ukiaHaiku Festival
Grace Hudson Museum, Wild Gardens
431 S Main St, Ukiah, CA 95482
Sunday, April 27, 2025 from 2- 4 PM

The 23rd annual ukiaHaiku Festival returns to the Grace Hudson Museum Wild Gardens on Sunday, April 27, 2025, from 2-4 p.m. Join us to celebrate Ukiah’s palindrome with keynote speaker and celebrated poet, Annette Makino; readings of past haiku contest winners from various local luminaries including: Mendocino County Poet Laureate Devreaux Baker, Susan Baird Kanaan, Lilian Rubie, Alicia Bales, Mendocino County Superintendent of Schools Nicole Glentzer, Susan Rounds, Ukiah Poets Laureate Emeriti and more.

There will also be an all-ages open mic for those who wish to read a haiku of their choosing. The event will also feature live music by the UkeTones, shakuhachi (traditional Japanese flute) player Ron Nadeau, and refreshments.

A haiku is a three-line poem that captures a fleeting moment and a quiet impression which can often go unremarked on in our busy lives. The poems resemble little word blossoms, compact and bursting with life. Originating in Japan, haiku draw attention to the passing seasons and to everyday human encounters without comment or embellishment. “Think of it as a mental snapshot, as seeing the haiku moment in your mind,” Dan Barth, Ukiah Poet Laureate Emeritus, explains. Traditionally written in a 17-syllable format of 5-7-5, the haiku form has been stretched and reinterpreted in recent times as it enters new countries, languages, and situations.

For more information, please contact Librarian and Ukiah Poet Laureate Emerita, Melissa Eleftherion Carr, at [email protected] or visit the ukiaHaiku website at http://ukiahaiku.org. This event is sponsored by the Mendocino County Library, the City of Ukiah, the Grace Hudson Museum, WAVE Books, Tsadik, the Arts Council of Mendocino County, and the Ukiah Poet Laureate Committee.