By Brian Dunlap

Inside the Wende Museum of the Cold War, tables ringed the walls of the back half of the exhibit space. Tablecloths were draped across their surface, some with the names of local presses—Golden Foothill Press, World Stage Press, Tía Chucha’s, Vagabond Books—were on display for sale. Authors and publishers in conversation. The public trickled in, created a large crowd, as the day progressed.

This was the 2nd Annual Culver City Book Festival, that took place last Saturday. It was put on hold for two years as COVID gripped the world. It was back. A day for publishers, poets and authors to present their books, their words and ideas with the public. To build community.

The festival was founded by Mark Lipman, founder and publisher of Vagabond Books. A poet and political activist, Lipman uses poetry to connect communities to the greater social issues that affect everyone’s lives. Housing affordability, homelessness, war, income inequality. Lipman believes solving these problems begins with conversations, conversations poets, artists and thinkers engage in with their ability to look at the world differently.

As such, he used the book festival to host the launch reading of Vagabond’s newest anthology, Reimagine America: an anthology for the future. The anthology asks poets, where does America go from here, “as we…emerge from the shadows of some very dark years?” How do we reimagine America, our way of life, for the betterment of all? Many of the anthologized poets read: Matt Sedillo, Edward Vidaurre, former McAllen, Texas Poet Laureate and publisher of FlowerSong Press, Rich Ferguson, Briana Muñoz, Hiram Sims, publisher of World Stage Press and founder of the Sims Library of Poetry, David A. Romero, Dr. Cameron Hoult, Culver City’s inaugural Honorary Artist Laureate for Poetry, Greg Bell, Thelma T. Reyna, publisher of Golden Foothill Press and me, among others.

Throughout the festival there were other events: A poetry writing workshop presented by Beyond Baroque, taught by poet Luivette Resto centered on the genealogy and etymology of our names; a Virtual International Poetry Reading; and Kids’ Space with Kitty Felde, where Felde taped young readers for an upcoming Book Club For Kids podcast episode; among a few others. They took place outside, in the museum’s back courtyard, in the mild, February, Southern California air.

Back inside, poets Nikolai Gracia and Viva Padilla manned the Dryland literary journal table selling their newly released issue number 11, their Chicano issue. Poets Karo Ska and Alex Petunia, two World Stage Press authors, helped sell their books at their press’s table. Poet and Saturday Afternoon Poetry co-host G.T. Foster manned the Spectrum Publishing table. And sitting next to me at my table was Venezuelan poet and writer Lisbeth Coiman.

The book fair grew louder and more crowded as the festival reached its midway point. Conversations rose on top of each other, wandering eyes curious about the books for sale. A few teens strolled past venders, hesitant to inquire. Yet, two young women—friends—bought Lisbeth Coiman’s poetry collection, left to explore the festival, only to return to our table later to purchase my chapbook.

The Culver City Book Festival concluded in Downtown Culver City at Village Well Books, with a FlowerSong Press reading in the evening. Nearly all the Southern California FlowerSong authors featured, plus Edward Vidaurre. Angelina Sáenz, Luivette Resto, Matt Sedillo, David A. Romero, Briana Muñoz, Gina Duran, Fernando Albert Salinas and Natalie Sierra.

Before the reading began, two passionate publishers—Mark Lipman and Edward Vidaurre—sat at a table in front of the bookstore, lost in conversation. A photo was snapped of the two of them. Edward’s lips are parted in mid word, his left arm outstretched, hand in a gesture that seems to punctuate his words. Mark appears to be in mid-nod as if saying “yes, you’re right. But you know…” and index finger about to emphasize his thought. His caption of the photo on Facebook encapsulated the festival: “When two great editor/publishers meet…such a great way to end the book festival, sitting down with my counterpart from FlowerSong Press.”