Please join Clarion Alley Mural Project for the first of two Manifest Differently Poetry Jams at the San Francisco Public Library
January 11, 6 – 7pm
San Francisco Public Library Main Branch
100 Larkin Street – Latino/Hispanic Community Room
Poets in this series include:
Josiah Luis Alderete is a full blooded Pocho spanglish speaking poeta who has been an active part of La Area Bahia’s Spoken Word scene for over twenty years. He was one of the founding members of outspoken word group The Molotov Mouths and is the curator and host of the long running monthly Latinx reading series Speaking Axolotl. His book of poems “Baby Axolotls & Old Pochos” was published in 2021 by Black Freighter Press. Currently he tends the 24th street portal as one of the owners of Medicine For Nightmares Bookstore & Galeria and resides in North Richmond where he is waiting for Quetzalquatl to arrive.
Lourdes Figueroa is an oral poet. Her poems are a dialogue of her lived experience when her family worked in el azadón in Yolo County. The words el azadón are used by the ones who work in the fields — the work of tilling the soil under the blistering sun. She is the author of the chapbooks Ruidos = To Learn Speak, & most recent Vuelta with Nomadic Press. Her poem Pieces from YOLOTL was nominated for a Pushcart prize by Quite Lightning. She works and lives in Oakland. A native of limbo nation, Lourdes continues to believes in your lung and your throat.
Maw Shein Win’s most recent poetry collection is Storage Unit for the Spirit House (Omnidawn) which was nominated for the Northern California Book Award in Poetry, longlisted for the PEN America Open Book Award, and shortlisted for CALIBA’s Golden Poppy Award for Poetry. Win’s previous collections include Invisible Gifts (Manic D Press) and two chapbooks Ruins of a glittering palace (SPA) and Score and Bone (Nomadic Press). Win’s Process Note Series features poets and their process. She is the inaugural poet laureate of El Cerrito, CA and teaches poetry in the MFA Program at the University of San Francisco. Win often collaborates with visual artists, musicians, and other writers and was recently selected as a 2023 YBCA 100 Honoree. Along with Dawn Angelicca Barcelona and Mary Volmer, she is a co-founder of Maker, Mentor, Muse, a new literary community. mawsheinwin.com
Tureeda Mikell, is an Oakland native, MoAD 2022 Poet in Residence, original Black Panther alum, story medicine woman, poet, author, and educator. She has published 73 at-risk student anthologies from 5 bay area counties. Hailed, activist for holism hell bent on asserting life, her works have been published and or traveled from Africa, France, UK Australia, Japan, and China. Her book, Synchronicity: The Oracle of Sun Medicine was nominated for the California Book Award. Tureeda co- produced and curated EastSide Arts Alliance, Patrice Lumumba Anthology, both published by Nomadic Press.
Led by CAMP, Manifest Differently is a new project developed, curated, and led by Megan Wilson and Kim Shuck with support from independent curator Trisha Lagaso Goldberg. In 2023/24, we are working with 38 diverse, multigenerational visual/media artists and poets to interrogate the history of Manifest Destiny and its legacies of inherited and perpetuated violence, trauma, and addiction. The outgrowth of resistance and resilience – giving fire to movements for social/ culture change. The project will be presented in 2023/24 at seven locations – Clarion Alley Mural Project (CAMP), Artists’ Television Access (ATA), Minnesota Street Project, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), Book Castle, the Beat Museum, and the San Francisco Public Library.
Please note: Clarion Alley Mural Project (CAMP) never called for a boycott of the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) after they would not allow our Wall + Response exhibition to move forward without the removal of one of the four murals being presented, the Arab Liberation Mural, which included a small protest sign that reads “Zionism is Racism,” expressing the lived experience of Palestinians. We did not do this because we fully support our public libraries!
However, CAMP is proud to have stood by our artists and AROC in not caving to the racist decision of SFPL leadership. At the time we felt supported by the over 2,000 letters the Library received in our support and the demand to reinstate the exhibition; today we celebrate that San Francisco has become the largest US city to adopt a resolution for an immediate and sustained ceasefire in the ongoing Israeli bombardment of Gaza. The City received over 65,000 emails and calls demanding Ceasefire Now! Huge Props to AROC for their work to ensure our Human Rights are Upheld!
