Passengers travelling through San Diego International Airport (SAN) can now have their thoughts on travel turned into poetry. Until April 29, the airport’s Spring 2025 Performing Arts Resident, Poets Underground, will be on-site 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, comprising a husband-and-wife team 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 VP 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.