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Poetry Flash Reading Series
Cintia Santana and Dan Alter
4/28, Berkeley
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Sixteen Rivers Press: Christina Lloyd, Murray Silverstein, Alice Templeton
5/19, Berkeley
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Carolyn Tipton and Sandra Yannone
6/20, Berkeley
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devorah major
Photo: Victoria Smith

devorah major and James Cagney

9 AUGUST 2020 — sunday

Poetry Flash presents a virtual poetry reading by devorah major, Califia's Daughter, and James Cagney, Black Steel Magnolias in the Hour of Chaos Theory, online via Zoom, free, 3:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: please click here; you will receive an email with a link and information on how to join the reading)

MORE ABOUT THE READERS
Please join us for the Poetry Flash's first virtual reading on Sunday, August 9 at 3:00 pm PDT! We are excited to bring you devorah major and James Cagney via Zoom. To register for this reading, please click here. After you register, you will receive an email with a link and information on how to join the reading. We hope this virtual reading will be the first of many more to come. Thank you for continuing to support Poetry Flash and our reading series during these unprecedented times.
devorah major's new poetry collection is Califia's Daughter; her previous books include and then we became, Where River Meets Ocean, and The Other Side of the Postcard. Juan Felipe Herrera, US Poet Laureate 2015-17, says, "All the dimensions of devorah major's life and (yours) are here —from the 'beginning before the beginning,' galactic particles to the bebopness of our lives. She speaks of being, of becoming, of totality. Is it a journal, an investigation, the life philosophy of a great poet woman? …In this work, devorah charts the infinite music inside of us all." San Francisco's third Poet Laureate, devorah major is a writer, editor, writing coach, spoken word performer, recording artist, and poetry professor. Poet-in-Residence at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, she has toured in Italy, Bosnia, Jamaica, Venezuela, Belgium, England, Wales, and throughout the United States, performing her poetry and speaking on African-American poetry, Beat Poetry, and poetry of resistance. In 2015, her play Classic Black: Voices of 19th Century African-Americans premiered in San Francisco.
James Cagney's recent book is Black Steel Magnolias in the Hour of Chaos Theory. Sam Sax wrote, "I remember first hearing James Cagney read poems in a packed backroom in Oakland and being entirely shook by what this man can do with language. Black Steel Magnolias in the Hour of Chaos Theory makes good on that promise of strangeness, urgency, lyric prowess, and invention. Toggling between loss, therapy, the pastoral, illness, the humorously personable, and the darkly familial—at every turn this book surprises, aches, and delights. 'what flower / cuts thru the bullshit / between people'—do yourself a favor and read it thrice." Cagney's poems "interrogate identity, family, loneliness, and the expectations of masculinity. Using dreams, blues, and a chorus of voices, this collection of poems examines the complexities of intimacy for an adopted person trying to find balance between two families—one rattled by age and illness; the other, holding space for a son that doesn't exist." A Cave Canem fellow, he studied writing and poetry independently, via the public library, workshops, and the open mic scene in the Bay Area.




Daily Listings

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26 APRIL 2024 — friday

  • City Arts and Lectures welcomes Catherine Lacey, Biography of X, Pew, The Answers, Nobody Is Ever Missing, and journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist Chloé Cooper Jones discussing Jones's new memoir, Easy Beauty; Sydney Goldstein Theater, 275 Hayes Street, San Francisco, $39, 7:30 pm PDT (For more information and to purchase tickets, visit: www.cityarts.net/event/chloe-cooper-jones)
  • The Book of Light Poetry Series, a reading series that celebrates the spirit and soul of the poetry of Lucille Clifton, featuring Jackson Holbert, winner of the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize and author Winter Stranger, Books Inc., 1344 Parks Street, Alameda, free, 6:00 pm PDT (More information here: www.booksinc.net/event/jackson-holbert-books-inc-alameda)

27 APRIL 2024 — saturday

  • This workshop, "Writing Historical Fiction," taught by historical novelists Siobhan Curham, The Storyteller of Auschwitz, and Linda Joy Myers, The Forger of Marseille, covers the key elements of writing historical fiction including idea, research, character, and plot, Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera, $105, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: www.bookpassage.com/event/writing-historical-fiction)
  • Fourth Saturdays presents a reading with featured poets Jodie Hollander, Nocturne, and Veronica Michalowski, One: Family of Poetry, free, Claremont Helen Renwick Library, 208 N. Harvard Avenue, Claremont, free, 2:00 pm PDT (More information here: www.facebook.com/fourthsaturdayspoetry)
  • The International Poetry Film Festival will feature nearly forty experimental, narrative, documentary, and animated poem-based film screenings from around the world; The Wanda Coleman Theater, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, 681 Venice Blvd., Venice Beach, Los Angeles, $30,1:00-6:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: poetryfilmfestival.org)
  • "Lines From Within: Poetry From the Inside Out," is a generative poetry workshop and craft laboratory with Dr. Mary-Alice Daniel,Mass for Shut-Ins and A Coastline Is an Immeasurable Thing, attendees create a signature style in their writing, find their comfort zone, nurture originality, defeat writer's block, and help to develop an individual writing practice, Orvene S. Carpenter Community Center, Ray D. Prueter Library, 510 Park Avenue, Port Hueneme, free,1:00-3:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: www.vencolibrary.org/library-events/lines-within-poetry-inside-out-dr-mary-alice-daniel-0427241300)
  • In celebration of National Poetry Month, PoemDome 19, the 19th annual Poems In-Front-Of-The Dome, an open mic with no mic poetry event, will be held across from San Francisco City Hall; featured guests include "Diamond" Dave Whitaker, poet and radio host Global Val Ibarra, poets Charlie Getter, Richard Ivanhoe, Dan Brady, and Jorge Molina, "Poetry Circle in the Town Square," City Hall Plaza, the park between City Hall and San Francisco Public Library, Civic Center Plaza, San Francisco, free, all ages, 2:00-4:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: www.poemdome.net)
  • Sonoma Valley Authors Festival presents "Authors on the Plaza" featuring authors David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, Colm Tóibín,The Magician, and Amy Tan,The Joy Luck Club, Sonoma Plaza, 453 First Street East, Sonoma, free, registration required, 11:00 am to 2:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: svauthorsfest.org/authors-on-the-plaza)
  • City Lights, Morbid Curiosity, and Strange Attractor Press present an afternoon in appreciation of the life and work of Mel Gordon, in celebration of the posthumous publication of his Cabarets of Death: Death, Dance and Dining in Early Twentieth-Century Paris, a documentation of three cabaret-restaurants in the Montmartre district of Paris from 1892 until 1954, moderated by Joanna Ebenstein and Peter Maravelis, with Maer Ben-Yisreal, Ati Citron, J. Hoberman, La Pustra, Mark Pilkington, Jill Tracy, Christina Ward, and others, online via Zoom, free, 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PDT (To register, visit Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/voluptuous-life-a-tribute-to-the-life-and-work-of-mel-gordon-tickets-810502062487?aff=oddtdtcreator)

28 APRIL 2024 — sunday

  • Litquake and Litcamp present, "How They Did It: High-Stakes Memoir," a conversation with five intrepid authors of recent memoir including Eddie Ahn Advocate: A Graphic Memoir of Family, Community, and the Fight for Environmental Justice, Sylvia Brownrigg,The Whole Staggering Mystery: A Story of Fathers Lost and Found, Margaret Juhae Lee,Starry Field: A Memoir of Lost History, Susan Lieu,The Manicurist's Daughter, and Carvell Wallace,The Sixth Man, Another Word for Love; the event will be moderated by author Rachel Howard, The Risk of Us, Page Street Co-Working Space, 297 Page Street, San Francisco, free, 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: www.litquake.org/upcoming-events.html)
  • San Francisco Public Library presents a reading featuring contributors to the Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, including Nicole Henares, Karen Melander-Magoon, Phyllis Klein, Cesar Love, Ed Mycue, Antoinette Vella Payne, Rafael Pineda, Dan Richman, Alice Rogoff, John Rowe, Eva Helene Stern, and Nellie Wong, Latino/Hispanic Meeting Room A, Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, free, 4:00-5:00 pm PDT (More information here: sfpl.org/events/2024/04/28/performance-poetry-preserves-44-years-vital-verse)
  • Medicine for Nightmares presents the Odd Verse Reading Series, a poetry reading and open mic that amplifies underrepresented voices, in a safe space for discourse, community solidarity, and collective action for social justice, Medicine for Nightmares Bookstore, 3036 24th Street, San Francisco, free, donations welcome, 4:30-7:00 pm PDT (More information here: medicinefornightmares.com/events)
  • Poetry Flash presents a reading by Dan Alter, My Little Book of Exiles, and Cintia Santana, The Disordered Alphabet, 2727 California Street, a cooperative art space, Berkeley, refreshments, free, 3:00 pm PDT (poetryflash.org).

29 APRIL 2024 — monday

  • Mechanic's Institute presents "No Poetry No Peace," a reading celebrating human poetic expression, hosted by award-winning multidisciplinary writer Sheryl J. Bize-Boutte, featuring poets Aileen Cassinetto, Lisa DeVuono, Poems from the Playground of Risk, Benjamin Gucciardi, West Portal, Lucille Lang Day, Becoming an Ancestor, O'Cyrus, Sacred, and Noah Warren, The Complete Stories, Mechanics' Institute, 57 Post Street, San Francisco, free for members, $10 nonmembers, 6:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.milibrary.org/events/events-activities)
  • City Arts and Lectures welcomes historian Doris Kearns Goodwin as she discusses her new book, An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s, a historical biography inspired by notes, journals, and letters by Goodwin's late husband, Sydney Goldstein Theater, 275 Hayes Street, San Francisco, $49, 7:30 pm PDT (For more information and to purchase tickets, visit: www.cityarts.net/event/doris-kearns-goodwin-3)

30 APRIL 2024 — tuesday

  • A celebration for the launch of prizewinning anthropologist Angela Garcia's moving work of narrative nonfiction, The Way That Leads Among the Lost: Life, Death, and Hope in Mexico City's Anexos, based on over a decade of research, Garcia's book examines the anexos, community-based recovery houses serving people struggling with addiction in Mexico City, City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, free, 7:00 to 9:00 pm PDT (For more information: citylights.com/events/angela-garcia)
  • Green Apple Books presents a celebration of novelist Sylvia Brownrigg's new memoir, The Whole Staggering Mystery, with novelist Anne Raeff, Only the River, Green Apple Books, 1231 9th Avenue, San Francisco, 7:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: www.greenapplebooks.com/event/9th-ave-sylvia-brownrigg-anne-raeff)
  • Cobalt Poets presents a reading with featured poet Ray Jane, Black Like That, followed by an open mic, online via Zoom, free, 7:30 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html)
  • Skylight Books presents poet Callie Siskel, celebrating her debut collection, Two Minds, joined in a reading by poets L.A. Johnson, Little Climates, and Armen Davoudian, The Palace of Forty Pillars, Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, free, 7:00 pm PDT (More information here: www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-callie-siskel-presents-two-minds-w-la-johnson-armen-davoudian)
  • The Booksmith presents Sasha Vasilyuk in celebration of her new novel, Your Presence Is Mandatory, The Booksmith, 1727 Haight Street, San Francisco, free, 7:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: www.booksmith.com/event/sasha-vasilyuk; direct questions by email to: tickets@booksmith.com)

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