Brontez Purnell and Friends: Cisco Guzman, Mason J., Melissa Merin: April 8, 2021

Brontez Purnell opens the round of readings with three poems: "And I Am Serving Fuckboy Like It's Going Out of Style," "I'm Bloody By Nature, Not 'Cause I Hate'cha," and "Polaroids of Photographs and Paintings of Film Stills."

Cisco Guzman, after expressing appreciation that Brontez Purnell's "definition of poetry is so broad," reads poems from his most recently self-published book: "Mattering," "Deluge," "Terre Lingua," "Not Because," "Becoming," and "The Deer."

Noting he's "a very young veteran of the AIDS wars," Mason J. reads his poem beginning "Over and over, time and time again...," then tells of writing a poem a day, only every other month, and reads a poem for Lia Janice Norwood (2000–2020), "To a Cunning Prophet of Time-Traveling Daredevilry" in memory of his late God-niece. They then read "Black and Jewish," and close with "Opportunity and Change, To Be Devoted and Committed," on the gay scene in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in the midst of the corona-virus pandemic.

Melissa Merin, after sending out regards to all and noting she finished her undergrad degree at SF State in 2015, reads: "To Do List: In Honor of Therapy," "Her Too" (which she calls "a memo of accountability"), "Peach," "When I Leave the House Some Mornings," then, from a self-made chapbook, ends by reading a brief story, remembering her late uncle, titled "Summer, The End."

TreVaughn Roach-Carter, as emcee, asks if the poets have questions for one another: Mason J. asks "how has your writing practice changed over the last year" during the corona virus pandemic. Brontez Purnell notes that he works best while in movement, and had to retrain himself to deal with stillness. Cisco Guzman says he likes to be "wrapped up in this bubble of night," and he tries to avoid writing "about the pandemic." Britney Spears' young adult novel written with her mother brings about. Asked by Purnell what writers they return to, Melissa Merin cites Claudia Rankine's Citizen, Justin Chin, Robert Hayden, and George Oppen. Guzman says "I'm gonna own my inner white lady" and cites Mary Oliver. Mason says he counts Assoto Saint among his cherished writers. Purnell tells of "a copy of Frank O'Hara's Lunch Poems given to me by Bambi Lake," Nikki Giovanni's Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day, and the lyric to Sheena Easton's "Sugarwalls."

Merin notes how going to SF State, with it being "the first place to have a Poetry Center, the first place to have Ethnic Studies," made it intimidating for her to do her own writing. Purnell says going to Cal State East Bay, and majoring in dance and theater, his teachers encouraged "any writing at all" by him. He asks for (and is immediately granted, via the Zoom chat box) an honorary degree from SF State. Guzman notes "it's reassuring" to be making work among these other writers. Merin recalls hanging out together and how that feeds her. Asked if poetry can be "a balm for pain," Mason says it's also a balm for others involved and not just the writer. Merin notes the ways the writing makes connection. The conversation closes with listening recommendations for music from the writers. Nona Hendryx, Jenny Hval, Frank Ocean, Damon Locks' Black Monument Ensemble, and Blondie all get props. Purnell says he has "a bootleg LP of Frank Ocean's Blonde" that he "just like[s] to stare at it with envy and hate."