Southern California Poetry Festival 2024 - Sunday, Nov. 17

Day three of the 2024 Southern California Poetry Festival, Sunday, November 17, features generative workshops and readings curated by DSTL Arts, Writ Large Projects, Da Poetry Lounge, and Four Way Books. In celebration of the Library of America's Latino Poetry anthology, Beyond Baroque and Letras Latinas, in partnership with UCLA’s César Chavez Chicana/o/x and Central American Studies Dept. presents a panel on Central American identity and poetics featuring Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Adela Najarro, Maya Chinchilla, and Janel Pineda.

Off-site, join poet Mike Sonksen on a brief literary tour of the neighborhood surrounding Beyond Baroque and meet us for a Garden Lunch courtesy of Safe Place for Youth in the Community Garden!

The evening features 2023 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellow, Roda Avelar, alongside San Diego Poet Laureate, Jason Magabo Perez, and others, for a reading of Poetics of Grief & Liberation. The festival closes out with breathtaking poetics of the Golden State as California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick reads from his new poetry collection with David St. John and Allison Hedge Coke.

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

Sunday schedule:

11:00 am - 1:00 pm - Taller de poesía en español con Iván García Mora: La imagen que me habla / Poetry Workshop in Spanish with Iván García Mora: The image that speaks to me

La fotografía, más que un testimonio del pasado, es un dispositivo que dialoga con el presente. Las imágenes tienen el potencial de provocar conversaciones que nos inviten a vincularnos de formas contra-hegemónicas con nuestro entorno: con las personas que nos rodean, con el territorio del que formamos parte y con las múltiples especies con las que cohabitamos. En La imagen que me habla exploraremos las maneras en que la fotografía y la poesía pueden conjugarse para detonar otras historias, encontrando una potencia especulativa y política. En este taller, realizaremos ejercicios prácticos en los que trabajaremos con fotografías familiares como punto de partida para la escritura poética. A partir de nuestras imágenes personales, exploraremos cómo las fotografías pueden despertar recuerdos, emociones y narrativas ocultas que dialogan con el presente. De esta manera, reflexionaremos sobre las maneras en que la experiencia personal puede convertirse en un espacio de resistencia política y reflexión crítica sobre el mundo que nos rodea.

Photography, more than a testimony of the past, is a device that engages in dialogue with the present. Images have the potential to provoke conversations that invite us to connect in counter-hegemonic ways with our environment: with the people around us, with the territory of which we are a part, and with the multiple species with which we cohabit. In The Image That Speaks To Me we explore the ways in which photography and poetry can be combined to trigger other stories, finding a speculative and political power. In this workshop, we will carry out practical exercises in which we will work with family photographs as a starting point for poetic writing. Starting from our personal images, we will explore how photographs can awaken memories, emotions, and hidden narratives that engage in dialogue with the present. In this way, we will reflect on the ways in which personal experience can become a space for political resistance and critical reflection on the world around us. The workshop will be led in Spanish.

11:00 am - 1:00 pm – 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: DSTL Arts & Four Way Books

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

DSTL Arts

Jeongmin Choi

Susan Chavez

Michelle Smith

Four Way Books

Blas Falconer

Louise Matthias

Carol Moldaw

2:00 pm - 2:50 pm – SoCal Lit Showcase II: Writ Large Projects & Da Poetry Lounge

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

Writ Large Projects

Ernest Hardy

Seohyun Ryu

Chiwan Choi

Da Poetry Lounge

Christian Perfas

Beth May

Blu

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 stationed throughout the Beyond Baroque space.

4:00 - 4:50 PM: Places We Call Home: Voices of the Central American Diaspora

In celebration of the Library of America's Latino Poetry anthology, Beyond Baroque and Letras Latinas presents a panel with poets of the Central American Diaspora featuring Darrel Alejandro Holnes (Panama), Adela Najarro (Nicaragua), Maya Chinchilla (Guatemala), and Janel Pineda (El Salvador). This gathering reflects the voices of U.S.-based poets whose works explore Queerness, Femeninity, and Black Heritage rooted in some of the territories composing the region of Central America.

This program is presented as part of Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home, a public humanities initiative taking place across the nation in 2024 and 2025, directed by Library of America and funded with generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Emerson Collective.

5:00 - 5:50 PM: Poetics of Grief & Liberation

A reading on poetics of resistance, solidarity, and honoring martyrs and ancestors. This reading features 2023 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellow, Roda Avelar, alongside San Diego Poet Laureate, Jason Magabo Perez, Fresno poet Aideed Medina, and L.A.-based, member of WAWOG, Fariha Róisín.

6:00 - 7:00 PM: California Fuschia

A reading of golden legends in the west coast. California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick is joined by David St. John, and Allison Hedge Coke. Cali poets take the stage transcending fault lines, deserts, and the final frontiers of the western coast with powerful verses.

All festival events are 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