It’s only been a month since it was announced that Jeannine Hall Gailey is the City of Redmond’s new poet laureate, but she already has plans on how to bring poetry to the masses.

Like the previous poet laureate, Gailey plans to focus her outreach on students — specifically teens — but said she also wants to reach another population specific to Redmond and the Eastside but may be overlooked as a poetry demographic: techies.

A former Microsoft employee, Gailey said poetry and the tech industry are not usually paired together, but she wants to change this. With her slogan “Poetry for Geeks, Geeks for Poetry,” the Redmond Ridge resident has already begun working with local groups to plan “Geek Talks” about how technology and poetry can be combined into one art form.

Gailey also has a few poetry readings scheduled for the next few months, including an inaugural event from 4-6 p.m. on Saturday at SecondStory Repertory 16587 N.E. 74th St. in Redmond Town Center. She has also partnered with the Redmond Library to bring in state poet laureate Kathleen Flenniken for readings scheduled for later this month and next month.

One of Gailey’s goals as Redmond’s poet laureate is to create a more vibrant poetry and literary scene locally — both in Redmond and throughout the Eastside.

“It doesn’t just have to be about us,” she said. “There’s not enough (poetry throughout the Eastside).”

To help with her outreach to teens, Gailey plans to combine poetry with mediums they are more familiar with, which is why Saturday’s reading will also feature an anime-inspired art exhibit by her friend Michaela Eaves. Gailey said Eaves’ artwork will reflect the themes and content of the poems she will be reading.

In addition, Gailey said she wants to highlight the area’s diverse population and hold cross-cultural events to expose people to poets from other countries and poetry in different languages.

“We don’t have to stay in our little groups,” she said.

Gailey also plans to utilize social media and see how she can incorporate that into her work as poet laureate since that is such a big part of the younger generation’s lives.

“It’s all going to be text,” she said about how poetry will be written in the future. “We can’t control the means of production…(but) poetry will survive.”

In her efforts to make the greater Eastside more poetry friendly, Gailey said she also wants to set up workshops, books clubs and writers’ groups for current poets and provide them with information about how to get published and more.

Having traveled from the Eastside to Bainbridge Island on a regular basis for years to meet with her writers’ group, Gailey said she doesn’t want her fellow writers to have to leave the area to meet up with others.

To learn more about Gailey, visit www.webbish6.com or follow her on Twitter at @RedmondPoetry.