James Kass and Paul S. Flores: May 3, 2018

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The Poetry Center presents James Kass and Paul Flores, reading and in conversation, to celebrate the 21st anniversary of Youth Speaks. They read from manuscript, and performed from memory, poems that reflect on their time as founders and directors at Youth Speaks, which they launched in 1996 while still graduate students in the MFA Writing program at SF State. They discuss topics in between the poems, with their readings followed by a conversation with the audience.

Originally Recorded By
DocFilm
Location
The Poetry Center, SFSU
Date
05/03/2018
Total Run Time
01:32:28
Contributor
Steve Dickison, Leticia Hernández-Linares, Tomas Riley
Rights
©© American Poetry Archives. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. For all other uses please email poetry@sfsu.edu
Views
2355
Downloads
358

Group Reading (01:03:06)

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After an introduction with Steve Dickison, James Kass introduces Paul Flores, who reads a poem from manuscript, beginning "I work in East Oakland....." Kass then reads a poem titled "How to Start a Nonprofit." Flores and Kass discuss meeting as students in the MFA program at San Francisco State University and how they founded Youth Speaks while they were graduate students in Creative Writing. Flores sings and recites a poem titled "Arroz con pollo." Kass reads poems "Sentences" and "My mother's father was a proud man..." and discusses the mission of Youth Speaks. Flores then discusses his experience in the MFA program before reading "We Still Be," which was inspired by a poem found in Victor Hernandez Cruz's book Maraca (Coffee House Press, 2001).

Conversation (00:23:38)

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James Kass and Paul Flores take questions from the audience. Flores discusses the evolution of spoken word and what spoken word means to them. When asked about what advice they would give to those about to graduate, Kass suggests to collaborate with people who don?t have your skillset and that "there is no right way or wrong way to do anything, but work hard and stay focused." They are asked how to deal with the fear of putting oneself out there. Kass explains that his MFA education taught him what he needed to find out of a certain community and that he grounded himself through writing. Flores advises students to be persistent and find what they love to do. They discuss how students can get involved in Youth Speaks and Kass emphasizes the importance of spoken word as a way for young people to communicate with and motivate each other.

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