Friday, September 8, 6:30 p.m.
FREE! via ZOOM
For tickets, visit bit.ly/pcsjtix
The 9th Annual San José Poetry Festival presents a ¡Cultura Poetry Night! Open Mic with Claudia Meléndez Salinas and Hector F. Castañeda.
This is Day Two of our four-day festival! Check out the complete list of events that are part of the 9th Annual San José Poetry Festival! This event is free to all. For tickets, visit bit.ly/pcsjtix.
¡Cultura Poetry Night! celebrates the culture of people who identify as Chicana/o, Raza, Latinx, and people with Indigenous heritage rooted in areas that are now Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. A multilingual event with two featured poets, guest poets, and open mic! Everyone is welcome at this inclusive event presented by Poetry Center San José, hosted by Elizabeth Jiménez Montelongo, in partnership with La Raíz Magazine.
Featured Poets
Claudia Meléndez Salinas is an indigenous woman born in Puebla, Mexico. She holds degrees from Cabrillo College, the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of Southern California. Her journalistic career spans three decades, and in 2017 she co-founded Voices of Monterey Bay, a bilingual internet magazine for California's central coast. Her first book, A Fighting Chance, was published by Arte Público Press in 2015. www.fighting-chance.org
Instagram: @claudiasmelendez / FB: CmelendezSalinas / X/Twitter: @melendezsalinas
Héctor F. Castañeda (aka: Dog Days Are Over) is a writer, creative coach, musician, audio engineer, producer, singer, graphic designer, curator, host of the Strange Alchemy podcast, and more-- based in Ohlone territory (East Side San José). Rooted in Temoaya Hñahñu and Otomí lineage, centering neurodivergent queering of language and form for Brown people of global majority (people of color). Themes touch on intuition, ancestral energy, surrealism, organized chaos, metaphysicality, philosophy, queerness, and marginalized bodies. www.dogdaysmusic.com
Instagram: @hector.the.alchemist / FB: @dogdaysareoverhc
Hosted by Elizabeth Jiménez Montelongo
IG: @elizabethjimenezmontelongo / FB: @ejmontelongo
Community Partner
La Raíz Magazine http://laraizmagazine.com
IG: @laraizmagazine / FB: @laraizmag
Want more poetry? Check out the rest of the San José Poetry Festival lineup.
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COVID NOTICE: If a venue cancels, the San José Poetry Festival event will be broadcast to PCSJ’s Zoom channel. All ticket holders will receive a link to the Zoom. Refund requests for unattended individual events moved online due to a venue cancellation will be reviewed and considered.
San José Poetry Festival 2023 is presented by Poetry Center San José and is sponsored in part by: Festival and Cultural Affairs grants from the City of San José; a grant from SVCreates, in partnership with the County of Santa Clara and the California Arts Council and also supported in part by a SVCreates National Endowment for the Arts American Rescue Plan grant; support from the offices of San José City Council Members David Cohen (D4) and Peter Ortiz (D5); Literary Arts Emergency Fund supported by the Mellon Foundation; and with support from Anne & Mark's Art Party, Applied Materials Foundation, Brandenburg Family Foundation and Silicon Valley Community Foundation. We thank Four Points by Sheraton for hotel accommodations. We would like to acknowledge and offer our deepest gratitude to past and current venues worthy of your support: Art Boutiki, Books Inc., Caravan Lounge, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, First Unitarian Church of San José, History/San José, MACLA, Mama Kin, Recycle Bookstore, Tabard Theatre, Willow Glen Public Library and Works/San José. Please support these spaces however you can. And we thank all our volunteers whose time and effort make this festival possible.