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Brian Komei Dempster

Brian Komei Dempster and Lee Herrick

21 MARCH 2021 — sunday

Poetry Flash presents a virtual poetry reading by Brian Komei Dempster, Seize, and Lee Herrick, Scar and Flower, online via Zoom, free, 3:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: please click here; you will receive an email with a link to join the reading)

MORE ABOUT THE READERS
Please join us for a Poetry Flash virtual reading on Sunday, March 14 at 3:00 pm PDT! We are excited to bring you Brian Komei Dempster and Lee Herrick via Zoom. To register for this reading, please click on the link in the calendar listing above. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Thank you for continuing to support Poetry Flash and our reading series during these unprecedented times.

This reading is co-sponsored by Moe's Books in Berkeley; the featured books are available at bookshop.org/lists/poetry-flash-readings.

Brian Komei Dempster's new book of poems is Seize. Patrick Phillips says, "Brian Komei Dempster's central subject—his son's epilepsy—could not be more freighted with risk, and yet Seize achieves a pitch-perfect harmony of lament and praise, suffering and solace.…This is a stunning, heartbreaker of a book." His first collection, Topaz, won the 15 Bytes 2014 Book Award in Poetry. Widely published in literary journals, his poems have also been anthologized in Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia and Beyond, Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation, and elsewhere. He is editor of From Our Side of the Fence: Growing up in Concentration Camps, which received a 2007 Nisei Voices Award from the National Japanese American Historical Society, and Making Home from War: Stories of Japanese American Exile and Resettlement. As poet, workshop director, and editor, he's received grants from Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and the Arts Foundation of Michigan, California State Library's California Civil Liberties Publication Education Program, Center for Cultural Innovation, and San Francisco Arts Commission.

Lee Herrick's latest book of poems is Scar and Flower, finalist for the 2020 Northern California Book Award. Juan Felipe Herrera says, "this is an incredible, luminous and most serious investigation, of being, of human suffering, of war and peace—of the factories of violence and the notebook of enlightenments.…Lee is concerned with the turning of beauty, the intimacy of death and the boundlessness of small moments, 'the broken body of a tiny bird,' fragments that can change a life." Herrick's previous poetry collections include Gardening Secrets of the Dead and This Many Miles from Desire. He is co-editor of the anthology The World I Leave You: Asian American Poets on Faith and Spirit. His poems appear widely in literary magazines, textbooks, and anthologies such as HERE: Poems for the Planet, with an introduction by the Dalai Lama; Indivisible: Poems of Social Justice, with an introduction by Common; One for the Money: The Sentence as Poetic Form; and California Fire and Water: A Climate Crisis Anthology. His prose has appeared in Dear America: Letters of Hope, Habitat, Defiance, and Democracy. He served as Fresno Poet Laureate from 2015-2017 and co-founded LitHop, Fresno's literary festival. He has traveled extensively throughout Latin America and Asia and has taught in China and in California State Prisons. He received the Bill F. Stewart Award for Excellence in Education in 2011. Born in Daejeon, Korea and adopted to the U.S. at ten months, he teaches at Fresno City College, where he co-founded the forthcoming Social Justice and Cultural Center, and in the Sierra Nevada University MFA program.

Daily Listings

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1 JULY 2025 — tuesday

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2 JULY 2025 — wednesday

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3 JULY 2025 — thursday

Poetry Night open mic for poems, stories, and songs, air-conditioned venue, please limit your reading to two items or four minutes, whichever is shorter, with host Dr. Andy Jones, John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street, Davis, 7:00 (www.poetryindavis.com)
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4 JULY 2025 — friday

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5 JULY 2025 — saturday

Marin Poetry Center Traveling Show presents a poetry reading by Larry Ruth, Prartho Sereno, Diane Frank, Claire Blotter, and Lucia Coppola, with host Sandra Cross, The Dance Palace, 503 B Street, Point Reyes Station, free, 2:00 (marinpoetrycenter.org/mec-events-category/traveling-show)
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6 JULY 2025 — sunday

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7 JULY 2025 — monday

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8 JULY 2025 — tuesday

Award-winning author and paramedic Joanna Sokol reads from her new book, A Real Emergency: Stories From the Ambulance, joined in conversation by Kevin Fagan, Mrs. Dalloway's Literary and Garden Arts, 2904 College Avenue, Berkeley, free admission, 7:00 (510/704-8222, www.mrsdalloways.com)
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9 JULY 2025 — wednesday

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10 JULY 2025 — thursday

Poem Jam: Kim Shuck, San Francisco Poet Laureate emerita presents contributing poets reading from their new anthology, Colossus: Water, Poem Jam takes place on the second Thursday of each month unless otherwise noted, San Francisco Main Public Library, Latino/Hispanic Room, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, free, 6:00 (415/557-4400, on.sfpl.org/07-10-25)
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11 JULY 2025 — friday

Beyond Baroque presents lawyer and poet Jeffrey Graham, Elegy to a Surveyor, renowned educator and activist Paul Cummins read from their respective books and from new works, joined by legendary L.A. poet Michael C. Ford, reading new and selected work, In Case of Flood Stand on this Book It's Dry English, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, 681 Venice Blvd., Venice Beach, Los Angeles, Eventbrite tickets $11.49, members and students free, 7:30 (www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-of-poetry-michael-c-ford-jeffrey-graham-paul-cummins-tickets-1409718970389?aff=oddtdtcreator)
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12 JULY 2025 — saturday

Marin Poetry Center Traveling Show presents a poetry reading by Abby Caplin, Margaret Stawowy, Simona Carini, Steve Maxwell, and Arlene Wohl, with host Francesca Bell, O'Hanlon Center for the Arts, 616 Throckmorton Avenue, Mill Valley, free, 2:30 (marinpoetrycenter.org/mec-events-category/traveling-show)
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13 JULY 2025 — sunday

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14 JULY 2025 — monday

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15 JULY 2025 — tuesday

Jackie Thomas-Kennedy reads from her new novel, The Other Wife, joined in conversation by Carol Edgarian, Mrs. Dalloway's Literary and Garden Arts, 2904 College Avenue, Berkeley, free admission, 7:00 (510/704-8222, www.mrsdalloways.com)
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16 JULY 2025 — wednesday

Crystal Haryanto presents her new book, The Glory of Giving Everything: The Taylor Swift Business Model, Mrs. Dalloway's Literary and Garden Arts, 2904 College Avenue, Berkeley, free admission, 7:00 (510/704-8222, www.mrsdalloways.com)
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17 JULY 2025 — thursday

Poetry Night Reading Series presents Dane Cervine, Nine Volt Nirvana, and Adela Najarro, with host Dr. Andy Jones, air-conditioned venue, John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street, Davis, 7:00 (www.poetryindavis.com)
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Poets Molly Fisk and Kim Shuck present poems from varied perspectives about wildfire, flooding and related catastrophes in California from the California Fire & Water anthology; they will be joined by six other contributors to the anthology, Gene Berson, Heather Bourbeau, Aileen Cassinetto, Susan Cohen, Alison Luterman, and Maw Shein Win, California Fire & Water anthology, San Francisco Main Public Library, Latino/Hispanic Room, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, free, 6:00 (415/557-4400, on.sfpl.org/07-17-25)
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Miranda S. Spivack reads from her new book, Backroom Deals in Our Backyards, a groundbreaking look at how ordinary people are fighting back against local governments to keep their communities safe, joined in conversation by Victoria Baranetsky, Mrs. Dalloway's Literary and Garden Arts, 2904 College Avenue, Berkeley, free admission, 7:00 (510/704-8222, www.mrsdalloways.com)
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18 JULY 2025 — friday

Community Open Mic featuring 826LA students, the culminating event of 826LS's Summer Writers Workshop, emcee Ariadne Makridakis Arroyo, all participants have five minutes to share, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, 681 Venice Blvd., Venice Beach, Los Angeles, doors open 7:00, reading 7:30 (www.eventbrite.com/e/826la-beyond-baroque-present-community-open-mic-tickets-1397352441769?aff=oddtdtcreator)
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19 JULY 2025 — saturday

Marin Poetry Center Traveling Show presents a poetry reading by Louise Yost and Jonathan Livingston, with host Dotty LeMieux, Novato Library, 1720 Novato Blvd., Novato, free, 2:00 (marinpoetrycenter.org/mec-events-category/traveling-show)
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20 JULY 2025 — sunday

Roberto Tejada, Why the Assembly Disbanded, celebrates the release of his new poetry collection, Carbonate of Copper: Poems, with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Forrest Gander, Mojave Ghost, limited seating, Kerouac Alley, between City Lights Bookstore and Vesuvio Cafe, 257 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, 1:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: citylights.com/events/forrest-gander-with-roberto-tejada)
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Poetry Flash presents a poetry reading featuring Rachel Richardson, Smother, and Mia Ayumi Malhotra, Mothersalt, 2727 California Street, a Cooperative Art Gallery, Berkeley, refreshments, free, 3:00 pm PDT (poetryflash.org).
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21 JULY 2025 — monday

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22 JULY 2025 — tuesday

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23 JULY 2025 — wednesday

Bridget A. Lyons reads from and presents her new book, Entwined: Dispatches from the Intersection of Species, joined in conversation by Leigh Marz, Mrs. Dalloway's Literary and Garden Arts, 2904 College Avenue, Berkeley, free admission, 7:00 (510/704-8222, www.mrsdalloways.com)
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24 JULY 2025 — thursday

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25 JULY 2025 — friday

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26 JULY 2025 — saturday

Fourth Saturdays: Poetry at the Claremont Library presents Karen Greenbaum-Maya and Diosa Xochiquetzalcóatl, Claremont Helen Renwick Library, 208 N. Harvard Avenue, in the Claremont Village, Claremont, free, 2:00 (909/621-4902, www.claremontlibrary.org/monthly-poetry-readings.html)
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Sacramento Poetry Alliance presents the VOICES reading with Cold River Press, 1169 Perkins Way, Sacramento, refreshments, 4:00 (see Sacramento Poetry Alliance on Facebook)
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Marin Poetry Center Traveling Show presents a poetry reading by Judy Wells, Dale Jensen, Carol Dorf, LeeAnn Pickrell, and Judy Bertelsen, with host Kathryn Jordan, North Branch of the Berkeley Public Library,1170 The Alameda (at Hopkins), Berkeley, free, 2:00 (marinpoetrycenter.org/mec-events-category/traveling-show)
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27 JULY 2025 — sunday

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28 JULY 2025 — monday

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29 JULY 2025 — tuesday

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30 JULY 2025 — wednesday

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31 JULY 2025 — thursday

"The Jingwei Bird" is a program that explores the complexity of climate change and our relationship to the planet through multi-disciplinary performances with Del Sol Quartet and San Francisco poet laureate Genny Lim, weaving newly composed music by Asian-American composers with powerful bilingual poetry, using storytelling and mythology to deepen our understanding and awareness of the environment, San Francisco Main Public Library, Latino/Hispanic Room, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, free, 6:00 (415/557-4400, on.sfpl.org/07-31-25)
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