Community Guidelines

Creating respectful and inclusive spaces

Poetry Center San José is dedicated to promoting diverse literary expression in our community as a means of exploring, defining, and enriching our shared human experience. We ask everyone who attends our events to engage with our literary community in that effort.

PCSJ does not tolerate harassment or discrimination of any kind. Our intention is to foster environments in which all participants feel both safe and free to engage in meaningful self expression. 

The following guidelines are intended to help everyone who engages with PCSJ approach our spaces and events with compassion and mutual respect for all participants — especially when encountering different perspectives. 

Our community agreement was created by consensus with the PCSJ board of directors. 

Agreement and Protocols

PCSJ values and promotes environments where all participants are respectful and inclusive. In accordance with this, PCSJ does not tolerate violence, harassment, or any action that threatens the safety of the community or any of its members. Likewise, PCSJ does not tolerate racist, sexist, homophobic, ableist behavior or any other oppressive action. 

Participants who attend PCSJ events or who are active in our programs who witness or experience an unsafe or oppressive situation are encouraged to call attention to what is happening and/or share the experience with the PCSJ board of directors by contacting the president, president@pcsj.org. The president will alert the board of directors who will address the matter promptly.

PCSJ will, at minimum, listen to the full details of any reported incident and engage in dialogue with the individual or individuals who did the reporting, if they are comfortable and available to do so, in an effort to understand the impact of the incident and determine a course of action. 

Further actions PCSJ may take include: 

  • Asking the person (or persons) who did the harm to speak with the president and/or members of the board. 

  • Asking the person to refrain from participating in PCSJ programs and events until they can demonstrate that they understand the impact of their actions and express a willingness to change. 

  • Depending on the severity of the act or the impact, PCSJ may elect to inform the person that they are no longer welcome to participate, attend, or otherwise engage with PCSJ programs and events.

In developing relationships with people with different perspectives, it’s possible we may make mistakes. We are committed to doing our best, in good faith, to listen, to learn, and to treat others with respect and dignity.