Keana Aguila Labra w/ friends!
About this Event
Poet Keana Aguila Labra celebrates their new collection, The Language of Unbreaking, alongside readings from fellow poets Kerry J Heckman, Kalehua Kim, Eric Lochridge, and Marty Salgado. Lorenz Mazon Dumuk will serve as emcee for the evening.
The Language of Unbreaking by Keana Aguila Labra is her fourth poetry collection, offering a deeply personal exploration of the author’s memories, ranging from reflections on family and self to broader themes of connection. Through the seamless blend of Cebuano and Tagalog, Labra crafts poems that weave together vibrant, delicate recollections, sometimes anchoring them in physical artifacts that hold profound emotional weight. The words themselves feel like they unravel the very fabric of memory, pulling readers into intense emotional capsules. Labra’s deep love for family, home, and community resonates throughout the book, offering a powerful and heartfelt expression of belonging. There are moments of loss that can break the reader’s spirit, yet these same poems provide a sense of catharsis, as if the reader is finally receiving the balm they’ve longed for. Labra’s physicality is present in the poems, with some exploring the raw autopsies of pain and suffering, while others celebrate the joys of the body and life. The interplay of Tagalog and Cebuano echoes the natural world’s reclaiming of urban spaces, infusing the poems with a sense of renewal. The Language of Unbreaking is a collection that functions as both a prayer for healing and a powerful litany of hope, dissolution, and redemption.
Keana Aguila Labra (they/them/she/her) is a queer Cebuana Tagalog Filipinx genre- and gender-fluid/non-binary poet, playwright, editor, and writer-in-diaspora residing on stolen Ohlone Tamyen land, (South) Bay Area, (East) San Jose. She works to provide a safe literary space for underserved and underrepresented communities as co-Editor-in-Chief of Marías at Sampaguitas and co-Founder of the BIPOC/LGBTQIA+ focused independent publishing house, Sampaguita Press. They served as one of the Honorary Santa Clara County Poets Laureate in Oct. ’21 alongside Lorenz Mazon Dumuk. Her poetry was nominated for Best of Net in 2019 and 2020. They were the SVCreates SVLaureate & Content Emerging Artist for 2023. She is a proud recipient of the Lucas Artists Residency Program Fellowship through Montalvo Arts Center. They are the author of the poetry chapbooks, No Saints (Lazy Adventurer Publishing, 2020), Mohilak (Fahmidan Co. & Publishing, 2021), Kanunay (Violet & the Bird, 2022), In Defense of (Self-Published, 2025), Conversations with(out) Daddy about Lolo (Sampaguita Press, 2025), and to love something you must carry it on your back (Bottlecap Press, 2025). The Language of Unbreaking is their first full-length collection (Sampaguita Press, 2025).
Kerry J Heckman (she/her) is a mental health therapist and writer based in Seattle, the home of the Coast Salish people. She is currently pursuing her MFA and creative writing at the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University. Before moving to the Pacific Northwest, she was a high school social worker in the Chicago area and worked in the Center for Students with Disabilities at DePaul University. Her work has appeared in the North American Review, Talking River Review, Thimble Literary Magazine, and Seattle Civic, among other publications. She is online at kerryjheckman.com and @kerryjwriter.
Kalehua Kim is the author of Mele, winner of the inaugural Pasifika Poetry Prize awarded by the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association. She was named one of Poets & Writers featured debut poets for 2025 and was a 2023 winner of the James Welch Prize for Indigenous Poets. Her work has appeared in Poetry Northwest, Denver Quarterly, Calyx, and ‘Ōiwi, A Native Hawaiian Journal.
Eric Lochridge is a poet and editor in Bellingham, Washington. He is the author of My Breath Floats Away From Me (FutureCycle Press, 2022) and three chapbooks. A graduate of the Rainier Writing Workshop, he serves as an associate poetry editor for Okay Donkey magazine. His poems have appeared in DIAGRAM, Slipstream, Gulf Stream, Freshwater Review, Psaltery and Lyre, and other literary journals.
Marty Salgado is an English Professor at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs where he teaches creative writing. His essays have been published in the Watershed Review, The Manzanita, and he has a forthcoming essay in Hanif Abdurraqib’s 68to05 Playlist Project. He is a son of California and claims the whole state as his home.
Lorenz Mazon Dumuk (siya/they/he) is a poet and spoken word artist from San Jose, California. Siya is the author of the book, Held (Sampaguita Press), as well as the author to two self published chapbooks, Ay Nako: Writing Through the Struggle, and I Think In Poetry. Lorenz is a VONA alumni, and a MALI (Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute) alumni, which is a Silicon Valley based program that focuses on developing leaders of color in the arts, culture, and entertainment sectors. Siya is one of the curators for, Glowing with the Moon, an open mic and interactive community space in San Jose. Lorenz writes with, against, and through the contradictions siya encounters, which allows siya to explore the different silences in niya life through niya poetry. Lorenz's spoken word performances are painfully heartfelt as well as magnificently healing. An awkwardly adorable poet who can be caught doing hip-circles before a poetry reading.
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