Palo Alto International Women's Day Poetry Walk

This regime thinks women are created to be inferior. They're wrong. Women have stood up. Women have always risen: in movements, in classrooms, in communities, and even in literature.

For International Women’s Day 2026, walk the streets of Palo Alto with a woman who loves history, poetry, and asking inconvenient questions.

Have you ever noticed that many streets in Palo Alto are named after writers? On this guided walking tour through old Palo Alto, we’ll explore the stories behind streets like Homer, Whitman, Coleridge, Tennyson, Lowell, Melville, Addison, Bryant, Channing, and others, tracing literature across centuries while also examining the founding history of Palo Alto itself.

But for International Women’s Day, we’ll ask an additional question: Whose names are missing? We'll discuss patriarchy, gender roles, and power.

We will also highlight the one female author on our path, who used literature to challenge injustice at a time when women’s political voices were constrained.

This is not a women-only walk, nor is it a lecture; it’s an interactive exploration of poetry, history, and public memory. We’ll read short excerpts, reflect together, and connect past to present.

If you donate during the walk, proceeds will go to Michigan State Senate candidate Chedrick Greene in the May 5th Special Election, which will determine control of the Michigan Senate. The GOP is desperately trying to flip this seat which would make it more difficult for Governor Whitmer to pass key legislation on issues like reproductive rights, education funding, infrastructure investment, and economic development — all issues that deeply affect women and families.

Join us to walk, read, question, and reflect on International Women’s Day 2026.

History is what we choose to remember, and whose names we choose to write in stone.