Some things start as an idea over coffee. This one turned into two years of community, culture, and conversations I still think about.

I founded the Poetry Club — Panama City’s first open-to-the-public poetry club. Not a closed literary circle. Not an academic event. A real space where anyone could walk in — readers, writers, poets, curious minds — and feel like they belonged.

For two consecutive years, we built something that surprised even me. We secured sponsorships from Grand Morrison, Panama Coworking Center, and a long list of cultural spaces and restaurants across the city. We filled rooms with people from multiple nationalities and every age group. We brought together writers, poets, and people who had never been to a poetry event in their life — and made them want to come back.

In 2019, the Círculo became the platform for something even bigger: co-organizing “Palabra en el Mundo” — the International Poetry Festival in Panamá, alongside Salvadoran writer and poet Williams Méndez. A global poetic initiative for peace and artistic expression, hosted right here in Panama City.

What it proved still is: that community, when built with intention, shows up.