Josiah Luis Alderete and Mimi Tempestt: October 5, 2023

Mimi Tempestt reads from her newly published book The Delicacy of Embracing Spirals. Tempestt starts the reading with her poem "basquiat's revenge," beginning with "i'm just a fat Black bitch with a few good words," and going on to say, "i'm as shameless as i paint myself to be." Tempestt reads "casting call #2," asking, "What you know about an LA woman?," and her title piece "the delicacy of embracing spirals," introducing the work with the comment "Beyoncé will always have 'Crazy in Love,' Mimi will always have 'Delicacy.'"

Next, Tempestt reads her work "rat race; the mickey mouse in me wants to eat your face," and proclaims, "y'all not gon' do me how you did Wanda," in reference to the unofficial Los Angeles poet laureate, the late Wanda Coleman, a prominent source of inspiration for Tempestt. The reading is paused to announce a few upcoming events for Tempestt's book tour. Towards the end of her reading, Tempestt says she "[misses] when poets were vocal about politics," and ends the reading by encouraging the crowd to "go where you don't belong."

Josiah Luis Alderete reads from manuscript and older works. Alderete begins his reading with his poem about "Old Man Fuego": "don't any of you mocosos out there confuse me with that white man electiric fire." His next poem is dedicated for the abuelas; Alderete gives the crowd a Nauhuatl lesson on the word "Tlaxcalli," which the western world now knows as a tortilla, saying that "we are much, much older than the mispronounciations that the colonizers have given us."

Alderete reads his poem "Divina Visitación," which follows the presence of Mexica goddess, Coatlique, in Los Angeles. Citing his own eviction from the Mission District, the neighborhood he grew up in, and inspired by conversations among SF State students, Alderete dedicates a poem located in his present town, North Richmond, to the students and follows it with a poem to the Mission District, "Galeria de la Raza Blues." Alderete advises the full-house crowd to "make poetry to preserve the neighborhood."

Following their readings, the poets answer audience questions regarding their starts as writers, literary lineages, and favorite spots to eat in San Francisco, among other things.

Tempestt describes her unconventional beginnings as an underground night queen and battle-rapper in Los Angeles turned literary student and Ph.D. candidate after attending UC Santa Cruz and Mills College. Alderete discusses how he was "always nerdy" and carried around a notebook during his childhood growing up in his mother's taco shop where he would take the tips he earned to buy comics and other books during his breaks. He would eventually stumble upon the poetry section and become aquainted with the ancient Mexica tradition of Flor y Canto that is associated with his pocho roots. 

An audience memember asks the poets if they have any advice for rising poets, to which Tempestt responds, "everyone wants to sound 'like a poet,' but no one wants to sound like themselves." Alderete adds that an emerging poet should be aware of the history of poetry in the neighborhood and culture they come from, respectively, and to "look behind as well as forward." 

Someone else asks what writers did the poets enjoy as kids. Tempestt lists writers from the Harlem Renaissance like Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and also Lorraine Hansberry. She also mentions that "some old white man poets have something to offer," citing T.S. Eliot's Wasteland and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" as examples, and says to "eat the fruit, spit the seeds." She finishes her answer by commenting that "it's interesting what can happen when you have permission to do what you want." Alderete answers that there were many Latinx writers, from Chicanx to Nuyorican backgrounds, that he was drawn to including Jimmy Santiago Baca, Pedro Pietri, raúlrsalinas, and Gloria Anzaldúa.

The poets continue answering questions, from their favorite places to eat in San Francisco (Mimi: "a home cooked meal at Truong Tran's house") to a personal anecdote by Alderete about peanuts, corregated metal walls, and veterano poets at Cafe Babar.