewise.la.