On Wednesday, April 19, U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, the first Mexican-American to be named Poet Laureate, will give a reading at the University of Houston-Downtown, 5:30 pm in the Robertson Auditorium in the Academic Building, free and open to the public.

As part of the Gulf Coast Reading Series, A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize winner Chen Chen will read from his collection of poems, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, Friday, April 21st, 7 pm at Rudyard’s British Pub.

That same evening, the Museum of Fine Art, Houston is showing the animated film Window Horses: The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming, a story about a Canadian poet who, through poetry, learns the story of her diverse family. The film, which includes Sandra Oh and Ellen Page, begins at 7 pm and admission is free.

Up for taking a short trip to listen to great poetry? Public Poetry is coordinating a coach bus trip to Poetry at Round Top, Saturday, April 22nd. Award-winning poet and co-founder of Cave Canem, Cornelius Eady, is one of the featured poets along with Pulitzer Prize poet Vijay Seshadri, Wendy Barker, and Sheila Fiona Black. Lunch and dinner is included. Houston Poet Laureate Robin Davidson will also lead a poetry workshop on the way to the festival. Registration has been extended. Visit Public Poetry for more details.

Mexican poet and digital artist collaborator, Minerva Reynosa, whose work has been translated into several languages, will read with University of Houston Creative Writing Doctoral student Stalina Villarreal. Villarreal’s translations of Reynosa’s work were published in the chapbook Photograms of My Conceptual Heart, Absolutely Blind. The reading takes place Thursday, April 27th at 7:30 pm at Kaboom Books.

If you want to celebrate National Poetry Month outside, visit Buffalo Bayou Park where the Poet-Tree project has taken root. There you will see several trees wrapped in ribbons and visitors are encouraged to create poems and hang them on a tree. The project is sponsored by the Buffalo Bayou Partnership and Writers in the Schools.

For those wishing to stay closer to home access to poetry is as easy as a click of the mouse. Start your day with a poem delivered fresh to your inbox for the rest of April and onward—sign up for a Poem-A-Day through the Academy of American Poets.

The post Just A Few More Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month in Houston first appeared on An Open Book - The Inprint Blog.