Travelers traipsing through the Long Beach Airport on Tuesday, Feb. 14, may stumble upon a surprisingly romantic experience — with the airport reprising its pop-up Valentine’s Day love poem experience.
Poet and author Brian Sonia-Wallace, equipped with an antique Remington typewriter, will offer Long Beach voyagers an impromptu poem based on their love stories from 5 to 7 p.m. at the airport to commemorate the heart-filled holiday.
“ Long Beach Airport will host Sonia-Wallace to bring a unique experience to travelers flying on Valentine’s Day — the opportunity to have a custom love poem crafted for their significant other while they wait for their flight,” an LGB press release said. “Using an antique Remington typewriter from the days when air travel was a glamorous luxury, Sonia-Wallace will ask participants to share their love stories to be commemorated in a poem on-the-spot that is then gifted to them.”
For the lovebirds on the shier side, a second typewriter will be available to craft personal messages and love letters.
Sonia-Wallace began writing poetry for strangers in 2012, according to an LGB press release — which led to the creation of his company RENT Poet, whose mission is to “connect people through ink in a wired-in world,” according to its website. The company was spotlighted on NPR’s “How I Built This,” and Sonia-Wallace’s writing has appeared in a variety of publications, including Rolling Stone and The Guardian.
He’s also West Hollywood’s current poet laureate.
This year marks the second iteration of the holiday pop-up, and Sonia-Wallace’s return to Long Beach Airport for the Valentine’s Day celebration. The inaugural pop-up was in 2020.
“I’m looking forward to returning to the airport on this auspicious day,” Sonia-Wallace said in the release. “To be able to write here again is an emotional moment. And what better time than Valentine’s Day, when we can invite travelers in transit to think about love — who they are traveling with, or to, or who they are looking forward to returning to when they return home.”
The pop-up will be in the terminal past the Transportation Security Administration check-in, so it will only be available to ticketed travelers.
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