In November, 2025, the East Baton Rouge Parish Library (EBRPL) teamed up with the Louisiana Wild Society to establish a new teaching garden at the Main Library at Goodwood. According to librarian Brandon Reilly, the response to the event took organizers by surprise. “So many people showed up to help mulch, to put plants in the ground,” he said.
It demonstrated a desire, an unmet need in the Baton Rouge community, for people to come together around a shared project—to connect over the universal draw of nature.
That demand for accessible, meaningful, collective experiences runs parallel with the mission of the East Baton Rouge Parish Library, and especially with its long-running One Book One Community Program (OBOC)—which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2026.
Each spring, OBOC happens across EBRPL’s fifteen-location system, encouraging patrons to engage with the year’s selected book through creative and experiential programming offered at locations around the parish.
“It’s become so rare that you find moments to sit with other people and consider a work of art together,” said Reilly. “To hear their interpretations, express your responses to it, and talk to people you might not engage with elsewhere. You can do that in so many different ways through OBOC.”
Inspired in part by the community’s response to nature-forward projects such as the Louisiana Wild garden installation, OBOC organizers chose the program’s first poetry anthology as this year’s official selection: You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, edited by Ada Limón, former United States Poet Laureate.
You Are Here draws together fifty previously unpublished poems by some of the country’s most accomplished contemporary American poets—all exploring nature and how living things are interconnected. “The anthology is this collection of many diverse voices, talking about their connections to nature and their connections to identity, how these kind of meld into their relationships with other people,” said Reilly.
The book includes works by regional poets, including Adam Clay, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Ashley M. Jones, Jericho Brown, and others.
According to Reilly, poetry, especially as a means of drawing revelation from nature, felt like a fascinating way to engage the Baton Rouge community during OBOC’s twentieth season. “Poetry is such an individual experience,” said Reilly. “But if you get people together to look at this short text together, and come away with their own interpretations, I think there’s something really expansive and exciting about that.”
This year’s OBOC schedule, which has been running since January and will continue through April, includes everything from worm composting classes to documentary screenings to, of course, poetry workshops and readings. The official One Book One Community launch celebration will take place on March 28 at the Main Library at Goodwood from 4 pm–8 pm. Learn more at ebrpl.libguides.com/youarehere.
