OK, full confession, I am totally not a poetry buff, but I recently received as a gift from my best friend a book of love poems written by Pablo Neruda and a poem from Cole Krawitz, "Ode to Aretha Franklin's Hat." They both reminded me of the power of poetry to move you to action, to reflect, to dream and to believe in the capabilities of yourself and your communities. My chosen form of communication to express my outrage at an unjust world has manifested through political writing, but there are multiple mediums through which activists and organizers communicate their messages, street theater, song, film, chanting and of course poetry. We choose these mediums often because mainstream media has failed us, and because we need spaces to speak our own truths.
So when lgbtq literary luminaries and fierce emerging writers come together to do an event on poetry, love, sex, politics, chisme and more, y'all know it's going to be hot. And hot it will be this Monday, June 8th when these poets, whose works testify to the many generations and stories of LGBTQ lives and experiences, hit the stage. For those of you in the Bay Area looking for some really amazing poets of the radical, queer, working class, activist, POC set, check out this event Testimonies, Chisme, Spilling the Tea: An Evening of Poetry featuring Dorothy Allison, Ching-In Chen, Elana Dykewomon, Rigoberto González, Eloise Klein Healy, Cole Krawitz, D.A. Powell, Ely Shipley & Griselda Suárez, and will be hosted by Jewelle Gomez.
Doors Open at 7pm; Show at 7:30pm
SOMArts
934 Brannan Street
San Francisco, CA
You can get tickets here.
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Samhita you ought to give the Nuyorican Cafe a shot.
is the pablo neruda collection 'the captain's verses'? if so, you have to read the poem "night on the island". it just might be my favorite poem of all time.