Westchester Book Festival: Phylisha Villanueva

November 7 2026 3:00pm - 5:00pm

Phylisha Villanueva, Westchester County Poet Laureate, leads participants in a poetry writing workshop in response to the works of art currently on view. The workshop will culminate with a public poetry reading at 4:30 PM.

Advanced registration required  
$25 / $20 Member

Not a member? Join now to enjoy member perks! 

About the Artist:

Phylisha Villanueva is a Belizean-American cultural worker and performance poet serving as the second Poet Laureate of Westchester County and the first woman of color to hold the title. She is a teaching artist with ArtsWestchester and a member of the Jazz and Poetry Choir Collective, Tesoro International Women’s Poets Collective, and The Mirror Project.

Her work centers identity, healing, womanhood, and survival grounded in ritual and the creation of spaces where community care can emerge. She is the founder of Literary Lituation and runs The Yonkers Writing Group.

Known for immersive performances alongside musicians, her poetry lives in the breath and body. To encounter her work is not simply to listen, but to witness.

This event is part of the Westchester Book Festival

Photo credit: Brittany Williamson

Exhibition Support

Intermittent Islands: Four Caribbean Women Artists is made possible with support from the Leir Foundation, the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, the Rosewater Family, the IFPDA Foundation, the Schultz-Williams Family, the Katherine C. and David E. Moore Exhibition Fund, and the Director’s Circle of the Katonah Museum of Art: Paul Bird and Amy Parsons, Tara and Jeffrey Coniaris, Mike Davies, Isabelle Harnoncourt Feigen, Linda Nordberg, Rebecca Samberg, and Richard and Audrey Zinman.

The Katonah Museum of Art is proud to be a grantee of the Leir Foundation, the Fred and Donna Nives Foundation, the James Rosenquist Foundation, ArtsWestchester with funding made possible by Westchester County government with support of County Executive Kenneth W. Jenkins and the Board of Legislators, and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.