Southern California Poetry Festival 2024 - Saturday, Nov. 16

Day two of the 2024 Southern California Poetry Festival, Saturday, November 16, we’ll feature generative workshops on the craft of poetry led by Maya Salameh and others. Readings in the theater present emerging and established voices of the SoCal Literary scene curated by El Martillo Press, Spill Way Magazine, Punk Hostage Press, and Women Who Submit. Off-site, join poet Tom Laichas on a brief literary tour of the neighborhood surrounding Beyond Baroque and join us for a Garden Lunch courtesy of Safe Place for Youth.

In partnership with the Radius of Arab American Writers and Mizna, poets Sarah Yanni, Elina Katrin, and Summer Farah will dive into the editorial, curatorial, and design aspects of their books, and discuss their experiences in the publishing world. In partnership with UNAM Los Angeles, poets from Tijuana will be reading their texts including Charles Bukowski’s first translator into Spanish, Roberto Castillo Udiarte, joined by Iván García Mora, Martin Camps, and Marlon PV.

In the mix of poetry and prose, Gabrielle Civil, Muriel Leung, Safia Elhilo, and Ryka Aoki, share from their newly published fiction and memoirs. The day concludes with Harmony Holiday, Erin Marie Lynch, and Gail Wronsky debuting wholly original, new works commissioned for the festival in the season finale of The NEW Series. Join us for the afterparty with DJ Gemma Castro!

All readings in the Wanda Coleman Theater are free. For information about the festival, including the complete three-day schedule, visit beyondbaroque.org

Saturday schedule:

11:00 am - 1:00 pm - A Workshop with Maya Salameh

Strange Forms: Poetry & Technology

Technology has played a primary role in how the powerful manipulate and monitor the masses, especially those most marginalized among us. In this workshop participants will read poems that gaze back at and resist surveillance technologies including drones, immigration papers and algorithmic rules. We'll examine the use of innovative experimental forms, reading poems by Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Vanessa Villareal, Solmaz Sharif, and Jennifer Tamayo, discussing their approaches to writing against and within various technologies. Students will leave the class with not only a better understanding of experimental poetic forms and 3 themed prompts, but a heightened appreciation for the potential of poetry as a form of theory-making, resistance and self-reclamation.

11:00 am - 1:00 pm – A Generative Poetry Workshop

Details TBA

PLEASE NOTE: *workshops will be capped at fifteen people and will not be overbooked. Please note that our morning workshops happen at the same time, therefore you can only reserve a spot for one workshop. If you have reserved a space in a workshop and will not be able to attend, kindly email [email protected], or call 310-822-3006 so that we can release your spot to another person.

1:00 pm - 1:50 pm – SoCal Lit Showcase I: El Martillo Press & Spillway Magazine

A showcase of six poets from independent presses, organizations, and literary journals publishing and supporting poetry in Southern California.

El Martillo Press

Sonia Gutierrez

Donato Martinez

Matthew Cuban Hernandez

Spillway Magazine

Beth Marquez

Aubrey Yarbrough

Dania Ayah Alkhouli

2:00 pm - 2:50 pm – SoCal Lit Showcase II: Women Who Submit & Punk Hostage Press

A showcase of six poets from independent presses, organizations, and literary journals publishing and supporting poetry in Southern California.

Women Who Submit

Beth Marquez

Aubrey Yarbrough

Dania Ayah Alkhouli

Punk Hostage Press

Richard Modiano

A. Razor

O.R.

3:00 - 4:00 pm: S.P.Y. Garden Lunch

Join us for a fresh lunch outdoors! Dishes will feature organic produce grown and nurtured by the wonderful Safe Place for Youth Community Garden team. Join the myriad of interactive art activities like printmaking and create your own poem from our poetry trees around the space!

4:00 - 4:50 PM: Poetry in Making: Mizna Staff and Contributors on Chapbooks & Publishing

Join Sarah Yanni, Elina Katrin, and Summer Farah as they read from their chapbooks and discuss their unique experiences with the publishing world. Three poets of the Arab and SWANA diaspora will dive into the editorial, curatorial, and design aspects of their books, offering insight into the creative decisions and challenges that shaped their work.

5:00 - 5:50 PM: Tijuana Underground (Reading in Spanish/Lectura en Espa˜ñol)

This multi-generational reading gathers emerging and prominent voices from Tijuana, Baja California. Poets will be reading texts in Spanish, and a few english translations, offering a glimpse outside bordelandscapes and focus on the realities of Tijuana life. Featuring Roberto Castillo Udiarte, known for being the first translator of Charles Bukowski into Spanish, and his most recent collection, Smooth Talking Dog translated into English by Anthony Seidman; Iván García Mora, past co-curator of the poetry festival Poesía Caracol; borderlands scholar Martín Camps, and multi-media poet and cultural worker, Marlon P.V. The reading will be held mainly in Spanish.

6:00 - 6:50 PM: Poets Writing Prose

Poets read their fiction & memoirs, featuring Muriel Leung, Gabrielle Civil, Safia Elhilo, & Ryka Aoki

7:00 - 8:00 PM: The NEW Series

The NEW Series concludes with Harmony Holiday, Erin Marie Lynch and Gail Wronsky debuting wholly original work commissioned by Beyond Baroque.

8:00 PM - 9:30 PM: SoCal Poetry Festival Afterparty with DJ Gemma Castro

Join us in The Poets' Garden for an afterparty with DJ Gemma Castro spinning tunes under the November moonlight!

All festival events are free & in-person at Beyond Baroque. Masks are required while inside our center.

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, fellow attendees, or performers.

Reservation Policy: Please RSVP if you are planning to attend this event. Limited seating is available in the theater, therefore seating may not be guaranteed in the case of a full program; we recommend arriving early.

Host or Publisher Beyond Baroque Literary | Arts Center