Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This event occurred on April 12, 2026.
Poetry in the Garden, held each spring, is a series of live performances is set among the Getty Center’s Central Garden. This year features poetic and musical collaborative soundscapes inspired by the publication "The Scores Project: Experimental Notation in Music, Art, Poetry and Dance 1950-1975," informed by mid-century experimental artists in the Getty Research Institute’s archives like Yvonne Rainer, John Cage, and Benjamin Patterson.
Read the publication: https://www.getty.edu/publications/scores/
Learn more about this event: https://www.getty.edu/calendar/poetry-in-the-garden-scores/
Def Sound (pronouns they/them) is a Black Afro-Caribbean conceptual word artist born and based in South Central LA. Def is a postbinary contemporary hip-hop artist, poet, educator and award-winning academic. Def is Grammy nominated for their work as a producer on aja monet’s debut album ‘when the poems do what they do’. Def’s work as a poet has been included in Saul Williams' Anthology CHORUS, while their music has been featured in ABC’s GrownishAs an essayist Def’s writing has been published in Katie Mitchell’s book PROSE TO THE PEOPLE with a foreword by the poetic legend Nikki Giovanni. Def is currently a professor teaching Sonic Collage, Hip Hop and Black Critical Theory at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).
Veronica C. Ratliff (V.C.R) is a multidisciplinary recording artist, composer, writer, and violinist based in Los Angeles, working at the intersection of music and literature. Classically trained in violin and gospel choir, her album The Chronicles of a Caterpillar: The Egg was released in 2022 on Leaving Records. Her first publication, The Creative Black Woman’s Playbook, was released in 2019. She was featured on Andrew 3000’s debut solo record New Blue Sun (2023, Epic Records).
instagram.com/vthemartian
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The Getty Research Institute is dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts and their various histories through its expertise, active collecting program, public programs, institutional collaborations, exhibitions, publications, digital services, and residential scholars programs. Its library and special collections of rare materials and digital resources serve an international community of scholars and the interested public. The Research Institute's activities and scholarly resources guide and sustain each other and together provide a unique environment for research, critical inquiry, and scholarly exchange.
Getty Research Institute: https://www.getty.edu/research/
This event occurred on April 12, 2026.
Poetry in the Garden, held each spring, is a series of live performances is set among the Getty Center’s Central Garden. This year features poetic and musical collaborative soundscapes inspired by the publication "The Scores Project: Experimental Notation in Music, Art, Poetry and Dance 1950-1975," informed by mid-century experimental artists in the Getty Research Institute’s archives like Yvonne Rainer, John Cage, and Benjamin Patterson.
Read the publication: https://www.getty.edu/publications/scores/
Learn more about this event: https://www.getty.edu/calendar/poetry-in-the-garden-scores/
Def Sound (pronouns they/them) is a Black Afro-Caribbean conceptual word artist born and based in South Central LA. Def is a postbinary contemporary hip-hop artist, poet, educator and award-winning academic. Def is Grammy nominated for their work as a producer on aja monet’s debut album ‘when the poems do what they do’. Def’s work as a poet has been included in Saul Williams' Anthology CHORUS, while their music has been featured in ABC’s GrownishAs an essayist Def’s writing has been published in Katie Mitchell’s book PROSE TO THE PEOPLE with a foreword by the poetic legend Nikki Giovanni. Def is currently a professor teaching Sonic Collage, Hip Hop and Black Critical Theory at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).
Veronica C. Ratliff (V.C.R) is a multidisciplinary recording artist, composer, writer, and violinist based in Los Angeles, working at the intersection of music and literature. Classically trained in violin and gospel choir, her album The Chronicles of a Caterpillar: The Egg was released in 2022 on Leaving Records. Her first publication, The Creative Black Woman’s Playbook, was released in 2019. She was featured on Andrew 3000’s debut solo record New Blue Sun (2023, Epic Records).
instagram.com/vthemartian
______________________________________________________________________
The Getty Research Institute is dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts and their various histories through its expertise, active collecting program, public programs, institutional collaborations, exhibitions, publications, digital services, and residential scholars programs. Its library and special collections of rare materials and digital resources serve an international community of scholars and the interested public. The Research Institute's activities and scholarly resources guide and sustain each other and together provide a unique environment for research, critical inquiry, and scholarly exchange.
Getty Research Institute: https://www.getty.edu/research/
