Brian Sonia-Wallace
United States
He/Him
Brian Sonia-Wallace is the Poet Laureate of Los Angeles. They are a poet, educator, and public artist whose work explores the line between the intimate and the monumental, reimagining public space as a site of memory, care, and dialogue.
Over the past decade and a half, he has written poems on-the-spot in public for over 10,000 strangers and their communities, a practice that has unfolded into books including The Poetry of Strangers (HarperCollins) and Maze Mouth (Moon Tide Press), as well as performances and public projects across theaters, galleries, and everyday city spaces.
A City of LA Master Artist and former Poet Laureate of West Hollywood, Sonia-Wallace has served as Poet-in-Residence for places as varied as the National Parks, Amtrak, and the Mall of America (yes, really). His work centers on creating art that bridges civic space, public memory, and lived experience, often collaborating with LGBTQ+ communities, youth, and elders to amplify voices that are rarely heard.
A Fellow of the Academy of American Poets and LA County, his writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, The Guardian, LitHub, Rattle, and American Poets, and has been performed from Walt Disney Concert Hall to the Kennedy Center. He teaches at UCLA Extension, facilitates the APLA Health Writers’ Group, and leads school outreach for Get Lit – Words Ignite. More @rentpoet.
Steps to Liberation
Generations
In “Generations,” Brian Sonia-Wallace imagines queer history as a living tree: its roots reaching deep into the past, its branches stretching toward a future that earlier generations may never have been able to see.
The people who came before are present in the poem as a “legacy of queers,” marked by struggle yet still standing, still growing, and still making room for what comes next.
The tree becomes a powerful image for the meaning of Pride. Even after being “burned” and “emptied,” it remains standing, capable of producing new shoots and eventually becoming a whole forest.
Strength, in this vision, is not simply surviving hardship. It is the ability to transform survival into something that can sustain and nourish future generations.
At the heart of the poem is a recognition that queer liberation is intergenerational. We inherit histories we did not create, but we also inherit the strength, courage, and possibilities created by those who came before us.
The poem asks us to look beneath the visible branches of the present and remember the roots that made them possible.
And its final message is beautifully simple: we did not do this alone. Pride is collective. Every generation becomes part of the root system, helping the next generation grow.
