Don’t be surprised if your next journey through San Diego International Airport (SAN) includes an interview about travel that is turned into poetry.
Now through April 29, the airport’s Spring 2025 Performing Arts Resident, Poets Underground, will be onsite in the terminals at their luggage-inspired stage called The Great Poetic Baggage Exchange. The artists invite travelers to engage in conversations and live-painting of murals centered around five travel-inspired themes: Adventure, Baggage, Connection, Checkpoint, and Rise.
Poets Underground is a San Diego-based LLC and non-profit, comprised of a husband-and-wife team (Sunny Rey Azzarito and Anthony Azzarito) who create and foster healthy inclusive communities through the arts, poetry and storytelling. The stories the poets gather at SAN will inspire original poems—shared back with passengers as spoken word, written word, and visual poetry.
Select poems will be featured in three culminating airport performances on May 2, 6, and 8. The works will also be compiled into an anthology, preserving these creative exchanges and the spirit of travel in poetic form.
“Partnering with performing groups like Poets Underground is one of the innovative ways SAN aims to create an exceptional airport experience for our community,” said Hampton Brown, the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority’s vice president and chief revenue officer. “Passengers can have their experience turned into something inspirational and at the same time get a taste of the local performing arts scene.”
SAN’s Arts Program launched its Performing Arts Residency Program in 2016. The Performing Arts Residency Program supports the development and public performance of new work. It offers artists the space to create and rehearse new material while providing SAN patrons a unique opportunity for interaction through the performing arts.
To view the Performing Arts Residency schedule, click here. For more information about the Airport Performing Arts Residency Program, click here.
For more information about San Diego International Airport, visit san.org.
(Courtesy photo)
