Don\u2019t be surprised if love is in the air when you\u2019re traveling via Long Beach Airport on Valentine\u2019s Day. Poet Brian Sonia-Wallace will be writing love poems\u2014with the satisfying clack-clack-clack of an antique Remington typewriter\u2014for Friday jet setters willing to share their love stories.<\/p>\n
\u201cAirports are spaces of transition, connection, transformation,\u201d said Sonia-Wallace. \u201cMany couple\u2019s first serious test of commitment is traveling together. For others, the airport is a place of reconnection. I\u2019m excited to invite the public to commission love poems for each other in this space, to hear some of the thousands of stories that pass through an airport every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sonia-Wallace, who has made a career of offering his storytelling expertise through on-demand poetry, will ask participants to share their love stories, he\u2019ll then typewrite them on the spot for their significant other. There will also be a second typewriter available to passengers who wish to write their own poems or messages.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all part of team LGB\u2019s effort to make flying less frustrating with a series of pop-ups called \u201cMake Flying Fun Again,\u201d not that they need to make the extra effort. But perhaps that\u2019s why, for the umpteenth time, LGB was named one of the nation\u2019s 10 best airports<\/a>, just last month.<\/p>\n https:\/\/lbpost.com\/longbeachize\/addison-lgb-airport-usa-today-best-2020<\/p>\n This first pop-up in the new series is a way to \u201cinject a little bit of whimsy, fun and even culture into the airport experience,\u201d said Kate Kuykendall, airport public affairs officer. \u201cWe came up with the \u2018We Make Flying Fun Again\u2019 pilot series to really double-down on our reputation for stress-free travel, with a little dose of fun and quirky thrown in.\u201d<\/p>\n Future pop-ups may include a basketball activity for March Madness, a magician, a jump rope performer (ready for some Double Dutch?), a sand sculptor kicking off summer travel, a massage pop-up with free five-minute massages, and a pet lounge.<\/p>\n While the pop-ups will be for traveling ticket-holders only\u2014located past security screening\u2014Kuykendall said they\u2019re considering some activities that may be better for pre-security in the future, such as spotlighting local restaurants. Free samples? Now that’s poetry.<\/p>\n