mission district
Showing 15 items.
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The Poetry Center presents Brenda Iijima and Janice Lee, reading from new works. Brenda Iijima reads from unpublished work, including the play Daily Life in China and a new long poem, while Janice Lee reads from the manuscript of her unpublished novel, Imagine a Death. These readings are the second event in the first program inaugurating the In Common Writers Series, supported by a grant from the Walter & Elise Haas Fund.
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The Poetry Center presents Brontez Purnell and Bay Area friends Cisco Guzman, Mason J., and Melissa Merin, in a queer writers of color poetry reading and round table conversation. As Mazza Writer in Residence for Spring 2021, Purnell visited as a guest — with students of writing, cinema, and dance — in classes across the SF State campus, and offered two public performances: a solo reading and conversation, and this second, group event. For both these remote-access events, the emcee is TreVaughn Malik Roach-Carter. The Mazza Writer in Residency Program is supported by the Sam Mazza Foundation.
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The Poetry Center presents Cosmic Diaspora and Steve Dalachinsky, reading and in performance. Cosmic Diaspora (Jake Marmer, poetry; John Schott, guitar; and Joshua Horowitz, keyboard, accordion) opens with a set of songs shaped around poems by Marmer, paralleling immigration and science fiction. Steve Dalachinsky follows with an extended reading, much of it dedicated to musicians, from The Superintendent's Eye (Autonomedia/Unbearable Books, 2000), The Mantis (Iniquita Press, 2009), and works in manuscript.
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The Poetry Center presents Douglas Kearney and Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta, reading and in conversation. Douglas Kearney performs works from his books Buck Studies (Fence Books, 2016) and Someone Took They Tongues (Subito Press, 2016), as well as new work, plus an improvised piece incorporating lines out of books from Poetry Center shelves (Lawrence Raab, Mark Jarman, Maude Meehan, Artie Gold, Rochelle Owens, and the North Coast Review) with Kearney's own Buck Studies and Mess and Mess and (Noemi Press, 2015). Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta reads new works and poetry from her book The Easy Body (Timeless, Infinite Light, 2017). The readings are followed by an extended conversation with the audience.
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The Poetry Center in conjunction with the Flor y Canto Festival presents a bilingual reading by Ernesto Cardenal. As featured guest artist for the Flor y Canto Festival, the celebrated Nicaraguan poet-priest makes a rare Bay Area appearance, at the Brava Theater in San Francisco's Mission District, to read from his 1989 volume Cánto Cósmico [Cosmic Canticle, translated by John Lyons, Curstone Books, 2002] and from later poems that appear in his English-language volume of 90 new poems, The Origin of Species and Other Poems (Texas Tech University Press, 2011), also translated by John Lyons.
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The Poetry Center presents Garrett Caples and Julian Talamantez Brolaski reading and in conversation. Garrett Caples reads new poems in manuscript as well as poems from Power Ballads (Wave Books, 2016). Julian Talamantez Brolaski reads from Advice for Lovers (City Lights, 2012) a new chapbook, Come Correct (fivehundred places, 2018), and new work from manuscript. The reading is followed by a conversation in response to questions from the audience.
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The Poetry Center presents James Cagney and Josiah Luis Alderete, reading and in conversation. Cagney reads new poetry, along with poems from his Pen Oakland Josephine Miles Award-winning book Black Steel Magnolias In The Hour Of Chaos Theory (Nomadic Press, 2018). Alderete reads a number of poems in manuscript (prior to publication of his book Baby Axolotls & Old Pochos, from Black Freighter Press, 2021), before the poets respond to questions from the audience.
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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.
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The Poetry Center presents Mazza Writer in Residence for Fall 2023 Josiah Luis Alderete and Mimi Tempestt, reading their poetry and in conversation with one another and the audience. The poets are introduced by Steve Dickison and Soledad Carrillo (a.k.a. soledad con carne) at The Poetry Center, San Francisco State University. The fifth poetic element in this and all dimensions, multi-discipilinary artist, and educator, Mimi Tempestt reads from her new book of poetry The Delicacy of Embracing Spirals (City Lights Books, 2023). Long-time Mission poeta and co-founder of the bookstore and portal of culture and community, Medicine for Nightmares, Alderete reads works from manuscript and earlier publications. After the readings, the two poets engage in conversation about the importance of place, poetic lineage, and their personal histories with each other and their audience. The Mazza Writer in Residence program is supported by the Sam Mazza Foundation.
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The Poetry Center presents "an afternoon of literary drag," with Spring 2019 Mazza Writer in Residence Juliana Delgado Lopera, featuring Monique Jenkinson, aka Fauxnique, reading and in conversation. Delgado Lopera begins the afternoon with a performance of "Assigned Sad at Birth," an unpublished performance piece. Then Fauxnique reads an excerpt from an autobiographical manuscript in progress. Their readings are followed by a conversation between the artists, as well as with the audience. The Mazza Writer in Residence program is supported by the Sam Mazza Foundation.
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The Poetry Center presents Leticia Hernández-Linares reading her poetry from Mucha Muchacha, Too Much Girl (Tía Chucha Press, 2015) and Lee Herrick reading his works from Too Many Miles From Desire (WordTech Editions, 2007) and Gardening Secrets of the Dead (WordTech Editions, 2012), followed by the two poets conversing with one another and responding to questions from the audience.
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The Poetry Center presents May-lee Chai and Junse Kim, reading and in conversation. May-lee Chai reads excerpts from her story "Ghost Festivals," from her newly published collection, Useful Phrases for Immigrants (Blair, 2018). Junse Kim reads excerpts from a larger work in progress (part of which was published in Fourteen Hills, 2012). Their readings are followed by an extended conversation with the audience. This program was supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Note: video exists only for May-lee Chai's portion of this program; the remainder is audio only.
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The Poetry Center presents poets Q. R. Hand Jr., Genny Lim, and Juan Felipe Herrera, presenting their poetry at the South of Market Cultural Center (subsequently SOMArts), San Francisco. Hand and Lim each read solo from their work, and Herrera is joined in his performance by Troca, a Bay Area grupo featuring a mix of percussion, bass, and guitar. The poets, who each offer extended sets, are introduced by Poetry Center director Jim Hartz, who thanks poet Wilfredo Castaño of the South of Market Cultural Center, along with the San Francisco Arts Commission, for the community-centered collaboration with The Poetry Center.
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The Poetry Center, with support by the Sam Mazza Foundation, presents Mazza Writer in Residence Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta along with Daisy Zamora, reading and in conversation. Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta reads a new unpublished poem and their essay "A Film About Bleeding, Composed of Previously Discarded Fragments" (Open Space, 2018). Daisy Zamora reads from The Violent Foam (Curbstone Press, 2002) and La violenta espuma (Visor, 2017) as well as newer, unpublished poems, reading both in Spanish and in translations by George Evans. The readings are followed by a conversation with the audience.
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The Poetry Center, in collaboration with Voz Sin Tinta, presents Tim Z. Hernandez, Marguerite Muñoz, and René Juarez-Vazquez, reading from their work. Muñoz reads an earlier unpublished poem as well as new, recently written work. Juarez-Vazquez reads an unpublished short story. Hernandez reads two poems from Natural Takeover of Small Things (The University of Arizona Press, 2013), closing with a chapter from All They Will Call You (The University of Arizona Press, 2017). This event, the second in a two-event program in The Poetry Center's In Common Writers Series, supported in part by the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, concludes the series for 2018–19.