Antonio López, former East Palo Alto Council member and a Ph.D. student in literature at Stanford University, is taking on a new role: San Mateo County’s poet laureate.
The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors appointed López, 30, to the position on April 8 for a two-year term that ends in March 2027.
Supervisors Noelia Corzo and Lisa Gauthier served on a committee that recommended López for the job. Corzo said in a statement that she admires how López “blends local experiences and observations with powerful themes.”
“Mom’s walks down Embarcadero Road and through the freeway to get us groceries,” López writes in one poem. “Dad migrating from Michoacán on his 18th birthday…. A classroom full of brown babies and black with their hands raised.”
The board established the poet laureate post in 2013 “to elevate and celebrate the literary arts and their roles in public life.” López succeeds Daly City’s Jorge Argueta. The poet laureate is tasked with judging poetry contests and being an ambassador of poetry for the community.
The board also declared April National Poetry Month, as well as California Arts, Culture, and Creativity Month.
López’s work has been published in PEN/America, Palette Poetry, The New Republic, Tin House, Poetry Northwest and more. He published a book of poetry, “Gentefication,” in 2021.
This news organization spoke with López about his latest role, what influences his work, the current political climate and what he’s working on now.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish in the role?
A: When I teach at high schools, I will ask, “What do you think poetry is?” I like to implore anyone can be a poet. There’s such an empowering effect in being able to tell your story and claim it. I want people to really feel encouraged to write their story. That’s how we make a difference; we break down barriers in the country by sharing narratives. The beautiful thing about poetry is it’s not an indictment of a person; it’s an emotional piece that shares your lived experience. It’s up to the person who’s reading it to take it with them; that’s the seed of change. … Given the climate, you can’t afford not to learn more about one another. Art and poetry are a timeless way to do that. That’s the way we combat some of the fear and dehumanization.
Q: How is the current political climate influencing your poetry?
A: Like any other person, leaders are residents just like you. … We really give a damn about what’s happening in our community. My dad came to the U.S. undocumented and got amnesty under (President) Reagan. I wrote a “What ifs” poem (about my dad’s citizenship). Citizenships are colored by the current administration, which is trying to get rid of birthright citizenship. It’s unAmerican. This is our home; this is part of what makes our country so beautiful. Part of my poetry is to really do justice to that cultural richness that makes up our county. It’s counternative to the rhetoric about (immigrants) not “doing their share,” I’ve seen the opposite in (East Palo Alto).
Q: Your book of poetry came out in 2021; do you have any other publications in the works?
A: “Right to Remain Violets” — a poetry book. I’m thinking about my own trajectory coming from the Ravenswood City School District. It was in the bottom 5% of the state. I come from that environment. Then I went to Menlo (School). The book touches on experiences of seeing those impacts on men of color and youth, showing some of the resilience, some of the issues with gangs and how that as a 13/14 year old really colors your perspective on the world.
I’m aiming to put it out in 2027.
Q: How did running for office and being part of local government influence your writing?
A: I look at this idea of shrines, roadside shrines, (in “Right to Remain Violets”). The 2022 grizzly murders (in EPA) and how community members who are lost- that’s what inspired this book. It happened the same day of the Juneteenth celebration at University Circle.
I reappropriate (in the book). Poems mimic proclamations, police reports — black out sections, repurposing law (language). Undoubtedly, being in office) influenced how I look at poetry.
The Ravenswood Business District (redevelopment): When I saw that, metaphorically speaking, the idea of contamination is a good way of thinking about what we buried as a community. You have to deal with that pain. What’s at stake (for the district) given all of this history before this? We can talk about RBD, and some people don’t feel part of that future.
The council said we made a mistake with the Sobrato 1 deal (with Amazon). Emily Mibach’s headline (in the Palo Alto Daily Post) that the council was “haunted” by the deal they made (was) an apt way of thinking about it. People bring up memories of “you made the wrong decision.” These are stories that, to me, give me my frame of mind approach to this work (poetry).
Q: Who are your greatest writing influences?
A: Juan Felipe Herrera; he’s integral to the aesthetic of spoken word poetry. Martín Espada wrote a poem about staff and cooks during part of 9/11; think a lot about the folks in the office (Twin Towers), but what about those in the kitchen?
I’m a hip-hop kid — that’s what gives my work this percussive feel, almost a manic energy.
The work of Toni Morrison and how she uses memory; (James) Baldwin; Ta-Nehisi Coates has unflinching talks about his community; academics: (W.E.B.) DeBois — The Souls of Black Folk.” They were thinkers but also very active and engaged in the community and the issues of their times.
People in my MFA program. The poet laureate of Cincinnati, Yalie Saweda Kamara, called me today to congratulate me. It’s such a small world; we’re all kind of reading each other and supporting each other. We’re here to make a difference and to tell the stories of our community. My mentor said, “You should read the dead and honor the dead and you should celebrate those voices that are coming on.”
Q: What has been on your reading list recently?
A: Tommy Orange’s work. He’s an indigenous writer out of the Bay Area. He talks a lot about being stuck in different worlds (diaspora), thinking about identity, talking about the loss of a community.
“Bluff” by Danez Smith is about the loss of historically Black downtowns.
I read a lot of works about communities that have had to sacrifice a lot to move forward.
I’m also reading documents from the city (East Palo Alto) general plan and community archive (of audio recordings of citizens) for my dissertation.
Q: When do you wrap up your Ph.D.? What will you do after that?
A: Sometime in 2025.
I’m turning my Ph.D. dissertation into a book: Hood Playing Tricks on Me.” It’s an academic meditation on how gentrification haunts people of color, from the creation of Ravenswood Shopping Center to the creation of University Circle and the demolition of Whiskey Gulch. They left wounds in the community. It’s a history of EPA that honors the struggle of the community to create space for lament and mourning. How do we make space for an EPA that’s changed so much in the last 40 years? It’s a difficult book, as EPA residents want to feel proud, but we don’t always create space for the losses.
I use poems interspersing the power of memory.
The book begins with (NFL player) Davante Adams. On the Pivot Podcast, he makes a distinction to fans between EPA and Palo Alto. He gives the analogy to “The Lion King’s” Pride Rock.
It’s (the dissertation) an attempt to reckon with rapid change and violence structurally (in EPA).
I use the word “tricks” because what once was a taqueria is now an Amazon, a basketball center is now a big box. … The necessity that is burgeoning. The book is really slowing us down to take stock of change and the toll it has had on the community.
Q: What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
A: We need your story. A lot of times, young people don’t think their voices matter, but really they are the future. You have all the imagination in the world to help us become a better community. I am happy to support any young writer who is coming up. All you need is a vision; you don’t need to know the difference between a sestina and a sonnet. Describe the smell of your mother’s cooking, the garbage truck, what you feel on a day-to-day basis. You’re going to be seeds of policy and change.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.