Love, Migration and Revolution
By Brian Dunlap
Friday September 28th at 826LA Mar Vista was electric. The room was packed, filled mostly with people of color and queer people of color. The metal chairs were set in rows facing the front where the writers were about to read. On the right side of the room was a small display of artwork from invited Eastside artist Freddy Negrete, who shared the table with pastries from Portos. Attendees continued to trickle in, conversations adding a welcomed excitement to the room. But when host Mixel Salinas stepped to the mic a focused quiet fell over the audience. 100 Thousand Poets for Change’s Love, Migration, and Revolution reading began.
Last week Kima Jones, founder of L.A. based Jack Jones Literary Arts, was named to The Root 100 2018. Coming in at number 88, The Root says Jones made the list because her book-publicist firm consists of a roster “primarily…[of] women and writers of color.”
In early September at Women’s Center for Creative Work experienced a break-in. While they said “it does feel violating,” it seems as though it was random and opportunistic. The space wasn’t damaged or trashed, but they did have a good deal of electronics and other valuables stolen.
Earlier this month, Mimi Wong’s The Offing letter to the editor, she revealed all the new changes happening at the literary journal. This includes her own announcement as the new editor of the literary magazine, which is dedicated “to amplify[ing], [promoting], and support[ing] these voices often missing from mainstream spaces.” However, the change of most note to the Los Ángeles literary community is the hiring of poet Ashaki M. Jackson as The Offing’s new Executive Editor. Jackson is a champion of “women’s and nonbinary writers” as seen “through her endeavors at VIDA and Women Who Submit.”
NOTE: Initially I didn’t post anything on Los Angeles Literature about Larry Colker’s passing last month from cancer because I never met him and I didn’t know him as a writer. However, seeing that Beyond Baroque is celebrating his life, the life of an L.A. poet and friend, on Saturday, and the fact that Los Angeles Literature is a news, history and information site covering the Los Angeles literary community, I feel obligated to post a brief article about him.
Los Ángeles poet Irene Monica Sanchez has won the 2018 Joe Hill Labor Poetry Award.
Long Beach Poet Sarah Thursday announced Sunday that her newest full-length collection of poems, Conversations with Gravel, will be released early in October. As she said on Facebook, “This collection was 5 years in the making based on love, heartbreak, and coping with loss.” Conversations with Gravel is Thursday’s second full-length collection of poetry, after All the Tiny Anchors, which was published in 2014.
The Friday night crowd clapped, hooted and snapped their fingers for each poet who stood up to read their work at Fox Coffee House. The poets read from their phones, mostly, expressing loss, frustration with societal expectations and anger at injustice.
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