For many years, Poetry Day existed quietly, observed in smaller circles without the citywide recognition it deserved. That changed in 2022, when Sacramento Poet Laureate Andru Defeye, supported by an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship, revived the celebration with a bold new vision. The relaunch introduced a free, locally sourced K–12 curriculum that reached more than 250,000 students, alongside a cash-prize contest and a community-wide call to lift up Sacramento’s diverse voices.

After the successful return of Sacramento Poetry Day that year, the momentum grew quickly. In 2023, Sacramento Poetry Day was celebrated with a first-of-its-kind awards gala that honored the city’s literary community in front of a sold-out crowd. That evening, Andru Defeye was presented with the Key to the City, cementing the role of poetry not only as art but as a civic force.

In 2024, the City of Sacramento officially expanded the celebration into the first Sacramento Poetry Week. What began as a single day of recognition grew into a full week of progaramming, with events across the city and partnerships that opened poetry to even broader audiences. Highlights included Pay with a Poem on Sacramento Regional Transit, pop-up performances, free museum access, bilingual curriculum, mental health resources for poets, and the Sacramento Poetry Awards Gala at the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria where 12 poets were awarded California Senate Resolutions in recognition of their poetic contributions.

Today, Sacramento Poetry Week is one of the largest civic poetry celebrations in the nation. Each October, the city comes together in classrooms, on stages, on public transit, and in community spaces to affirm what has been true since 1986: Sacramento is the poetry capital of California. At the heart of it all is the belief that poetry belongs to everyone and that the words of this city can inspire, heal, and transform for generations to come.