Bay Poets - Mission Grafica Poetry Performance & Closing Party

Experience poetic voices of rare vision and explore the evolution of Bay Area social justice movements through posters made by La Raza Graphics and the Mission Grafica print studio live at KALW. See poets Mukethe Kawinzi, María Esquinca, Rolando André López, and Josiah Luis Alderete and take one last look at the Mission Grafica art show, live and in person.

This event is presented with support from Joyride Pizza, who will be providing food for this event.

Mukethe Kawinzi, a shepherd and land steward who has farmed in sustainable and organic agriculture for six years, with a focus on small ruminants, artisanal cheesemaking, nonviolent livestock handling, and regenerative grazing. She is the author of touching grass (Porkbelly Press), Koans to a Young Cowboi (Bottlecap Press), rut (Ghost City Press Summer Series), and saanens, nubians, one lamancha (Winner, Quarterly West Chapbook Contest). Her writing illuminates the pathos and splendor of the natural world, race in rural spaces, the peculiar wit of livestock animals, and the pains and pleasures of physical labor. She herds goats on the open range in coastal California. More at mukethekawinzi.com

María Esquinca is a Xicana educator, poet and journalist. A fronteriza, she was born in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico and grew up in El Paso, Texas. She currently teaches newcomers who are recent immigrants at San Francisco International High School. Her debut collection, “Where Heaven Sinks” was the 2024 Andres Montoya Poetry Prize winner, and was selected by Juan Felipe Herrera.

Rolando André López is a writer and poet born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. His work has been published in Orca Literary Journal, Passages North, Konch Magazine, and elsewhere. He is a 2021-2022 Puerto Rican Artist Resident at the Massachusetts Museum of Modern Art. You can find him on Instagram: @nocolornocontrast.

Josiah Luis Alderete is a full blooded Spanglish speaking Pocho y left handed callejero de Aztlán. He is the curator and host of the long running monthly Latine reading series Speaking Axolotl and is the author of the poetry book “Baby Axolotls & Old Pochos(Black Freighter Press 2021) and the chapbooks “Fuchi Faces de los Estados Jodidos”(For The Pueblo Press,2023) and cuernitos de humo y other fragmentos(Workers Quarter Printshop 2026). In 2023 he was the Poetry Center’s Mazza Writer in Residence at San Francisco State. In 2024 his work was tranlsated in Spanish by the Universidad Autónoma De Nuevo León, as part of Hablando en Lenguas, a literary project that paired Mexican and Xicanx poets. Along with his bookstore sister Tân Khanh Cao, Josiah tends the portal known as Medicina Para Pesadillas Bookstore y Galeria on 24th Street in San Pancho, Califas.

This is the closing party for Mission Grafica: The Public's Voice, a collaborative art exhibition produced with the Mission Cultual Center for Latino Arts. tracing the evolution of social justice movements in the Bay Area. Through posters and prints — many produced in MCCLA’s community print studio — the show is a living timeline of how Bay Area artists have responded to power, injustice, and change for generations.

There is a $10 - $20 sliding scale suggested donation for this event. Nobody will be turned away for lack of funds.

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📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI

🚪 Reception doors open at 6:00

🗣️ Program begins at 7:00

🆓 The event is free with an RSVP — and you are welcome to donate what you want

Please note:

• The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street
• We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north
• Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue
• If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location; free street parking is available across from the venue at 7:00 pm

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