Tomás Riley reading at Galería de la Raza's Lunada, May 8, 2009

Tomás Riley reading at Lunada Literary Lounge and Open-Mic
Featuring Yosimar Reyes, and Kirya Traber
Curated by Tomas Riley; Friday, May 8, 2009
Galería de la Raza, San Francisco, California.

Tomás Riley is an author, educator and a veteran of the Chicano spoken word collective The Taco Shop Poets. A finalist for the California Voices Award from Poets & Writers Magazine, his written work has been featured in several anthologies including Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam (Three Rivers Press), Primera Pagina (Scapegoat Press) and Chorizo Tonguefire (California Arts Council). His first book Mahcic debuted on Calaca Press in December 2005. Currently he works as Co-Executive Director of ArtsChange, an organization dedicated to arts and social transformation in Richmond, CA.

Tomás Rileys poems are the necessary documents we must carry to insure the safe crossing, the guide by the hand, the finger to the lip, poetry becomes a paint by numbers game of language, truth and funk. His gaze takes us across streets as he crosses himself at the corner of 24th and la Misión, more like the intersection of revolución and eternidad. This first collection of poems takes pen to pavement, so do listen closely to the familiar street beating like a thousand sacred hearts tattooed forever.
-MARISELA NORTE, norteWORD

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