Matt Sedillo is a hard working poet. He’s read at universities around the country. He recently was named the first Literary Coordinator of dA Center. Check out this interview to see what his plans are for the dA Center. Continue reading An Interview With Poet Matt Sedillo
by Brian Dunlap
Last Saturday was the 5th annual Poetry Circus and the first time I attended. I was an hour late, but the circus ran from 5 pm – 10 pm at the Merry-Go-Round at Griffith Park. 44 L.A. poets were scheduled to read over three rings. 44 L.A. poets with vastly different voices and stories to tell.
by Erika Ayón
From: Women Who Submit
It began 12 years ago, the concept for my poetry collection Orange Lady. It was 2006, that summer I had gone to VONA (Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation) in San Francisco, where I had taken a writing workshop with Chris Abani. At VONA, I connected with writers who also lived in Los Angeles, and upon my return, through them, I learned about Ruth Forman’s poetry workshops. It was in these workshops held at Ruth’s home in Los Angeles surrounded by willow trees and included Tai Chi lessons taught by her that the poetry collection came to me. Ruth always showed immense compassion toward our writing process and lovingly gave us permission to just write. That permission to just write sparked this emotional surge in me, and I wrote without care or judgment, with pure reckless abandonment. It was in these workshops that I began compiling the poems that would ultimately become part of my first poetry collection Orange Lady.
by Catherine Sturgeon
From: LAPL Blog
DSTL Arts is a nonprofit arts mentorship organization based in Los Angeles that “inspires, teaches, and hires emerging artists from underserved communities.” The acronym in DSTL Arts stands for Develop Skills and Transcend Limits through the Arts. Co-founded by Luis Antonio Pichardo and Jennifer Fuentes in late 2012, DSTL Arts began as Luis’ vision for empowering the next generation of working artists from underserved and underrepresented communities in the arts, serving, at first, only youth whom aspired to become working artists in spite of a lack of a support system in their immediate community, including their families.
Continue reading “Develop Skills and Transcend Limits through the Arts: Meet Luis Antonio Pichardo”
by MARIEL ROSSI DEVRIES
From: The Occidental
The Center for the Arts Eagle Rock is hosting a poetry workshop with the theme of intergenerational poetry, which welcomes individuals of all ages, every Tuesday until May 22. Jessica M. Wilson, founder of the Los Angeles Poet Society — a community organization for art and literature based in the city since 2009 — is leading the workshop. Members of the public can sign up for the full six weeks at a fee of $60 or attend a single workshop for $10. Five people attended the first workshop on April 17 and discussed works by beat generation poet Allen Ginsberg, author of “Howl.”
Continue reading “Six-week poetry workshop welcomes poets of all ages”
The city and Southland’s free books-and-authors festival returns for its 7th year with two days of panels, discussions, readings, workshops, performances, and literary activities. Over 150 authors and special guest speakers will appear in over 50 events from the afternoon into the late evening. LitFest Pasadena is held throughout the historic Pasadena Playhouse District at Vroman’s Bookstore, the Pasadena Playhouse, and other local establishments.
Saturday & Sunday, May 19 & 20, 2018
1:00pm to 10:00pm
Pasadena’s Playhouse District
FREE
This year Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center in Venice celebrates 50 years of promoting and developing local poets and beyond. It’s the oldest literary arts oragnization in the Greater Los Angeles literary community. Check out its rich history. Continue reading Fifty Years of Beyond Baroque: 1968–2018
Poets Reading on Oscar “Zeta” Acosta at Redwood Bar & Grill
Please join us for, Hunting the Brown Buffalo: Poets Read and Reflect on Oscar “Zeta” Acosta. Chicano Movement icon Oscar “Zeta” Acosta’s novels, Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo and Revolt of the Cockroach People, are testaments to the movement’s focus on criminal justice, civil rights, cultural identity and affirmation, and discrimination.
Six writers read new work that reflects on his legacy and ask what his life and writing can teach us today. The reading will be followed by a screening of Phillip Rodriguez’s documentary, The Rise and Fall of the Brown Buffalo, at Civic Center Studio, 207 S. Broadway, Suite One, Los Angeles, CA 90012.
Featured readers include:
Adrian Arancibia is a co-founder of Taco Shop Poets, authored the collections, Atacama Poems and The Keeper/El guardador, and will release Poems of Exhaustion in 2018. He teaches English and Creative Writing at Miramar Community College.
Darren J. de Leon, is an award-winning poet, playwright, performance artist, radio journalist, taquero, DJ, teacher, and community activist. In 1995 he founded Los Delicados: Poetas del Sol, San Francisco’s avant garde leaders of the Latino Spoken Word scene.
Carribean Fragoza has published fiction and poetry, as well as arts/culture reviews and essays. Her chapbook, K-12 was published by Eohippus Labs, and she is co-director of the South El Monte art Posse (SEMAP).
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez is a poet and journalist. In 1994 he co-founded Taco Shop Poets. He’s been a reporter at NPR-affiliate KPCC 89.3FM in Los Angeles since 2000.
Joseph Rios is the author of Shadowboxing: Poems and Impersonations (Omnidawn). He is a VONA alumnus and a Macondo Fellow, and was named one of the notable Debut Poets by Poets & Writers Magazine for 2017.
Yesika Salgado is a Los Angeles-based Salvadoran poet who writes about her family, culture, and brown body. She is co-founder of the Latina feminist collective Chingona Fire and is an internationally recognized body positivity activist. Her first book, Corazon, was published with Not a Cult in fall of 2017.
FREE event! Register at Eventbrite link.
Where: Redwood Bar & Grill
Date: Monday the 26th
Time: 6:30 pm: Meet for sidewalk performance on sidewalk on east side of Hill St, between 2nd and 3rd at 252 Hill St.
7 pm: Poetry Reading at Redwood Bar & Grill.
8:15 pm: Screening of documentary at Civic Center Studio.
Address: 316 West 2nd St., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 3/26/18 –4/01/18”
From: Treehouse Arts
I first came across John Brantingham’s work when he sent in a poetry submission to TreeHouse Arts, which I quickly accepted (you can view that publication here). Obviously, I liked his work, but what truly caught my attention was that in his bio he mentioned that he spends summers “living off the grid in a tent in the High Sierra, teaching poetry and writing for Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park.”
Continue reading “Artist Interview with Poet Laureate John Brantingham”
Erica Ayón and liz gonzález have book news to celebrate. Continue reading Publishing News From The L.A. Literary Community
Los Angeles Literature 