Sunday, August 7th

Poets double header

(split by jazz!)

Two major poetry readings this Sunday, at 2:00 and at 7:00–

G. Justin Hulog

At 2 pm, a 2-hour showcase of poets gathering under the banner of Philippine American Writers & Artists, Inc.

Barbara Jane Reyes hosts Tina Bartolome, Bonne Marie Bautista, G. Justin Hulog, Cheena Marie Lo and Michael Medrano.

TINA BARTOLOME is a San Francisco native and daughter of immigrants from the Philippines and Switzerland. Her solidarity with people’s struggles for self-determination has taken her to the Philippines, Cuba and Guåhan (Guam) with a steady commitment to return to working class neighborhoods in San Francisco and Oakland and facilitate radical spaces for young people to develop leadership and artistic voice for making social change.

BONNE MARIE BAUTISTA was born in Daly City, raised in Quezon City, Philippines and grew up in San Francisco. She earned a BA in English Literature from Mills College in Oakland, where she also served as editor in chief of The Campanil. She is an alum of the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation VOICES Workshops and is currently the VONA program coordinator.

G. JUSTIN HULOG (pictured above) writes stories about ruined gods, forgotten spaces and new worlds. Born in Baguio City, he grew up in California before leaving home to study Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He has written for Karma Magazine. Justin is currently completing his MFA in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University.

CHEENA MARIE LO earned her BFA in Writing, Literature and Publishing at Emerson College. She currently resides in Oakland, CA, where she is pursing an MFA in Poetry at Mills College. Her spirit animal is the turtle, and she enjoys pulling warm laundry out of the dryer.

MICHAEL MEDRANO was born and raised in Fresno, California, the heart of the San Joaquin Valley. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and has performed his work at Stanford University, The Loft Literary Arts Center in Minneapolis, and the University of Colorado, Boulder. His work has appeared in Rattle; North American Review; The Cortland Review; and Bombay Gin among other publications. He is host of the literary radio show Pakatelas on KFCF 88.1FM. His first book of poetry, Born in the Cavity of Sunsets (Bilingual Press 2009) was a finalist for the ForeWord Magazine Book.

And Sunday evening at 7 pm, we have a return visit by Long Island poet George Wallace, joined by local poet and publisher Diane Frank.

GEORGE WALLACE works out of a bag that encompasses Walt Whitman, the surrealists and the beats, but produces work that is entirely fresh and his own.  He’s a strong performance poet with clear musical underpinnings and an ability to spin a narrative that will carry you effortlessly along the trajectory of his thoughts.

Beginning in 1998, George assiduously worked to build communities of poets — organizing countless readings, writing a column called “Walt’s Corner” in the Long Islander,  the newspaper founded by Walt Whitman in 1838, and establishing Poetrybay, a widely respected online literary magazine that continues to this day.  In2003, he was named Poet Laureate of Suffolk County on Long Island.

DIANE FRANK has been described as “a harem of seven women in one very small body.” She lives in San Francisco, where she dances, plays cello, and creates her life as an art form. Diane teaches at San Francisco State University, leads workshops for young writers as a Poet in the School, and directs the Blue Light Press On-line Poetry Workshop. She is also a documentary scriptwriter with expertise in Eastern and sacred art. Blackberries in the Dream House, her first novel, won the Chelson Award for Fiction and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.  She has published five books of poems, including Entering the Word Temple and The Winter Life of Shooting Stars.

In between these two poetry readings, from 4:30 to 6:30 pm on Sunday afternoon, we present the second installment in our “free jazz” (i.e., spontaneously improvised music) series called Outfest! Jim Ryan’s Forward Energy.  See below for more on that!

Even if you’ve been hanging out at Stern Grove on Sunday afternoon, you can still make it back to the store for the tail end of the 1st set and all of the second!  You can do it all!