 Look at everybody here. Hello everybody. Welcome to this evening. It's so nice to see you all. I am an ESA I am one of the librarians Actually working on duty, which is great and we have John Smalley who is your librarian host in real time We are both here to help you tonight. I'll be your tech host I'm gonna do a quick quick announcement and turn it over to Paul So welcome to summer stride if you have not signed up for summer. Hi, kitty I Used to work with kitty a long time ago in the chat box. I put a link to tonight's document I'll also send this out to you by email tomorrow, and I'll have all the information we talk about I've noticed as programs progress lots of people talk about books and resources. So I'll put those in the docs for you And make sure you sign up for summer stride San Francisco Public Library acknowledges the painful situation we are in as a country The library stands in solidarity with all who are working on collective action systematic racism Admitting a few more people in As a library we're here to help our community and provide you with useful and factual information We've created many many resource book lists librarian created Book lists and resources not only about race and justice and Incarceration and understanding structural racism racism, but about black joy and about black arts and black history and all the celebration of What black culture has brought to America? So that is available in the doc. It's also available in our website The doc also has a couple sites that are already author recommended places to look for resources and places We could donate at this time We also want to acknowledge the many Romitish Sholoni tribal groups and families as the rightful stewards on the lands in Which we reside as FPL encourages you to learn more about native culture land rights and first nation There's also some great resources in my doc one that I'd love to point out is called native land It's a website with an interactive map that allows you to put in any location And it will tell you what tribes are there what tribes were originally there what treaties are in place and what treaties have been broken It's a really great organic map and a work in progress And we have lots of upcoming events. It's still pride. It is pride It's the 50th anniversary of pride. So we have a lot of pride related book clubs book authors Are another librarian past librarian Jim van buskirk is going to be doing a presentation about pre-stonewall There were gay people before stonewall. Yes We also have two really amazing Juneteenth events Juneteenth when I first moved to San Francisco was an amazing Amazing event and it has trickled down to almost nothing. So I'm so happy that we can bring this back As a celebration and I hope to see I have seen a lot more people doing Juneteenth events this year we have on Juneteenth June 19th at noon a Partnership with Moad and we'll be presenting Harlem of the West the Fillmore Jazz era With Lewis Watts and Elizabeth Pippin silver new interviews new photos. The book is just gorgeous. It's a heyday book and Then we have our friend Jarell Phillips who did an amazing photo exhibit in our Jewett gallery about She must have been a year ago now But he's going to present an exhibit a presentation called the souls of black folk joy grace and glory and he's traveled across America and to All sorts of places in Africa Haiti and he just as his photos are beautiful So I'm really looking forward to that one and those are all in your dock as well But that's on Saturday at 2 p.m. June 20th And I'm going to hand it over to Paul and I'll be monitoring chat If you can private chat to me if you need something or something goes completely wrong I'll end the meeting and we'll convene in another time All right, Paul you are on thank you all I Thank you. Thank you. Yes. I thank you and thank you everybody for showing up tonight faculty and students from from San Francisco creative writing Oh my god, look I have more people rolling in. Oh my god. This you guys are beautiful beautiful audience tonight I want to point out that I want to thank San Francisco public library for sharing this platform with us allowing our students and our Faculty to do their seasonal showcase here with them Just an update for everybody in the creative writing Institute community We are going to be taking right from the gut into we're going to make it a monthly series now So we're you're going to be seeing a lot of us and and we'll be asking you guys again and again and again to come work And do work and it also for instructors to promote our classes, which I'll put out there But also we wouldn't be having this wonderful gig with the San Francisco public library if it wasn't for Or one and only poet laureate of San Francisco Kim shuck who can't then so this is in this So this was done through the auspices of her series Poem jam Kim. Did you want to say anything about poem jam or welcome folks or so anything real quick? I'm just really excited to be back at home jam and I'm really thrilled to hear the students that I Didn't teach It just seemed logical to While we're doing These virtually to really highlight communities rather than individuals and I'm really delighted To see you all here a lot of friends in the place and I'm happy to see you. Thank you Thank you Kim. All right, and real quick. I'm just going to put up the website I'm in the chat. Feel free to everybody come come at me and chat if you need to Because we got a big great big wonderful crazy lineup tonight There's the link to the San Francisco creative writing Institute and from that I am going to also Just do my own I'm going to do my own little pitch for my workshop that I have coming up Which is the chat book editing to class and what it is It's deciding whether or not is like hey is my chat book really going to be a chat book Or is it going to be full-length? It's either wrapping up a longer type of manuscript And and working manuscripts that are in progress already. So that's what I mean by chat book too We can't generate new writing material for this workshop But that would be done entirely outside of the scope of the workshop all of the meeting times For the workshop. I'll be leading here will be basically group feedback and working on group feedback Directed towards getting a manuscript finish and so that is that is called chat book editing too And that starts on just Saturday, June 20th. It's a Saturday. It'll be Saturday mornings at 10 30 And I've just got and I just posted the link for that workshop in the chat If folks are interested in taking a look at that and now what I'm going to post is the lineup Because I bet I'm sure if you're wondering where the hell am I in the lineup tonight? And so I was just starting to talk to some folks about that and I will get that up and for you in just a moment here and And that is the lineup in the chat real quick like you can also be able to go into the Facebook event You can also see it in there And then we'll start working, but I'll be working from a larger list and I Because it's a long lineup and it's really unfair to ask somebody in this tremendous this power pack lineup to go first I'm gonna go ahead and take take the fire. I'll take the point fire and go ahead and And I'll get started with a piece that I am gonna read here, which is called As soon as I find it believe it or not. I still live journal and I still keep my stuff on live journal It's a beautiful thing. Let me tell you amazing that it even still exists So this is after a after two after two after two dear writer a dear writer friend and a dear influence I've known we're communicated with over Caitlyn Meyer and Yusef Kumanyaka and this is called when it was easy When it was easy to occupy two places at once you wanted to know how I was doing it Felt like hours alone in an over chlorinated bear facts hot tub Overlooking a dead-end alley in love with the kissing recalling the desire more than the touch Living on what is invoked floating out of miles trumpet a screech owl on a mission a Quest for the hot breath on the nape of my neck has followed me all my life still Under the force of the tub jets not moving but clearly on my feet Stare down by a swampy glow emanating all the way across the Pacific Rim from Fukushima Followed by a sonic boom from the dented hood of a pickup truck on its way from my adulthood Becomes an ancestral memory Hello, my name is Charlotte, and I'm an arachnophobe Thanks, and we are underway Everybody and we've got 40 people in the house. What a crowd. What a crew. Look at you. You're all very beautiful I'm enjoying seeing this much very much. So I will start getting it going here All right, just did but then I will now introduce so next up Is a guy from one of my chatbook classes and I'll somebody with the owls will be mr. William Lautner and William Lautner bill Lautner as we know will be followed by Mimi Mueller who is on deck So Mimi you're on deck bill. You're up. What have you got for us? Up you're on yet get your mute off there. Oh Bill your sounds gone You're on you had this problem before You need to work on that bill We have to move you a little further back in the lineup. Okay Mimi are you there? Are you ready to step up and take your shot? I will say following Mimi in the lineup. I have Demani Thomas Demani. Did I saw you up there somewhere? Yeah There you are. I see you Demani Okay, so Mimi Mimi Mueller's on deck and or no Demani's on deck you mean Mueller's up to the plate Mimi What have you got for us tonight? Very short Behind double-pane windows we watch disturbed willows flash their pale leaf under sides Clouds march across a promising sun Drafts stir the dust of guilt in snug room corners Outside the winds of change are rising. Amen. Thank you, Mimi Excellent. All right. That means Demani is up to the plate bill Are you ready to step back on deck? Are you still still fighting with your sound there? Okay, so that means Demani is gonna come up to the plate now on deck I'll be handing over the hosting for the next round over to my co-host and my my my collaborator here at the San Francisco Creative Writing Institute miss Alexandra Kistula So she'll be taking a couple of Fungo swings up in the on-deck circle Demani you're up. What do you got for us tonight Demani? Oh Hey everyone, hope everyone's doing okay Yeah, good to see you as well. I just have one Sort of long piece, but it opens with a quote From a book that I found at the San Francisco Public Library. So I Still for those who enter rooms cloaked in silent power and while we speak plan their retaliations Surveillance is not seeing it is the quiet planning of prisons Joan Nessley An internet search says the origins of surveillance lead back to wiretapping in the 1800s a Broker sells overheard information to stock traders to earn a profit If Google bothered to do its research at no Before this there was water. There were people with no names just documents with shapes and sizes Tangent what if I told you all surveillance was sexual all of it just one man's way of knowing what another man kept behind his front door That was great. Do mine is that was that everything is that it no, no, I'm sorry. Sorry All of it just one man's way of knowing what another man kept behind his front door a history of being too afraid to ask your neighbor for sugar Satellites and all seeing I tells us something voyeurism is a kink Borders segment ground and body and distribute accordingly ain't no fun If the homies can't get none some colonizer lost at sea or man who discovers body of water and insist it be shared or Porn scene in which we did not agree on the conditions, but my wallet begs All on the way home phone cameras have saved my life and endangered it There is no pretty way to say a cop a racist cop has my nudes and uses them for his pleasure Aracist knows my full name and says it in a guillotine tone Surveillance surveil serve meaning to confuse someone Hominem being served as in what purpose does this weapon have I've never known a peaceful origin story for a wiretapped phone Infrared binocular at dusk military base in the name of safety the question What if surveillance is just to capture something free? tangent surveil keep a person or place under surveillance as in quarantine as in lab rat Experiment as in glucose theory on prisons and the right lighting a dance floor can contain too Some degree removed immigrant finds refuge and movement if I did not teach myself to dance I would not be alive. I closed my eyes and spiraled in between shadows What I imagine is what I imagine and nothing else here. We read flash I don't care about your name. The important question is do you know this song? What memory brought you here? Of course, I know this one by heart. Let me teach you an easy dance Association in three steps step ball change halfway through and I have not said it when I talk about assault I dance around the issue. I'm realizing that every safe haven I've been in since has had at least one person trying to little red riding hood their way into me I didn't know they made wolf ghillie suits for the club until I saw it how to lace a conversation with intimacy Any window just one repressed for memory away from a safe word trigger when fear bleeds itself into your palms stitch it up Not to keep it alive, but to interrogate figure out how to end up here Help me find a word that calls for two mouths separate the bodies. I am theorizing African-American black queer father's son predators prey I need a hyphen the size of an ocean to make all my unfamiliar relationships true I become envious of people that can call dying a transition. I think I'll take that Palm transitions into call for help and if only if it was that already been called for help transitions into a sick geometry I am still dancing and I've carved nothing but stop signs in the carpet Thank you My Thomas that's strong good strong new work really appreciate that. All right So we've got coming up to the plate. I am going to hand it over to Alexandra Custulis. I believe on deck is Amy Patterson But Let me know Okay, it's actually it's Amy. Waterson. That's next. There's a Yeah, that's okay Thank you very much That was beautiful to money. Thank you. And I hope everyone is enjoying their evening Feel free to grab a cup of coffee or tea or eat or snack, you know and turn off your if you want if you feel more comfortable listening and turning off your camera, that's totally cool or Or or living in and out. I'm so happy that you're all here. I Think when we're not talking It's probably a good idea to mute the mic because all the cameras going to you a couple times like right now I think the camera is on you because of the background noise and I'll try to do the same If you could Thank you So anyway Welcome to this reading my name is Alexandra Custulis. I'm the founder and executive director of the San Francisco creative writing Institute Really glad to see you guys and and I'm here to share a poem And thank you for Kim shook and poem jam for hosting us and the the the public library as well This poem was published on the public library poem a day website. I wrote it for my son who Was born on July 21st in 2017, so I wrote it while sitting in my backyard Waiting for him to be born Bluebird swinging on the lowest branch Watching over me over the spirits of the unborn as they make their way through the call Into this gentle breeze strips away the cool air from our breath and Five o'clock summer sun beats down Unobstructed all the birds and all the trees and all the chimes in this backyard are one. I Am the old solid bark on the rusted Deck the convex shape in this whirling glass of water The warbling the chirping the pre-dawn infinite Stretching into the corners of every lazy afternoon in late July the red trumpet flowers of it all I Give birth to this baby. I give birth to myself birth to the infinite violet dusk over and over again Mirror inside mirror Rainbow prism inside rainbow prism. I am alive even when I am no longer alive Even 100 years from now When all the butterflies are dead, I will be encapsulated in this moment right here in the city My feet and flip-flops my hair a mess a slouchy sweater falling off the backs of my bare shoulders Enjoying the sun glistening down on my olive skin Birds are overhead the city that is so cruel to some and so lucky for others In the middle of its many golden ages I sit draped in a loose gray dress and realize these are new ancestral lands the fourth generation San Francisco inside me eager to be born Okay. Thank you very much and Now I would like to introduce three of my students For the next one Amy Watterson and then after her will be MJ Pramik and then Nina Sunston And if someone isn't here or logged in late or needs to go out of order Feel free to let me know in the chat or and or I will call you and if you're not here, we'll just move on So next up Amy Watterson So I actually do not have a piece to share today, but my mom Jan is gonna be sharing a piece So, oh, okay. I think I just saw that message. So sorry about that I'm glad that you guys Amy and Jan to participate. I'm still so nervous to share my writing Writing is beautiful and Jan. Thank you for for joining us and thank you for both So what will I read no I await my turn? Read now go ahead and then we'll take you off later The last moments of a marriage My marriage was like the false fruits that hang from the big tree on the outside Do you look at them ripe purple plump with sweetness that everyone hopes for on the inside? Holding the hidden reality of hatching insects in the corpse of dissolving wasps My life has been made up of squares of time a patchwork quilt stitched together Joined by the delicate weave of a single silk thread The needle pierced us through the edge of each swath of cloth clean and quick No pause for fear of hesitation fraying and ripping the edges Although everyone has faith in my ability to mend all things broken If I can fix it, I'll fix it if I need help. I'll ask for it Probably eventually If nothing can be done for it, I will not worry about it It is not productive and it is definitely not going to help I have always felt this and clung to it more tightly Now that I am the mother of three children I still remember vividly stitching this square the last moments of a marriage I was thankful we were in the house alone My outer protection, calm and soft spoken A warm blanket giving comfort I pulled it around myself Shielding my core, vulnerable Locked in a black box It's key dissolving in the acid of intolerable pain He picked at the lock jabbing That look on his face You are less than shipped in the soul of a shoe Not his shoe, you don't step in shit in the Italian leather I watched the words come from his mouth They float over my cheeks and past my ears I did not hear them, I felt no reason to listen to this rant They were just demons and gorgoyles raging in my skull My anger was intensified by the fact that all I could hear in my head was the blood red Fuck you By the shocked look on his face, I realised I had said it out loud It was empowering, I rarely lost my temper And when I do, friends say it is not a place you want to be This broken marriage had started well With the joys of a swimmer on summer's hot days Jumping into the clean coolness with no expectation Finding the unforgiving suction of these waters Shooting down deep, deep pressure crushing lungs Lungs compressed, elongated Silent scream Is this death or just my longing for it? The sudden shudder of hitting bottom Arms flaying, feet pull Push off hard like a toad Taking off up through the water into mid-air to catch a fly Will I be able to do that? Break through the upper most layer of water The overwhelmed by the fear of breathing in I must get the better of myself I must get the better of this moment My head, my shoulders, my being crashes through the surface as I hear the echo That is me crashing open the front door Feeling the hinges shudder under my new fine strength Surging of molten lava through my veins Get out of my home, get out of my life I watch you stagger, stumble to the sidewalk Leaving behind only the sour smell of stale liquor You still keep trying, you still keep trying to return But I would rather be this woman you left to bring up three children alone Than the exhausted wreck called wife I love that last line Thank you Okay, next up we have MJ, MJ Premick, and that was that was Jan Holiday everyone, beautiful work MJ, are you there? I saw you in the chat There, unmuted. I am welcome Hi, okay, I have a new rant for you This is called I should have left long ago Tell me, cyclists and runners, am I truly invisible? Do I appear weak to you because I have decades of living in my furrowed skin while you have few? I am not afraid of our formidable adversary, but for good cause I have fought off many a foe before you were born Yes, your age belies you Sex is most important, understood You are a biological being Hormones, hormones, hormones Sex is the least significant of human attributes I have learned in waiting through so many decades Our adversary is a virus She laughs at your groin attachments Ha ha ha, I am stronger than all of your needs and relationships she chuckles You believe you are infallible, ha ha ha Run down the age of crone, just try I may be disagreeable, malicious, sinister But I possess magical and supernatural powers Tomorrow morning when I walk the sea I carry an invisible machete Your wheels will wither and puncture I will not advance time in this world with Irresolution and inaction I am ready to rage Effective resistance I do not lie subpoena, supine on my back to accept the submission of slavery Nor will I stand still My forge chains have broken Let it come I will be victorious While you young copulate in your minds All cry, no justice, no peace Some have heard the truth The war has begun I am running in the field I repeat, I am ready to win the battle of resounding arms, cycles and no masks Why do you lay idle and play thinking only of yourself, the fruit of capitalism So sad for you When my starship blasts off into the black holes of the universe I will become waves, so difficult to measure Yet I, the waves will disrupt your ride, your gait The next hurricane will be worse than last year's storms Pandemic too will remove your thoughts How do you stand idle? I know not why others take a different course when the truth stands out We have lost reality to lies and self-absorption A cappuccino is more important than eternal life As I step onto the spaceship I remember my countryman shouting Give me liberty or give me death I say, chrome that I am, prophetess that I am The savior of the world evolves in fire I am invisible to you at your peril Drink your coffee, speed over people, ignore the world at your risk Life is dear, you're once not so much Because you care not for others I wonder that your mother did not teach you thus Make your shadows darkest night, hide the fugitives, give them safe haven I will howl to heaven for your sake The vineyards remain and will produce fruit We will keep you safe, though you may not be deserving Rant I love your rants And I've been working on a series of rants Through this pandemic has started and this is, I like them all I like the line a cappuccino is more important than a human life I mean it's a sad line But it's a good one Okay, next up is Nina, Nina Sunston, are you here? Hello, yes Welcome Thank you I feel a pain in my chest when I think of how she struggles, my mother Struggles to be free from the tyranny of a father angry and a mother confused Stale air chokes out of my throat as I reach toward her I endeavor to render her pain more clearly that she might then see it, that she might then heal it What bone in me so devised my yearning to soothe her wounds This bone, this saintly seeming bit of my soul, in fact attacks Releases upon my own precious being a scar to be carried for life A burden heavy with love that must be set down This task of mine whereby I strive, I push and pull at her I urge and bargain with the powers of fate to release her from the prison of her mind This task is my own undoing By this errand I have set upon myself my own sorrow For it is an impossible task and one by which my hands and arms would wither My hair turned gray and released itself onto the floor in death Before I should know true freedom of joy She is my mother, she gave me birth that I may breathe I bleed and see her face My wounds are hers and hers mine Though that our pains would be disentangled I would beg her to release me, but I don't believe she could She reaches for me always as I walk slowly backwards Aking to escape her grasp, I wait for her My throat tightens, a song silenced I grieve for her more than I despise her, for I cannot hold long enough the strength to hate her As the bare edge of night approaches, I know only sadness Thank you Beautiful, I see the clapping Good job And the last two writers were doing an exercise that we call lost world in method writing So they were doing a kind of embroidered language Losing themselves in the piece, which was beautiful Um, our next, um, next up Um, oh, um, I'll turn it over to Paul to introduce the next group Yes, group, group, group number three coming on, coming on in and uh leading off this group is Our, our one and only Priti Vangani who um is going to be getting ready to lead her next workshop coming up here on Wednesday, June 17th at 5 p.m. And we've got that ready to be registered for and I have I'll just lay that. Uh, whoops, hold on just a moment Let me get this into the chat so everybody can see Uh, the link to Priti's class that can be registered for right now and there it is. There's the link. These are, um And these are these are a series of dropping courses all of our instructors sort of Circulate the one night the one night workshops that we do and these are our best bargain. We charge 30 bucks a night to do these In addition to doing the multi-week ones, but if you're just, you know, if you're short on cash Sometimes it's a lot of money to take a writing workshop So if you just want to, you know, do something that's affordable and easy but really productive for one night We really recommend our drop-in shops It's we always try to get a lot of good writing out of it a lot of new perspectives on poetry But Priti has Let a couple of these before and she's an established poet here in san francisco Who's kicking a lot of butt and getting a lot of work done? And uh, we are so happy to have her on board with the creative writing institute Priti say say hello. Do you want to talk a little bit about your workshop too? Yeah, thank you. Uh before that I just wanted to thank Anisa and sfpl for continuing programming Despite the constraints we're all working in And thank you kim and alex and paul for holding this space and inviting me back The workshop on the 17th of june is rooted in writing towards gratitude I started doing this when we went into shelter in place, which was just trying to find methods for myself and for fellow writers to Try and find some sort of Solitude by thinking about what we're grateful for especially in the indoors I'd love for y'all to be there. It's great to see so many familiar faces in this grid today And without taking up any more time With everyone's permission. I'm just going to read first a small poem by lucille clifton Um seems amiss to be reading anything Of my own before that. Um, and then I'll follow it up by two shorter poems of my own Um, so thank you for listening and thank you for listening so intensely Um, this poem is called sorrow song by lucille clifton For the eyes of the children the last to melt the last to vaporize for the lingering eyes of the children staring The eyes of the children of Buchenwald of vietnam and johannesburg for the eyes of the children of naga saki For the eyes of the children of middle passage for chiroki eyes Ethiopian eyes russian eyes American eyes for all that remains of the children their eyes staring at us Amazed to see the extraordinary evil in ordinary men Thank you um I'll read a poem of mine, uh, which takes its first line from an america poem. Um This call poems are useless Poems are useless unless they are pepper spray stinging cries for change girls dancing fearless at night I want poems my mother couldn't write in her book of recipes I want them like golden brown onions sizzling and done when fully translucent free of color Wishes with no commas and semicolons holding them back Every line a hot skillet of female compromises melting like butter and scotch. I want a poem For the man whose idea of heaven is an accidental brush with a woman's side boob I want it to be the missing credit of 21 cents for every dollar in her salt salary slip Blemishes my sister's conceal in skin lightening foundation secrets my aunt's Hide under telephone lines over noise of television soaps Each her and her and her a particle of raw dust birthing storms Every her a dust that cooks creates cradles, but never settles Thank you And I'll read one shorter poem off of my screen. Uh, so forgive me if it looks like I'm creepily staring at y'all um This poem is called self dot self dot I believe if I fixate over the last image of my body. I sent him this boy will magically respond I'm outstretched. I wait in the balcony holding my cell Way out into the airwaves through an iron square in the grill to catch better signal You're the leaky pressure cooker whistle. My mother hushes it builds it up again a controlled storm inside the house One semi nude makes you proved too many is needy Elbow rooted on the sill in the balcony a family of ants migrate onto my body think me a path For their sake I statue myself must I be ashamed of my skin and what it unfolds within a teenage canvas forever pregnant with want Am I not sexy enough to be replied to I learned the word sexy from a hit Cheap girl song which the censor board stamped as vulgar had the word sexy replaced Mimicking that red corseted starlets move in my petticoat I knew I had to find a way to be sexy without ever thinking or saying I was Until one night I wore a tube that sculpted my chest into two half moons awkwardly staring at the neon walls of a karaoke club I was sweat salt and bloody married A man whose hands I memorized better than his face Made a soup bowl with his hands dropped his tongue into the emptiness What song could I request then which meant run but not with your feet? How my body can be a country at war with itself But also here in the promising balcony a bridge for beings smaller than me These ants soldiering to find a dot of sugar for their hunger as I continue to wait For one beep of an answer From men to whom I unveil little by little Who I am All right, thank you so much folks. Thank you for giving me space and Thank you as a fit writing institute for having me back Absolutely fantastic. Just just knockout work is always pretty. Thank you so much I'm going to take just a moment to let you know that our next two scheduled readers on deck are coming up here are Coming up to the plate. We'll have kelly and parker And on deck behind kelly is lauren dissonant parker We're gonna it's going to be the parker twofer that that is completely an accident how that happened And and of course there this follows all the uncomfortable questions about where on the family tree that related, of course I did want to Take one moment. No, I'm kidding about that. Uh, let me check in with uh bill latin really quick and see we built Did you solve your sound problems? I can't are you are you are you unmuted still? You're unmuted Okay Okay, we love that you're here bill. Thank you so much for being here Big big loves and big big social distance hugs for you my my friend So and I just wanted to let everybody know also that um the san francisco creative writing institute Has gotten into the publishing business So we're starting very modestly with just an online journal that just a free online journal that is focusing in a posting called This you may have heard of it. It's called dispatches from quarantine We are taking submissions and I just gave The link to it in the chat if folks want to check it out We are looking for we are curating writing that is specific to the quarantine period of course because of the protests and And basically the movement that has started that has just flared up It's a movement that's been going on for a long time But this is a new version of that fire that we're seeing and so that is also included in what we consider the quarantine Era of writing because this is a part of the fluid sort of situation that we're under So feel free to take a look at that Uh, and with that I am going to now introduce to bring up to the plate The one the only the lovely with the co-curator of the my word series in berkeley kelly and parker go ahead kelly Thank you. Uh, this first piece came from Paul's class on 21st century poetry Um, and it came from a prompt Of a particular word, um, alchemy and this is called alchemy of us Adam spin synapses fire We land on the moon, but don't know why We meticulously measure time Two cups work one cup mine And when we die What magic leaves What alchemy of spirit dissolves into foam What spark has dimmed Or ether floats And left behind Just elements The second piece is called the voice of my ancestors It's a casual conversation between the hummingbird and I The cheerful scolding I enjoy Oh, the crow has his opinions I give full audience to his complaints The crow my fellow traveler The turkey vulture my guide The parrots my grandmother The oak trees my roots Anchored deeply into golden hills These living phoenixes Then cleansed by the sun To protect me from night But we talk all day and night The voice of my ancestors Talking and singing Cooking and creating My grandma Lupe stirs the pot She holds my hand and stirs and hums The smell of lemon tea The sound of slippers shuffling Are to me the sounds of safety And I found entry in the in-between space This invisible space where I'm not alone As a frequent traveler A welcome resident Outside the busyness of business I convene with the dead To see them you have to slow down Step off let go Here you have to listen Here there is no status quo Death is a beautiful equalizer A then diagram of then and now To reach here you have to listen Here green paper means nothing Back in the eternal I am the conduit And if you want to find home Find your ancestors Then look into my eyes And ask your question Thank you Awesome, thank you Cal that's I love your work every single time You just can get better and better all the time love it Okay so next up coming up to the plate now Is the one and only the other Parker Lauren dissident Parker you should always say dissident when you say Lauren's name because it's it's important to understand that's who she is And then now with Lauren and on deck will be Hold great Kim Shuck. I'll be handing it over to Alexandra who will then introduce Kim And we'll talk a little bit about her upcoming workshop in July, but Lauren go ahead and take it What have you got for us this evening? So thank you and thank you for including the dissident very important So i'm working on a collection of poems that are inspired by David Bowie specifically the period of time in which he embodies the thin white duke So about 75 76 and so this is um, this is one of the poems that I've written for that collection. So it's called true love To remove the skin of a rabbit you cut a hole In the back and tear working your fingers under the fur and out Like you're ripping open a package of taffies at the shore The salty sea air making your hair curl be quick quick is the thing The hard part is always the head To remove the skin of a deer you have to go slowly Technique is important. Keep your eye on the knife not on the iron hooks hanging from the ceiling Do not let the clink of chains fill your head Start at the back leg follow the tendons learn the release of skin separating from muscle from fat split it Like the back of the leg is coated in the most erotic of stockings A bear is a bit like a human you start at the wrist the curl of the paw outstretched handshake Split the fur like parting a sea seam on seam on seam meat at the throat jaw snout highways of the body The meat will glisten to pink and white soft angelic like easter lilies You'll be surprised at how much and how the meat is stored The legs mostly bone cut knuckles snapped to the the symmetry will rock you to sleep When you cut off your own skin, you won't be able to tear open and out Snap a leg bone after gliding through tendons careful to avoid the rump meat It doesn't begin with a knife. It begins in the car day four Two more than the map said because you're lost so incredibly lost And your car is a classic cheval not built for long trips And the crook of the neck of the girl you love is louder than the radio You pull and tug at your exterior in the hotel rooms at the sites where she runs out and says Take my picture And you pretend that the camera is the eye you see her through the concave glass lens the thing that sees her the most Stark arms out shadow among cacti She can feel everything her sides pushed in from the world and you stand With your camera and your skin worked off with a knife limp in your hands limp in the heat Praying she'll eat you or wear you Thank you Fabulous fabulous work lauren as always i love where you're going with this this bowie collection I know that's since it's got chapbook written all over it. I'm just saying I just you know Okay, uh, alexandra, it's you i'm handing the baton over to you and can you introduce our next set of readers, please Yes, thank you. Um, i'm new to this zoom Introduction than readings and i'm sorry if i'm discombobulated i have a post it I have a my old computer which is about to die my new computer which knows how to do zoom in my phone And so if i mess up i'm sorry, but um Anyway brave new world we're in Our next reader is kim shook. She is the seventh poet laureate of san francisco and We're also proud to call her an instructor for the creative writing institute and she's an amazing poet and a champion of poetry And she'll be reading And then on deck is vivian tran And then summer smith who changed her mind and decided she wants to read and then marian Villafana some solid readers there But without further ado i'd like to um introduce kim shook Thank you all for being here and Indulging me but he always talks about how it's great that we do these readings. It doesn't happen unless you guys play along So thank you and i'm enjoying this one a lot because I don't have to do much which is great It's always an honor to read in aloni territory The ravens drink church bells The changes they run through the kitchen and catch under the stairs. I can feel them in my middle three toes Vibration muddled with detergent and stored cookie cutters We've been picking through the expectations the paid obituaries the spellstones that we carry in our bellies The voids the overstuffed spaces This has got to be intimacy I close my eyes to listen better the click of a dog's nails on the stairs across the street The panic alarm of sirens somewhere north the paintbrush against the wood window framing Your voice on the phone is a shape the wind is a shape the shape of daffodils is green The shape of post-traumatic stress survivor guilt Panic recuts morning into things we fold tight and wedge between the window and sash To keep them from rattling Thank you beautiful. Thank you Thank you for having us kim. Um, we really appreciate it Okay, next up Vivian Tran Vivian, are you there? I don't think Vivian's here tonight. She didn't make it in. Oh too bad. I love her work too. Um Well, okay Summer smith you're up and thank you for being uh, we did we posted kim's workshop. Let's post it again um, it's uh It's gonna be on july 15th and uh, Paul, uh, I'm gonna let you post it because I am Not organized with the posting as you are Thank you, Alexandra I changed my mind because I I wrote something about an hour ago that I wanted to read. Um, this is new to me I'm just starting to get back into writing. So it was a little intimidating the idea of reading to strangers, but um, here we go It was around 9 p.m. On a wednesday when I saw my mother's facebook wall I was lying in bed with a towel wrapped around my body and lavender oils diffusing in the background of my dimly lit room I had just finished my new acquired newly acquired nightly routine of hitting my indica pen before I cleansed the chaos Of the day off my carcass in the shower My body was relaxed and my consciousness was content with my progress towards the viola movement I've gone down the rabbit hole the last two weeks filling my brain to the brim with the history of racism in our country I thought deep and hard about what's going on in our country I've grappled with the guilt of my privilege accepted my past and have committed to a future of practicing anti racism I'm feeling inspired and deeply connected to the cause My voice is louder than it has ever been I'm so blessed to be in a position where I can teach our youth to love each other wholeheartedly And to acknowledge and respect other people's differences All of this came crashing down on me like a sugar rush after getting high on candy when I read my mother's post All souls matter she said Shocked and in disbelief. I had to rub my eyes and read it over and over again because I couldn't believe what I was seeing All souls matter all souls matter all souls matter. What in the fuckery is that nonsense? My jaw dropped to the floor and not in the good kind of way. I was truly shocked My body was trumped and I could pinpoint my frustration and shame I felt guilty by association for being my mother's daughter in that moment This isn't the first time where I've realized our differences in values and political ideologies But was it was the first time it pained me A country divided so deeply to where it has now put up a wedge between bloodlines How did I turn out the way that I did? I couldn't be more of a black sheep in my family But that liberal snowflake in her sanctuary city They might not be saying it out loud because I am their daughter But I know they are thinking it maybe they've always judged silently from a distance But now it's to the point where we are publicly shaming one another I hope this is just a phase with my mother I hope it will blow over like a tumbleweed into the great abyss I hope a lot of things right now I'm riding the wave of optimism as I believe great change will come out of this madness I'm going to stand up for what I believe in I may be a five foot two Caucasian woman, but I hold a lot of power and kindness in my soul I will say it loud and proud black lives fucking matter mom Thank you for reading and for being brave And for reading something new Okay, let's move on to the next reader. Marianne Villafana Welcome Marianne. And by the way, I see some of you at art from our last reading And I just want to say welcome back Um, and I enjoyed your work in the last reading shem. Welcome back And then some of my older students who I haven't seen in a while. I'm glad you're you're there. I see you Rowena and um, yeah, it's nice to see you guys Okay, without further ado, Marianne Villafana take it away Thank you, Alexander. I'm so so happy to be here um This one I wrote at the beginning of the quarantine Uh pieces of my female cosmology I haven't stretched my body in more than three years I am lying down on the coach now Touching my left side a book of photographs of patissmy Touching the other one one baby maya and further away the other baby. Gabrielle On the arm of the coach my phone. I grab it twitter instagram facebook maybe so many memes This one that scene of the movie nemo where all the fishes are free of danger By putting themselves in individual plastic bags portraying us human beings practicing social distance It says now what? On twitter some photos of a concha a chocolate theme birthday party. It was the wish of a five-year-old It is as if with twitter the half-empty stars my mexican spirit As those of the video games the ones that you lose when you get hurt would fill up again If I tweet jokes in mexican spanish, I even get extra points If we decide to stay here, maya and Gabrielle won't be as mexican as I would like them to be I'm already mothering differently cooking differently With the extra arms of the grandparent there. I know I would be more patient My knees wouldn't hurt as much Face timing stresses me out I know I could just place the phone somewhere, but I usually carry the color around I spoke with my father yesterday Being a mother means having to hang up when you see the eyes of your father getting silent Deciding to look impatient angry just to stop himself from crying after telling you he might lose his job I hung up because I couldn't hear it because we couldn't hear each other clearly Because maya has itchy skin and she scratches herself to tears Because Gabrielle is asleep and moody just like me Because maya needs a soothing bath My father having had three daughters doesn't get any of this I open instagram and I recall that I'm a feminist Women with hair on their legs their armpits their crutches In photos and illustrations for comics for children's books Also lots of videos of birds I follow my midwife account She has a close up photo of a father holding his newborn baby She captions it the language of hands I remember her hands her tattoos of leaves Of how she knew how both maya and Gabrielle were positioned By touching and pressing my belly How she taught me to hear their hearts through my skin with a stethoscope My right wrist hurts when I hold my phone a certain way it started when Gabrielle was six months old A mummy thumb it's cold I want to throw my phone against the wall I wanted to bounce and hit something else, but I don't The back cover of the book underneath my thigh has a photo of pati smith applying eyeliner The photographer that was a friend of pati at the time says she was using a black maybelline eye pencil That was ever present easily available and greasy She says their female cosmology was delineated by it I can hear my kids running around crazily outside of this room So I hear I I really identify with your piece Beautiful, okay, um paul i'm going to let you um introduce the next group and um Take away sure no problem. Thank you alexandra and and thank you maryon great stuff great great reading is super super powerful um I want to introduce our next our next reader coming up is our newest instructor at the san francisco creative writing institute katlyn kraus's next workshop coming up is sunday june 21st it's called writing beyond robots That is called sci-fi visual storytelling and virtual reality In a conversation we've been having here at the institute quite a bit has been how You know how we've been doing a lot of workshops since going since taking everything online Doing everything with zoom. I have this theory that zoom is the pong of teleconferencing And that in 10 to 12 years, we're going to be looking back at this going like wow, that was so primitive man What a bunch of but what about what a bunch of what a bunch of technical cave folks we were And I can through talking with katlyn I have foreseen a world in which these types of readings and these types of workshops Will be taking place in virtual reality. Yes, I think that is a very real thing coming up in the future and it'll be kind of crazy It's okay. That's You know the strange strange new world that we're into so but after katlyn on deck is bursa bell tedesi And ryan snelman So you guys get ready out there and we're going to turn the stage over to katlyn katlyn What do you and talk about your workshop a little bit close katlyn if you would? Well, thanks so much for that introduction paul and I would say For everybody who might feel that this is very sci-fi and out there It's actually designed to meet you where you're at. So if you're curious about new media forms You know feel free lean into this course I'm going to just read the beginning and end of the description because I think it gives a sense of the color of it This five week workshop looks at the legacy of sci-fi and myth building that promotes agency over automation As we study the craft involved in creating thoughtful texts for new media forms including vr virtual reality We'll use visceral language as a model for designing new narratives This this class prepares writers exploring new media with skills that lets us see where our creative voice can help shape emerging technology Leading with imagination and insights as creative writers whom no robot can replicate So I feel really passionate about this topic I'm excited to teach it and it's an interweaving of all different Legacies that have been part of our storytelling Core I would say since the origin of passing down narrative And even I would say cave paintings would be the first surround Virtual reality where people would feel like they were immersed in image So if you have any curiosity or maybe wishes to develop your career path toward new narrative forms This course is designed to meet you where you're at and I'm really excited about it. If you have any other questions I know Probably paul is already putting up the the course link or I can put it up after I read And feel free to reach out to me one on one and I can answer questions and talk more about the five weeks It starts on the 21st and goes through July 26th with a week off for the 4th of july So thank you And I would start by just wanting to thank anisa and kim alex and paul for hosting me here It's uh, it's an honor to be reading and I have three short pieces West virginia for muriel rakeyser Gunshot I heave sharp breaths stampede of spikes and loose turf Absalom says give a month to my son The cornfield is a place of death and hoover dam is a place of power A cubicle is a nameless headstone And veto marquintonia was a member of the american labor party As george robinson said they let us stand around and dust covered us both Muriel stood at golly bridge looking down at a mess I wonder if I ever was knowing Or simply unaware of my unknowing The poem shows me says reynolds price moon fingernails smooth unpainted and freckles a telltale sign of summer The trading of weapons with one glance and you can't trust a stranger really until you absolutely need to omelettes Such focus when you crack the eggs a flick against the counter's edge and falling to the bowl with plop Each quivers in its clear suspense. I whisk them with a brisk intent your arms a kimbo furrowed brow This morning light is strange to me our elbows quarrel in their passing You measure milk into my stir erratic dash of pepper there The pads of butter crackle now and you say pour them out with care The liquid spreads and soon is thick with bubbles turning opaque You gently coach you gently coax my fringe to yield and this is never forced I think From beginning to end This is the beginning the blank page eyes meeting eyes for the first time Sun's pale light A sipped cup of coffee a knife being sharpened This is the middle the filler a rook takes a bishop and alto sings a ringing lunch bell the playground frims with children A banner snaps the finale is grand dreamless a mother listens for a child's cry Runners file into the chute collapsing into one another's arms Thank you, let's see. I am passing it on to Versavel to desi Oh, okay. You didn't have to do that. Okay I scrolled up to fast the torch, but you can you can introduce if you like thanks so much I'm just I'm so glad it's I Versavel was in the last the last class that we had where we were actually in person like in the same room with each other You know doing you know doing feedback on in on manuscripts and it was just great to have versavel be a part of that and And then and then and then all hell broke loose and we were stuck at home And we've been playing catch up ever since but yes versavel. Welcome to welcome to write from the grad. It's great to have you here Awesome, uh, great to be here. Thank you for that. I have two short pieces to share Um, and I've these are recent pieces and I've never actually Resited them out loud. So I'm going to find out what they sound like Um, okay. The first one is called suffocating It feels like Violet in my throat Red in my eyes Blue on my back A muffled scream smoldered out Never heard but seen I hate so much But more than anything I hate That our humanity only exists breathless In the wake of our dehumanizing death televised My next one is called bodies I do not want to keep seeing bodies black bodies scared bodies on whole bodies dead bodies soon to be forgotten bodies bodies reduced names on a page pictures on a screen vestiges of what used to be so much more whole bodies good bodies loving bodies hating bodies normal bodies just bodies trying to live same bodies Except they make us different bodies until we're just bodies lying on the street Don't forget these bodies Don't forget their names They used to be bodies And they'll continue to be so much more Thank you Fantastic first of all could not Could not be more timely could not be more appropriate And that is that is the conversation that we need to keep happening is about those those bodies and and the commodification The receptacles of violence the bodies have been turned into is got has got to be part of the conversation And I could not have asked for a better piece right there Okay, just before coming up now from the on-deck circle is ryan snowman I know he's been taking some big hacks over there on the on-deck circle and he's ready to try to hit the curveball But um before we've been ryan, let me check back in with bill lotter who might have his sound back bill Do you have your sound back? Can you hear me now? I could totally hear you bill So what we're gonna have we're gonna bill we're gonna have you step into the on-deck circle And you'll be following ryan's at bat up here. Okay. Thank you. All right. No problem. Thank you. Thank you for hanging in there with us Really appreciate that. All right ryan who is ryan who is I don't know if he's our furthest away But he is uh, normally he's from seattle, but given his backdrop. I think he might be camping in montana ryan. How are you? I'm good. This is uh The background from actually it's just in the suburb is just east of seattle or we've got a good view of the Of the sunsets I felt like I was doing so much better with montana, but I guess not. I'm sorry. Yeah. Well, it's um, montana's a little bit too red these days But let's see um, this uh, this poem came from a Visual prompt an image that I've since conflated with uh, zonki hote A wordlet sir of shields and mirrors a compendium of life's joy and sorrow Reflected in a kaleidoscope of interaction A journey tied by the loses of threats Time and dna dancing to a song Adams falling entangling remembering Thank you ryan much appreciated, sir Boom. He's he's he's he's he's he's the midnight poet. He's in he's out. That's that's how ryan rolls. So Okay, so now coming up to the plate now is finally we were supposed to go I don't know about over how about an hour ago But mr. Bill lottener is going to be up and then we're going to turn it back over to my co-host alexandra bill go ahead and All right, let's let's what you got from the session. All right. Thank you from the cliff He steps from the cliff From the firm to nothingness From sureness to sheer terror He floats he sinks He sails he flies as if on wings. He feels pain. He feels worse worse without having crashed All his lightness wears joy The valley rushes upward, but the landing is far He cannot stay but must go from here to where? From no from the known to the unknown Images rush rush before his eyes All images pleasant unsettling frightening loving others in turn I have been broken all my life tears rush from my eyes. They tumble jumbled down my face As do the many pieces that are my life Who will help me pick them pick them up Johnny will you help me select the right pieces put them back together again in the right way at the right time He is strong. He is weak. He is tough. He is gentle He is a man of many words. He is a man of silence He sings but no song is heard He screams, but no sound comes forth He is joy. He is sadness. He is light. He is dark He is the beginning. He is the end He is you He is you. He is I We he We are inseparable and He lands safely Beautiful bill. Thank you so much Thanks for hanging in there again. Let's get in there with this. All right uh coming up next Is well coming up next is the one and only tango ison martin But i'm going to turn over the hosting uh the hosting skills The hosting baton back over to alexandra Hi, um, it's me again. Um Tonga oison martin's amazing poet. Um, we're thrilled to have him With us as an instructor. Um, he will be teaching a Drop-in poetry workshop at the end of june. It's not yet on our website, but there is um a Facebook link to it and that's my fault that it's not on the website of just Behind, uh, but maybe we can put the facebook um link in and the yeah the event Which is great. That's that actually is on the website now. Oh good. Okay. Sorry. I'm glad it is I'm always apologize on the website Glad it's up and um tango is an amazing poet. Um, we met Because we read um, I think we we had a creative writing institute got a grant a long time ago like in 20s, I thought it was 2018, but it really was 2016 um, we called central market now and we invited different curators to come and Um, invite their favorite poets from around the bay area and tango was one of the poets that was invited and um, he read his work and it was amazing and um, I went up to him said I love your work And he gave me his poetry book Um, and I read it and it was beautiful all and We've been seeing each other. I asked him to teach for us and he I was so surprised when he said yeah, I'd love to And so here um, he here he is teaching a drop-in poetry workshop But we're hoping to bring him in um, and we'll we'll be emailing you about this more tango for um a longer class Which is in um under development um, but but for now that the short drop-in class is um, june 30th and um uh His work It sort of talks about san francisco. He's native san franciscan and and social justice and um And it has a lyricism about it that I find quite beautiful. So um without further ado tango isan martin. Welcome back Thank you first First I must apologize to the souls of the house Because i'm wearing the cheekbones of the mask only Like a pill bottle whose name is yours name tagged on the side of a factory of risk. I mean teeth of the mask now Back of the head of the mask now a new phase of anti-anthropomorphism fending for real faces Stuck with one of those cultures that believes I chose this family. I'm not creative Just the silliest of the revolutionaries My blood drying on my only jacket the police state psychic middleman evangelizing for the creation of an unmassage an unmedger Blood of a lamb less racialized an awesome prison sentence. Good guy Elder abuse hire for the low dog eat genius while the right angle is made between a point on a louisianna Plantation in the five-year-old's rubber ball three feet high and falling like a deportee plane to complete my interpretation of garden variety genocide I am small talk about loving your enemies a little more realistic About paper tigers and also gold. I need my left hand back Broke my neck on a piano key found paradise in a fist fight. Maybe I should check into the cuba line Watching the universe last metronome some called black jackabins just wait These religions will start resigning in a decade or two some color fleece. I'm transactionally in the cotton gothic society I mean class betrayal gone glasses I mean ironically my window started falling over too as I was trying to figure out which Haiti would give me through the winter Which poem houses souls With socialist breakthroughs Breakthroughs like taking 10 steps back and finally stillness stillness and stillness among families I mean a john brown biography would take a bow. I'd be up next to introduce prasada monk I remember childhood Remember the word childhood being a beginning scribbling on an amazing grace. I rented this body from some circumference of slavery Remember being kicked out the Midwest strange fruit theater Lithium in circuses like my stomachs the room in class blessing their blank text with levy phone with opioid t sentient dollar bills yelling to each other pocket the pocket teller stands in the precinct for a company and counter revolutionaries My mother raised me with a simple pain A poet loses his mind You know Like the room has weather Or first girlfriend gravity Difference between me and you is that the madness wants me forever A pair of apartments defining both my family and political composure books behind my back bell money paved into the streets Playing before you you for your cliche Bracing for the medicines recoil sharing a dirty daily sandwich with my friends black jackabins underground topography of a grandmother's hands I mean psychology of the mass now Teeth of the mass again I go to the railroad tracks and follow them to the station of my enemies The cobalt tube man pitches pennies at my mug shot negative all over the united states there are toddlers in the rock I see why everyone out here got in the big cosmic basket and why blood agreements mean a lot and why I get shot back at I understand the psycho spiritual refusal to write white history and take the glass fleaway white skin tattooed on my right forearm Ricochet sewage near where I collapsed into a rat-infested manhood my new existence is living graffiti in the kitchen with a lot of gun cylinders to Hack up house of God in part no cops in part my body brings down the christmas The new bullets pray over blank is made from the oval is pray over the 28th hour's next beauty mark extra judicial confederate statue restoration The waistband before the next protest post a by the way Time is not an illusion your honor and I will say good desk for last You're a witty your honor your moving money again your honor It's only ready one day Nine white cops and prison guard shadows reminded me of sport milk floating on an oil spill The neighborhood making a lot of fuss over is demise a new lake for a black panther party Malcolm makes his ballroom jacket slung over my son's shoulder The figment of village and new news to a new white preacher all in an abstract painting of a president They bought slavers and timed in it the tantrum screeches of military boats in election Tuesday cars a cobalt study in leg lines Proof that some white people have actually found those nuisances Their sundown couples made their vows of love over opaque piece plastic and boat action audiences the medgar every second is definitely my favorite law of sin Final news clippings and primitive method is My arm changes imperialisms simple policing versus structural frenzies elementary school script versus even wider white spectrums Artless bleeding in the challenge of watching civilians think a terrible rituals. They have around the corner They let their elders beg for public mercy I'm going to go ahead and sharpen these kids' heads and the arrows myself and see how much Bradley spills out a family crest modern fans of war with their t-shirt poems and t-shirt gil And me having on the cheapest pair of shoes on the bus. I have no choice but to read the city walls the signs of my life Beautiful I see my hands clapping for you Um and other people too at beautiful. Thank you. Um our next reader Next up at k.r. Morrison. Are you ready? Hi, can you hear me? Yeah I'm not good at this Not me either. Don't worry The first one I wrote for today I smell ancestors Feel the heat of hell's southern torches resurrect from a murderer's knee In my mouth I taste the salt of a sweating father picking in a field for master fees Singing heavenly hymns Another trail of tears stolen In my fists. I smell the streets Smell spells being cast Revolution and reform arguing at the table like a tired married couple Their daughter justice rolling her eyes getting dressed and thirsty to break curfew I smell karmic returns sprouting from seeds stronger than their poison Some of us march Cold bones take bullets for too many dead Some of us with graveyards in our stomachs for justice We hold our breath I have another one, but I don't know if I have time You could read it. Okay. Um I've been doing a lot of research about foster kids and so I wrote something Foster child Wounds you carry are the worst Suitcases of frozen family bullets Heavy shell casings humming past damaged roots Pack tight in the center is your stomach A nest you carry everywhere for others As if perpetrators carved out housing ghettos inside you for ghosts to own For ghosts to landlord future lost Hungry souls counting on you Thank you It's beautiful It's weird to read in zoom because you can't hear people clapping but just Imagine that we're all clapping and we love it and that's for everyone I mean, it's it's weird for me too to read it because if there's a silence where it usually is poets where we We gauge the room right with the with how people are receiving it and how the ums and the and the and the silence And now it's almost like the reverse But you guys all have done a really great job and now I'd like to introduce our final reader Keith mark gabry. Um, he's an alum of several of our classes. Um And uh, also a poet in his own right Keith mark gabry. Um, are you there? Hi. Yeah, can you hear me? Yeah. All right. Thanks for having me Uh, okay. This is uh, if only city darkness had arms My heart will be a cul-de-sac When I must squeeze Oakland out of my california body slap on domesticated skin Like a fur coat. I can't and don't want to buy in a downtown grid Yet I still crave escape in my parents suburban house But are these walls my future? By morphing into an unknown reflection Who wears a feline to shield against cold Blowing on a mowed lawn Will I ever transverse? down Temescal sidewalks as an alien in the warmth of slaughter no longer knowing the shade of lake merit branches that wraps around Like they want to hug me If only city darkness had arms To love and build my mind a home within oak town lights I for now find my breath and pulse and voice and uh I have one more poem And uh, yeah, I'll be it I live with my grandparents ghosts In the marrow of their bedroom I find them alive Where Madeline's perfume waves hello I am a visitor to the residency of her pillbox hat Atop the red oak dresser She loved as if her blood stained the wood I turn towards the bronze star Charles earned in France and Belgium hanging in a black frame Once after he read night He stepped into his garden with tears etched on his cheeks like the tattoos branded onto final solution skin In their kitchen I see Madeline cooking the Easter ham of 1995 in her wedge wood oven At the front door I'm shaking Charles's hand while dementia ravaged his mind raw as during the battle the bulge when he earned his bronze star I now clutch under a Massachusetts lamp light Thanks Thank you. Are you in Massachusetts right now? No, I'm in Colorado at my parents house for the time being Oh, I like I figured you were you're a teacher too. You and the last two people who read K. R. You're both teachers all the summer Works in the in the school in the schools also So it's it's an extra difficult time for teachers because you've had to go online No for sure. Yeah and furlough status and all that Right, right. So I'm in there And I'm we're honored to support and hold the space for you guys to be creative because we we respect teachers very much I mean we're teachers too And I think just want to make sure Yasmin to Rahi is she here or I don't think she came she was on the border of coming And Sam Sue I see your name and as a guest, but I recognize you from us from a From our roster somewhere deep in the roster. Do you want to read or are you okay? Sorry to call you out, but I'm just No, okay, that's okay. Um, so for people who didn't get to read this time Sign up for our next one. Uh, we'll have another reading end of july right poll Yeah, it's I think right now. I guess it's scheduled for august 1st. I believe oh august 4. Okay, so We might want to think about scheduling one sooner, but we can talk about maybe let's do it in july and well my class starts august 1st so I won't be able to go but We'll find a way we have also some work on that we'll work on that we have some people who are in europe monique antenette louis who It just moved to paris and she was in my class. She wants to read But it's 3 a.m. For them in central european time and then lisa carlson is in sweden also 3 a.m and then brianna williams former student who's in New york and it's she goes to sleep at nine so and it's you know, so she said So I told them maybe we'll do one noon reading. So if you guys ever want to do a noon reading Well, maybe that will be another one, but you're for everyone who came and the audience. Thank you so much Thank you so much to the public library to To to kim shook to anisa and John, I don't I never met you, but I see your name on all the emails So thank you for hosting us and to all of our readers and students and faculty It was very Wonderful What did paul, what did you write nominate tango? Yeah, because um because I need to put up the link for nominating san francisco paul laureate Oh, you know They are they are taking nominations. So i'm going to encourage everybody to nominate tango for san francisco paul laureate I think tango would make a great one and i've In my tango, I that went through my mind for you and earlier. So we're all on the same wavelength All right, I appreciate it There's no uh, there's there's there's no illusion of a neutrality or objectivity here. We're all behind you tango yo We try not to work you too hard Yeah, at least as hard as they work kim Since I actually want you to be willing to do it. I'm not going to comment on that And Oh you guys I just want to mention if you want to hear tango read some more you can search youtube and sfpl and you can Listen to the stellar reading he gave last year And it's on youtube April last year san francisco public Thank you john That was a really good set It was also one of the readers at the first poem jam Well Always a pleasure All right. Well, thank you so much. Thank you anisa. Thank you john at sf public library Thank you kim for helping us get this set up Thank you to everybody who came and all and a big thank you to others of you who didn't read to Who just came up to just enjoy it, uh, and you know, we it's it's a privilege for us to be able to Feature and showcase this amazing array of talent over such a small amount of time And uh be looking for be looking for our next date. We'll be we'll be posting it. Hopefully we'll post that um as As early as monday in our next newsletter That's but I got to talk to alexander about that. I'm getting in trouble probably for talking about it Oh, no, we'll we'll send it out and um just for anyone who's um later if forever recording this and it goes on youtube Our website is sf writing dot institute I'll just say this. It has been recorded generally kim's uh, poem jam is recorded and put on youtube. So this probably will be on Eventually Fabulous and then while I have you I will email everyone who was a participant with all the notes and links that was Going back and forth. So you'll have that And pester you to come to more library programs and support our strange your way of living we In community this I have found the virtual thing to be community driven too. So we're all here And we have a virtual poem jam next month. Yep That will be in the notes as well same same every second thursday phone jam Yes, and the next one are Book which the last one I think was um Something or other united I'm spacing out She's away would be very unhappy civil liberties united. Um, we'll have some people from that And uh, it will be great Yes, it will And this is where these meetings get a little weird and awkward It's pretty much just