On the night of Saturday, February 26th, author Nicelle Davis brought the Poetry Circus...

...to the Griffith Park Carousel in Los Angeles California to celebrate the launch of her book with visual artist Cheryl Gross, In the Circus of You: An Illustrated Novel-in Poems, forthcoming from Rose Metal Press later this month.

Part performance, part ride, part dance, and part community outreach, the Poetry Circus hosted twenty poets, including Nicelle, reading from their work to an audience seated on painted horses...

...as well as a variety of performers of all kinds. The Poetry Store was on-hand to provide typewritten poems, and lots of other L.A.-area literary organizations including WITS, The Los Angeles Review, RENT Poet, Melrose Poetry Bureau, and The Los Angeles Poetry Society had booths stationed at the merry-go-round's perimeter:

The event was free and open to the public and afforded kids, parents, and people of all ages to run away with the circus...

...and to pre-order or purchase copies of Nicelle and Cheryl's gorgeous new collaboration. You can watch a video snapshot of the evening's proceedings here:



And you can add your own copy of In the Circus of You to your cart here. Thanks to Jason Hughes for all the photographs, and to Karyn Ben Singer for the video.