Poetry, Like Fútbol, is for Everyone
About this Event
Every four years, the world unites to cheer for their national team in the sport of football (or fútbol). Join us for a poetry reading organized around the principle that fútbol brings all people together while FIFA's machinations seem always to divide people along economic, nationalistic, or even ethnic lines. This reading highlights a diverse array of thought centered on the idea that who makes a sport are the people that play it, not the people that pay it. Featuring SoCal writers Jennifer Doyle, Yago Cura, Romeo Guzmán, George B. Sánchez-Tello, and Jose Oseguera.
Doors Open: 7:00 PM I Readings: 7:30 PM.
About the authors
Jennifer Doyle writes about art, sports, and sex — sometimes all at once. She has written about soccer in Los Angeles, the women's game, and is currently writing Sex Test, a book about the category of women's sports. She lives in Los Angeles and teaches at UC Riverside. She is also an art writer, curator, and is President of the Board of Directors at Human Resources Los Angeles, an interdisciplinary arts space in Chinatown.
Yago Cura is a public librarian in South Central Los Angeles. He moderates a monthly reading series in Nipseyland/CD8 named after the first Black Librarian hired in LA, Miriam Matthews. He is also the owner of the SoCal small press, HINCHAS Press (www.hinchaspress.com), whose newest title is Mike Sonksen's "Traces, Places, Faces". Yago lives in Torrance with his family. His latest piece of non-fiction, For the Love of Fútbol, Not FIFA, appeared in Zócalo Public Square in May of 2026.
In the last decade, Romeo Guzmán has launched a public history project dedicated to building an archive of soccer in the San Joaquin Valley, written essays that weave together family history, migration, and the growth of the game in Southern California, and published fútbol fiction. Guzmán has also organized tournaments that combine popular education and sport, in support of refugees and Palestine. He coaches girls and is the author of the chapbook Pocho Blues (Sybill Press).
George B. Sánchez-Tello lives, writes and teaches in Los Angeles. An award-winning reporter, his work on the beautiful game has been featured in Howler, America's first literary magazine dedicated to futbol, and Hyphen. A few of tonight's readers have been selected for the annual George Sánchez old man pick up and comprise MuchoTaeketEasi FC.
Jose Oseguera is a writer of poetry, short fiction and literary nonfiction. His writing has been featured or is forthcoming in Water Stone, Pinch and Sonora Review. He is the author of the poetry collections “The Milk of Your Blood” (Kelsay Books, 2021) and “And This House Is Only a Nest” (Homebound Publications, 2024).
Emmanuel Ortiz is a Chicano/Puerto Rican/Irish-American community organizer and poet. He is a founding member of the Minnesota-based Latinx writers/poets collective Palabristas: Latinx Wordslingers, founded in 2002 and long ago authored two chapbook of poems. He has been playing fútbol with the Left Wing Futbolistas network since 2005 and is currently scheming up an anthology of poetry about fútbol and afútbol film festival.
About Beyond Baroque
Beyond Baroque is one of the United States' leading independent Literary | Arts Centers and public spaces dedicated to expanding the public's knowledge of poetry, literature and art through cultural events and community interaction. Founded in 1968 as an experimental literary magazine, Beyond Baroque is based out of the original City Hall building in Venice, California. The Center offers a diverse variety of literary and arts programming including readings and workshops. The building also houses a bookstore with a large collection of new poetry books for sale.
Livestream: If you can’t join us in person the event will be livestreamed on at the scheduled time of the event. If you are tuning in this way, no ticket purchase is necessary.
If you are attending in person, ticket purchase is required. Tickets will be available at the Beyond Baroque bookstore on the day of the event, but we recommend registering in advance through Eventbrite. Masks are encouraged while inside our center. Please arrive early.
Event attendees are expected to behave in a respectful and considerate manner while in our space. Beyond Baroque reserves the right to remove individuals from our events, virtual or otherwise, if they are not respecting the space, staff, fellow attendees, or performers.
Where is it happening?
USD 0.00 to USD 11.49
