{"id":1811,"date":"2026-01-25T19:51:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T03:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/lasa\/?p=1811"},"modified":"2026-02-11T08:47:46","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T16:47:46","slug":"from-poetry-to-public-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/lasa\/2026\/01\/25\/from-poetry-to-public-health\/","title":{"rendered":"From Poetry to Public Health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\"Students<\/p>\n

LASA gathered at The Huntington to begin the new year by considering purpose and public health with guests Mike the Poet, Dr. Cynthia Willard, and historian Amber Santoro.<\/p>\n

Mike the Poet began our time together with his work and stories of LA. LASA drew maps of spaces meaningful to them and wrote their own poems.<\/p>\n

Max L. shared his:
\nI remember moving to Oregon \u2014
\nI remember making music at the back of a car \u2014
\nI remember waking up at 5 to drive an hour to surf, only to learn the water was too cold \u2014
\nI remember hiking in the snowy forests \u2014
\nI remember biking everyday \u2014
\nI remember making a snowman \u2014
\nI remember sledding down rich golf courses \u2014
\nI remember swimming in lakes \u2014
\nI remember walking train tracks \u2014
\nI remember saying goodbye to my friends \u2014
\nI remember packing my bags \u2014
\nI remember moving to LA.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

We then pivoted to thinking about public health, asthma, and questions of equity with Dr. Cindy. After thinking through the history and treatment of fictional patient Jacob, LASA divided up into groups to brainstorm policy interventions. Bryan W. from the group on managing housing, suggested a plan to \u201cforce landlords to upkeep their buildings, perform check up on houses in lower income areas to ensure there is no mold or pests, prevent schools from being built near or around freeways or power plants, and build more green areas like parks.\u201d Remick\u2019s Public Health Department group suggested:<\/p>\n

Short term:
\n\uf0b7 Asthma informational sessions, clinic days at schools and parks for education and outreach, and to teach proper health dialogue to every including doctors.<\/p>\n

Long term:
\n\uf0b7 Running data collection on clinic access and EV usage’s correlation to fewer asthma reports, making sure there is an adequate number of clinics and access to clinics through public transportation.<\/p>\n

After lunch and walking through the gardens, LASA welcomed current USC history graduate student Amber Santoro to share about her journey to graduate school and her work on public health in connection with Olive View Sanitarium. More about her work is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Remick, Noah, and Angella summed up the day for us:<\/p>\n

Remick: \u201cI did not know what to expect when I came to the Huntington to discuss health in the context of Los Angeles. I certainly didn’t expect an extremely talented poet who helped me think about Los Angeles in a new context. With his help and instruction, I drew a map of my Los Angeles, which didn’t even include Los Angeles in it, but was instead a map of Pasadena, which is where I spend the majority of my time. I had trouble creating a poem out of my name, but I did write more for the I remember poem, which I then shared with the class. Looking back on it, my poem was a collection of different events that happened in my life, but they all connect in a meaningful way to become something that I hold very dear to myself. During our lunch break, I enjoyed walking around the gardens and looking through the portrait gallery. I didn’t expect to enjoy this as much as I did, but it really felt like something that I should do more often just to explore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noah: “I really enjoyed listening to Mike the poet. I struggle with public speaking, and hearing him speak to us effortlessly was very impressive and gave me a sense of aspiration, as I would like to be that good at public speaking one day. I also appreciated how thought-provoking the poems were. I struggled to generate ideas at first, but once I started, it became easier to connect sentences. Secondly, learning about asthma from Dr. Cynthia was interesting because my mother is a doctor, and I had never thought of asthma as a serious illness; I thought it was just an illness where you could easily grow out of it, and that it didn’t have a serious effect on the person. After learning about the serious symptoms and the data showing that people who were less fortunate were more likely to develop asthma, I was saddened, but it also gave me ideas to learn more about the causes and ways to prevent asthma. Lastly, hearing Ms. Santoro discuss her research project was very inspiring. I want to be a history major in college, and having her talk us through her paper and the motives was super cool. Her telling us that she was probably the person who knew the most about Turbicoulous history in LA was surprising, but also great to hear. Knowing so much about a subject and being the only person in the world who does is something I would like to accomplish one day, as it sounds like a rewarding goal.”<\/p>\n

Angella: “This meeting was really interesting to me because of the variety of people who came to tell us about their jobs and what things that they considered to help other people. Mike the Poet, for example, was someone I felt I could relate to because of his story about how his father would drive him around different neighborhoods in Los Angeles and how that enthralled him so much that he wanted to know as much as he could about LA. I related to his story because it really reflects my desire to want to know anything I can about Los Angeles, since until I was in LASA, I hadn’t really been given any opportunities to explore LA. But now that I am able to learn more about the systems around me, the history of buildings in East LA, I feel happier knowing that I’m knowledgeable about where I live. Additionally, Dr. Cynthia’s activity she made for us to brainstorm ideas about how to prevent asthma for the general public also helped me understand the ways people in public health try to come up with ways to help the community…Amber’s research paper about her great-grandmother had also made me begin to think back to my grandmother and how my family’s history has ever been connected to illness as well. Her paper made me curious about how my grandmother migrated to the US, since I have never gotten the complete story told to me (only ever in little short stories from my dad) because it is believed in our culture that the older generation shouldn’t tell the new generation about the struggles they endured and trauma they faced to bring us here in order to protect us from said trauma. I also believe that some immigrants believe it is a “taboo” or private matters not to be discussed with younger generations, but I want to emphasize how important it is for people to know their family history so they can understand what came before them and to prevent any negative cycles from happening. So all in all, I’m deeply grateful for Mike, Dr. Cynthia and Amber for presenting to us and talking about their experiences, as well as their work, because it helped me reflect within myself and search for the missing pieces of my family’s history.”<\/p>\n

LASA is grateful for everyone\u2019s time and hopeful for improved health and healing for all in this new year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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