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PROGRAMS
Mary Mackey and Judy Wells
Bert Meyers Tribute: Eric Gudas, David Shaddock, Anat Silvera
Gail Rudd Entrekin and Elizabeth C. Herron
Fog and Light: Vince Gotera, Ken Haas, Kathleen McClung, Diane Frank, more
24 JUNE 2021 — thursday
Poetry Flash presents a virtual poetry reading to celebrate Fog and Light: San Francisco Through the Eyes of the Poets Who Live Here, a new anthology, with contributors Vince Gotera, Ken Haas, Jodi Hottel, Kathleen McClung, Gwynn O'Gara, and editor Diane Frank, online via Zoom, free, 7:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: please click here; you will receive an email with a link to join the reading)
Please join us for a Poetry Flash virtual reading on Thursday, June 24 at 7:00 pm PDT! We are excited to bring you this anthology celebration 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 event. 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; Fog and Light is available at bookshop.org/lists/poetry-flash-readings.
MORE ABOUT THE READERS
Many of these bio notes are from the Fog and Light anthology:
Vince Gotera's recent book is The Coolest Month, a collection of poems written everyday throughout April, in response to NaPoWriMo and Poem-a-Day prompts. Maureen Thorson says, "Vince Gotera's The Coolest Month leans into T. S. Eliot's bromide for April while turning it on its head.…An apple a day may keep the doctor away, but as Gotera shows, a poem a day can help chase away the blues." Now a professor in Iowa, Gotera was born and raised in San Francisco. He grew up in the Haight-Ashbury and was a teenager during the Summer of Love. "As a lead guitarist," Vince says, "I was influenced by the rock bands that played around The City: Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Charlatans, The Grateful Dead, Quicksilver, Santana, and many others. In fact, I fondly remember being an eighth grader at St. Agnes School on Ashbury and hearing The Dead rehearsing in their house across the street." Gotera left for grad school in the Midwest and hasn't lived in The City since. "But I am always excited to visit and enjoy the dazzling diversity, charming neighborhoods, and utter beauty of San Francisco, forever home."
Ken Haas's first full-length collection, Borrowed Light, won the 2020 Red Mountain Press Discovery Award. Ellen Bass said, "…Ken Haas's first collection of poems…is complex, vibrant, capacious and wildly imaginative. With affection and wonderful clarity, Haas describes a childhood of 'taking infield practice and shagging flies,' Atlantic City's 'sunburn and saltwater taffy,' a trip into Manhattan to see the legendary John Coltrane, who 'emptied his arms in a wave that even now speaks to the kind of man I could become.' But it would be a mistake to call this book nostalgic. Haas is keenly aware of the darker forces of history. The same Antisemitism that forced his grandparents to flee Nazi Germany is alive and well today—'we just forgot that shirt-wise brown is brown, words do burn, and we can see the rest from here.'" Haas's work has appeared in over fifty literary magazines, journals, and anthologies. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and received the Betsy Colquitt Poetry Award. He grew up in New York City, but has lived for the past forty-four years in San Francisco.
Jodi Hottel is a sansei, third generation Japanese American. She is author of the chapbooks Out of the Ashes, Voyeur, and Heart Mountain, her collection of poems about the Japanese American incarceration, winner of the 2012 Blue Light Press Poetry Prize. Most of those families were initially taken to a temporary detention site at the Tanforan race track in San Bruno, now the site of a shopping mall.
Kathleen McClung's books include Temporary Kin, Three Soul-Makers, A Juror Must Fold in on Herself, The Typists Play Monopoly, and Almost the Rowboat. Julie Kane wrote of Temporary Kin, " Kathleen McClung is a master of the sonnet crown. In her skilled hands, that venerable form expands to encompass active shooter drills, smartphones, and Lyft drivers, as well as songbirds, the sea, and the moon." She fell in love with San Francisco at age nine when she came with her mother on a Greyhound bus to see Carmen at the War Memorial Opera House. She cried when they had to leave at the intermission to catch the bus back to Sacramento. For over thirty years, Kathleen McClung has lived, taught, and written on the foggy west side of San Francisco.
Gwynn O'Gara's books include Snake Woman Poems, with a foreword by Nanos Valaoritis, and the chapbooks Fixer-Upper, Winter at Green Haven, Fruit of Life, and Sea Cradles. She grew up in San Francisco and left many times, almost always coming back. For twenty-five years she worked as a California Poet in the Schools and served as Sonoma County Poet Laureate 2010-2011.
Diane Frank is author of eight books of poems; her 2021 collection is While Listening to the Enigma Variations: New and Selected Poems. Los P. Jones said this of Frank's 2018 book, Canon for Bears and Ponderosa Pines: "In this new and startling collection, Diane Frank's poems transcend not just genres but entire dimensions. When she speaks to J.S. Bach, she really means it and when Bach speaks back, she listens—entirely—the way certain moths perceive sound via their whole body, even their wings. How is this accomplished? It will seem to come through the poems themselves—their music, tonal qualities and subjects, yet it goes even deeper as it pushes up like duende through the soles of your feet." She is also the author of Blackberries in the Dream House, winner of the Chelson Award for Fiction, two other novels, and a photo memoir of her 400-mile trek in the Himalayas. She teaches at San Francisco State University and Dominican University and lives in the Outer Sunset in San Francisco, where she dances, plays cello, and creates her life as an art form. She selected the poems for the Fog and Light anthology.
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10 JUNE 2023 — saturday
- Left Margin LIT presents "Craft and the Creative Life: How to Find Your Writing Community," a panel discussion focusing on San Francisco's rich literary community and the importance of finding your own writing community for inspiration and feedback, featuring poet Kelliane Parker, Down the Foggy Streets of My Mind; poet David Roderick, Blue Colonial; winner of the APR/Honickman Prize; Shizue Seigel, director of Write Now! SF Bay; poet and playwright Aimee Suzara, Souvenir; novelist Shruti Swamy, The Archer, winner of the California Book Award; moderated by short story writer Olga Zilberbourg, Like Water and Other Stories, part of San Francisco's literary festival Litquake, The American Bookbinders Museum, 355 Clementina Street, San Francisco, $20 ticket includes one complimentary drink at Craft and the Creative Life Happy Hour, 11:00 am-12:30 pm PDT (Purchase tickets here: www.litquake.org)
11 JUNE 2023 — sunday
- Poetry Flash presents a reading by Mary Mackey, Creativity: Where Poems Begin, and Judy Wells, Night at the Musée d'Orsay: Poems of Paris & Other Great European Cities, in person, 2727 California Street, a Cooperative Art Gallery, Berkeley, free, 3:00 pm PDT (www.2727.today).
- Second Sunday Readings presents poets Amanda Moore, Requeening, and Chloe Martinez, Corner Shrine, hosted by curator Siân Killingsworth, online via Zoom, registration is free and required for attendance, 3:00 pm PDT (More information here: secondsundayreadings.com)
12 JUNE 2023 — monday
- College of Marin presents "Elements of Creative Writing," a workshop led by poet Thomas Centolella, Almost Human, winner of the Dorset Prize, the workshop will explore various elements of good writing, open to all levels and genres, $119, runs six sessions, June 12-July 24, online via Zoom, 5:30 pm-8:30 pm PDT (Enroll here: marincommunityed.augusoft.net/index.cfm?method=ClassInfo.ClassInformation&int_class_id=5810&int_category_id=2&int_sub_category_id=10&int_catalog_id=0)
- The Green Arcade presents Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, discussing her new book, The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart, in conversation with author and activist James Tracy, Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power, The Green Arcade, 1680 Market Street, San Francisco, free, 7:00 pm PDT (More information here: thegreenarcade.com)
13 JUNE 2023 — tuesday
- Cobalt Poets presents a reading with featured poet George Bilgere, The White Museum, winner of the Autumn House Poetry Prize, followed by an open mic, online via Zoom, free, 7:30 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html)
14 JUNE 2023 — wednesday
- College of Marin presents "Poetry Writing Master Class," a workshop led by poet Thomas Centolella, Almost Human, winner of the Dorset Prize, attendees will discuss notable poems and examine poetic forms, including revision, $119, runs six sessions, June 14-July 19, online via Zoom, 2:10 pm-5:00 pm PDT (Enroll here: marincommunityed.augusoft.net/index.cfm?method=ClassInfo.ClassInformation&int_class_id=5811&int_category_id=2&int_sub_category_id=10&int_catalog_id=0)
- A poetry reading by Stewart Florsheim, Amusing the Angels, Gail Newman, Blood Memory, and reader and host Richard Silberg, The Horses: New and Selected Poems, refreshments, Temple Sinai, Albers Chapel, entrance is on Webster Street, just north of 28th Street beside the parking lot, "2808 Summit" is written above the door, several blocks east of Telegraph Avenue, no driving entry from Broadway, Oakland, free, 7:00 PDT (Phil Rubin, 510/547-8080; www.oaklandsinai.org)
15 JUNE 2023 — thursday
- Point Arena Third Thursday Poetry & Jazz presents a reading by Mark Sanford Gross, poet, radio host, and former Washington Post journalist, the reading will begin with improv jazz, followed by an open mic with musical accompaniment, Point Arena Community Center, 40 School Street, Point Arena, free, 7:00 pm PDT (More information here: www.artsmendocino.org/event/third-thursday-poetry-jazz-at-shindig)
16 JUNE 2023 — friday
- No events listed for this date. Find out how to submit your event listing.
17 JUNE 2023 — saturday
- 3rd Saturday Poetry features a reading by Nina Serrano and Scott Bird, plus open mic, Clarion Performing Arts Center, 2 Waverly Place, Chinatown neighborhood, San Francisco, 1:00 pm-3:00 pm PDT (www.theclarionsf.org)
18 JUNE 2023 — sunday
- The San Francisco Public Library presents historian Louis Niebur, Special Sound: The Creation and Legacy of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, discussing his new book, Menergy: San Francisco's Gay Disco Sound, which follows the birth of high energy dance music in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood and its influence on gay liberation, in conversation with sociologist James Gamson, Modern Families: Stories of Extraordinary Journeys of Kinship, James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center, San Francisco Public Library, Main Branch, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, free, 2:00-3:00 pm PDT (More information here: sfpl.org/events/2023/06/18/author-louis-niebur-discusses-menergy-san-franciscos-gay-disco-sound)
19 JUNE 2023 — monday
- No events listed for this date. Find out how to submit your event listing.
20 JUNE 2023 — tuesday
- Cobalt Poets presents a reading with featured poet Elyse Hart, Poems for Squares, followed by an open mic, online via Zoom, free, 7:30 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html)
- The San Francisco Public Library presents Zinething, a monthly LGBTQ zine-making meetup, come to make and learn about zines, co-presented by SF Zine Fest and the Hormel LGTQIA Center, open to new and experienced zine-makers, every third Tuesday of the month, Martin Paley Conference Room, San Francisco Public Library, Main Branch, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, free, 6:00-7:30 pm PDT (More information here: sfpl.org/events/2023/06/20/activity-zinething)
21 JUNE 2023 — wednesday
- No events listed for this date. Find out how to submit your event listing.
22 JUNE 2023 — thursday
- Poetry Flash presents a reading celebrating the publication of Bert Meyers: On the Life and Work of an American Master, readers include poets Eric Gudas, David Shaddock, and Anat Silvera, the poet's daughter, in person, Art House Gallery & Cultural Center, 2905 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, two blocks north of Ashby BART, refreshments, free, 7:00 pm PDT (poetryflash.org).
23 JUNE 2023 — friday
- No events listed for this date. Find out how to submit your event listing.
24 JUNE 2023 — saturday
- "A Bert Meyers Tribute," part of Fourth Saturdays: Poetry at the Claremont Library, the reading, by poets Amy Gerstler, co-editor Dana Levin, Maurya Simon, and Bert Meyer's son Daniel Meyers, celebrates the publication of Bert Meyers: On the Life and Work of an American Master, edited by Dana Levin and Adele Elise Williams, Claremont Helen Renwick Public Library, 208 N. Harvard Avenue, Claremont, 2:00 pm PDT
25 JUNE 2023 — sunday
- Poetry Flash presents a reading by Gail Rudd Entrekin, Walking Each Other Home, and Elizabeth C. Herron, In the Cities of Sleep, in person, Art House Gallery & Cultural Center, 2905 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, two blocks north of Ashby BART, free, 3:00 pm PDT (poetryflash.org).
26 JUNE 2023 — monday
- No events listed for this date. Find out how to submit your event listing.
27 JUNE 2023 — tuesday
- Cobalt Poets presents a reading with featured poet David Judah Oliver, inaugural Poet Laureate of Pomona, followed by an open mic, online via Zoom, free, 7:30 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html)
28 JUNE 2023 — wednesday
- No events listed for this date. Find out how to submit your event listing.
29 JUNE 2023 — thursday
- No events listed for this date. Find out how to submit your event listing.
30 JUNE 2023 — friday
- No events listed for this date. Find out how to submit your event listing.
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