At LAX Terminal 1 on Wednesday morning, traveler Nikki Hexum found herself in tears. Seemingly crying isn’t uncommon at LAX. The notorious airport is a sore spot for Angelenos and tourists. Nearby, a disgruntled lawyer is arguing about a case on his phone. Flight attendants rush past in their ironed uniforms. A delay announcement is made through a speaker.
Encountering an unexpected poem today brought Hexum to tears. He was about to fly to Nashville for work, where he was discussing AI regulation at a film festival, when he spotted Los Angeles poet laureate Brian Sonia-Wallace sitting at a 1940s model Underwood typewriter, typing out special poems for passing travelers. Hexum began typing as he told her about his trip, the click of keys echoing through the terminal. When he finished, he read the poem out loud. Hexum’s eyes began to heal.
“I sat in an uncomfortable place, but it turned into something amazing,” Hexum says. This encounter confirmed something for Hexum: the importance of spontaneous human interactions in a world where communication is increasingly reduced to artificial intelligence. “I think we’ve lost a lot of the ability to do that,” he says, wiping his eyes.
Hexum was one of dozens of travelers who received a special poem from Sonia-Wallace while waiting to board their plane. Some attended funerals, weddings and family gatherings, which the poet commemorated with a poem written in minutes. Even flight attendants told Sonia-Wallace about her love of travel, which she honored with a poem. Soon a line of eager travelers began to form.
Poet Brian Sonia-Wallace (center) chats with a traveler at LAX Terminal 1 as others wait their turn for their own personal poems.
“We had a few touts today,” says Sonia-Wallace. “There’s something about the typewriter and poetry that brings out the best in people.” A banner on the table next to the typewriter reads: “Retro Chat GPT.” There is a banner behind the poet saying “Everyone deserves a poem”.
Traveler Silvia Portillo was waiting to fly to Colorado. While traveling to his hometown of Glenwood Springs, Colo., to attend his sister’s wedding, he encountered Sonia-Wallace and her typewriter. He asked for a poem dedicated to his sister’s wedding, which he planned to present on the big day. “I thought it would be really cool if she could make a personalized gift for him, an extra wedding gift,” Portillo says.
Traveler Cassie Feldman, waiting for a delayed flight, told the poet she was traveling to St. Louis for a family reunion. She tells Louis that she wants to break free of old patterns before getting on the plane. He begins reading this poem to her: “We gather with our old and new selves.”
Feldman was delighted. “It was really great,” he says. “It was an experience you don’t really get, especially at the airport.”
Los Angeles Poet Laureate Brian Sonia-Wallace calls his pop-up poetry project “Retro Chat GPT.”
LAX art program director Sarah Cifarelli was thrilled when Sonia-Wallace reached out about doing an installation at the airport. “Airports can be extremely transactional with so much logistics and so much functionality. Being able to interact with someone like Brian adds more humanity to the journey,” Cifarelli says. At LAX, he works on programming artworks and installations that showcase the city’s vibrant arts scene, including its literary values. “I think it helps us recalibrate our brains, connect with others, and be aware of what’s going on around us.”
Interactions between subject and poet can be surprisingly intimate. Travelers described lost loved ones, personal tragedies, and wars with distrust, regret, and doubts. “The people I love most will say, ‘I didn’t know this was going to be therapy,'” says Sonia-Wallace. “It’s whatever you want to use it for.”
Over the last decade, Sonia-Wallace has made a habit of bringing poetry to unexpected places like the Los Angeles airport. Since being named Los Angeles poet laureate in April, she has hit the ground running, distributing poetry to civic venues such as the Los Angeles Zoo and animal services. “What a poet can do is create pause,” he says. “Like, ‘wait a minute, what am I thinking? What am I feeling?'”
Poet Brian Sonia-Wallace’s beloved Underwood typewriter from the 1940s.
Sonia-Wallace describes the clicking of the typewriter as a siren song. Its inherent theater attracts crowds. “If you see someone with a notebook or laptop, that person wants to be alone. If you see someone with a typewriter, something is going on here,” says the poet. He became a collector, keeping 10 typewriters in the trunk of his car because he ran out of space in his studio apartment, and even kept one in his bathroom.
Wearing a journalist’s hat, Sonia-Wallace considers her work to be as much about performance as poetry, comparing her work to that of a priest or tarot reader. “I was really interested [the performance artist] “Marina Abramovich and this idea of the artist exist and how the presence of someone making something affects the way we think about art,” he says.
The collision of LAX chaos and poetry intrigues Sonia-Wallace. He argues that poetry softens people even in the throes of a busy day of travel. “I love the element of surprise. If someone comes to a poetry event, they expect it. If someone is at the airport and there’s poetry there. Suddenly poetry becomes more interesting,” he says.
The practice began in 2010, when Sonia-Wallace used a borrowed typewriter to write special poems for passengers at the opening of a metro line. When she was laid off in 2014, Sonia-Wallace tried to make a living from poetry by writing and accepting tips at farmers markets, festivals and on the Venice Beach boardwalk. “I showed up wherever I could,” he explains. Eventually, the poet began writing custom poems for special events such as weddings and corporate parties before partnering with the city of Los Angeles.
Traveler Silvia Portillo, center at LAX Terminal 1, accepts her newly written poem.
The poet hopes to humanize bureaucratic spaces like the airport, a thorny issue for many disgruntled travelers. “I intend to use poetry as a substitute for art and culture to humanize bureaucratic spaces and create a slightly more personal experience for people.”
Cifarelli plans to bring Sonia-Wallace and her typewriter back to LAX in the coming months and invite other poets along with a piano.
With his new inked poem in hand, Hexum prepared to board the plane to Nashville. “I will cherish this forever,” she says, holding the poem as it floats towards her door and soon into the sky.
Upcoming poetry pop-ups Los Angeles poet:
- 21 November — Poets in the Wilderness Los Angeles Zoo
- 7 December – Terminal 3 at LAX, a three-poet activation celebrating National Letter Writing Day.
- February 11 — LAX, Tom Bradley International Terminal at West Gates, full performance activation ahead of Valentine’s Day, featuring several poets and a pianist.
Connors He works as a cultural journalist in Los Angeles. It’s about books, food, entertainment and quirky Los Angeles. He is currently working on a book of articles on all forms of tourism.