Former Los Angeles Poet Laureate Lynne Thompson ’72 is one of eight LA-based poets who will perform their work in Paris to celebrate the finale of the Paris 2024 Cultural Olympiad on September 7. The event will mark the cultural handover to the City of Los Angeles, host of the 2028 Olympic Summer Games.
Thompson, who retired from Scripps’ Board of Trustees in 2022, joins seven other LA-based poets appointed by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) to travel to France as part of its “Poetic Games.” This summer, the project hosted two months of activities involving poets in Paris and LA, funded in part by DCA’s innovative Public-space Activation Fund grant program.
Together with LA-based artist Alison Saar ’78, whose Olympic-commissioned sculpture was recently unveiled in Paris, Thompson has become the second Scripps alum to advance artistic exchange between the two iconic cities. Read more about her impact on the Scripps community here.