Friday, September 8th, 8:00 p.m.
Tabard Theatre
29 N. San Pedro Street, San José
For tickets visit Eventbrite
The 9th Annual San José Poetry Festival presents Write Bloody poets Derrick Brown, David Perez, John-Francis Quiñonez and Ashia Ajani!
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! Our festival pass will get you into all live events and online events.
This event is free to all youth aged 19 and under and to those with a festival pass. $20 for general public and $15 for PCSJ Members. Admission may be purchased at the door.
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UPDATE: Due to unexpected circumstances, RC Weslowski is unable to travel from Vancouver, BC to San Jose to perform his works. We are thoroughly saddened for him as we know what this trip meant to him, and we are saddened for San Jose because we know how marvelous RC and his performances are. We wish him well on his diverted journey and look forward to inviting him back in the coming year. Please visit rcweslowski.com and get to know our friend RC. In his stead, former Santa Clara County Poet Laureate and fellow Write Bloody author David Perez will share his poetry along with the rest of the WB crew.
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Since 2004, Write Bloody has been one of the most influential publishers of spoken word artists and performance poets in North America. Helmed by Derrick Brown, WB has published 160 titles and 85 online books to date. This event will feature Derrick Brown (L.A.), David Perez (San Jose), John-Francis Quiñonez (R.I.) and Ashia Ajani (Oakland) with a couple of poems by some local favorites.
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Derrick Brown has toured as a storyteller, comic and poet around the world. He has performed at Glastonbury, All Tomorrow's Parties, Berlin Intl. Lit Festival. He had a poetry book shop in Austin Texas, performed on The Tonight Show and is the founder and president of Write Bloody Publishing. He has published nine books of poetry. He runs the Your River Is Waiting workshop series as well as a writing workshop series for fellow veterans. He is also a comedian who combines poetry with his stand up. It sounds terrible, I know. He has performed in venues around the world with comedians Kristin Schaal, David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, Jon Glaser, and H. Jon Benjamin. He's previously toured or headlined with Eugene Mirman, Kurt Braunohler, Kyle Kinane and tons of other weirdos. He lives in LA. https://brownpoetry.com/
John-Francis Quiñonez (They/Them) is a Desert Flower & Current Resident of Providence, RI / a Writer & Multimedia Artist / Maker of ice creams & tamales / House Manager of the Columbus Theatre /Current Resident of the Queer.Archive.Work. project / has a collection of Poems with Write Bloody Publishing (‘22) entitled “Keep Your Little Lights Alive (Poems After Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love & Others)”
You can find their work in Pigeon Pages, Ours Poetica, Voicemail Poems, Slamfind, Counterclock, Maps for Teeth, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, and as part of a playing card deck with Game Over Books. https://www.johnfrancisquinonez.com/
David Perez served as the 2014-2016 Santa Clara County Poet Laureate. He’s a recipient of the Arts Council Silicon Valley Fellowship for Literary Art and the National Association for Latino Arts and Culture Achievement Award. He’s also a repeat guest on the NPR storytelling series, Snap Judgment and author of the poetry collection, "Love in a Time of Robot Apocalypse" from Write Bloody Publishing. Most recently, his work has appeared in Cæsura, The Wild Word, and the DMQ Review. He has taught literature and creative writing at San Jose State University and Ohlone College in Fremont, CA. linktr.ee/dperezer
Ashia Ajani is a storyteller and environmental educator born and raised in Denver, CO, unceded territory of the Arapahoe, Cheyenne and Ute peoples. Writing as a queer Black femme, Ashia works to preserve, interrogate and imagine how the Black diaspora has shaped and continues to shape land stewardship in the Western hemisphere.
Ashia has been published in Sierra Magazine, Atlas&Alice Magazine, The Journal, Sage Magazine, Them.us, and The Hopper Literary Magazine, among others. Ashia released a first chapbook, We Bleed Like Mango, in October of 2017. Their debut full length poetry collection, Heirloom, will be published in Spring 2023 with Write Bloody Publishing.’ https://ashiaajani.com/
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.