MOTHERLANDS Choreopoem to Come to Sierra Madre Playhouse with Camille Hernandez

Sierra Madre Playhouse authors series spotlights poet/performer Camille Hernandez, the Poet Laureate of Anaheim, who shares an immersive reimagining of poetry from her celebrated chapbook Motherland, on Saturday, June 20, 2026, 4:00 PM.

Hernandez transforms her work into a “choreopoem,” merging movement, rhythm, and language into living performance, rather than reciting her work from behind a podium. By animating her poetry through gesture, breath, culture, and motion, she weaves text and embodiment into a single, fluid expression. For the program, Hernandez is preparing a traditional Filipino Kamaya feast that blends her Black and Filipino cultures while reciting poetry and speaking.

Hernandez, who grew up in La Palma as a self-described “public library girl” and voracious reader, crafts poetry into vibrant portraits of marginalized women. Her poetry interrupts the cycle of oppression by recreating narratives that dignify Black women, Filipino women, poor women, immigrant women, disabled women, medically marginalized women, gender-expansive women, and mothering women. Her work amplifies their survival, intuition, interconnection, and defiant joy, carving new narrative trails that explore the hushed intimacies lost in suppressed histories.

Los Angeles News

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