Category Archives: features

In the Grove presents An Homage to Andrés Montoya, April 10 at Arte Americas

Pákatelas: An Homage to Andrés MontoyaFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Please join us for the publication release of a special issue of In the Grove: “Pákatelas,” an homage to the late poet Andrés Montoya, guest edited by acclaimed novelist Daniel Chacón. Chacón, author of and the shadows took him and Chicano Chicanery, is a Fresno native and currently teaches in the Bilingual MFA Program at the University of Texas, El Paso. Montoya’s first and only book, the ice worker sings and other poems, won the American Book Award after his passing. This special issue brings together work by Montoya’s teachers (including Juan Felipe Herrera, Philip Levine, Corrinne Clegg Hales, and Garrett Hongo), his friends (including Augustine Porras, Steve Yarbrough, Tim Z. Hernandez, and Lee Herrick, among many others), some of the many writers his work has influenced (including Sasha Pimentel Chacón, Mike Medrano, Marisol Baca, Bay area poets such as Oscar Bermeo, Javier Huerta, and Craig Santos Perez, and New York City poet and National Book Critics Circle board member Rigoberto González), in addition to a moving recollection by Andrés’ younger brother, novelist Maceo Montoya, and cover art by his father, Malaquias Montoya. And, we are very proud to publish “Pákatelas,” a new and unpublished long poem by Andrés Montoya.

Many of these contributors will be at the reading and celebration, and we hope you can join us as well. Please spread this message (and the attached flier) to your friends, listservs, blogs, and publications.

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IN THE GROVE: “Pákatelas,” a Publication Release Part and Homage to the late Andrés Montoya
Thursday, April 10, 2008
ARTE AMERICAS, Fresno, CA
6:00 to 8:00 pm

Free

http://inthegrove.net

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Contact: Lee Herrick
559-907-2858
http://leeherrick.com
e-mail leeherrick@hotmail.com

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For more information, please visit http://inthegrove.net. Copies of the issue will be on sale for $12 at the reading, and they will be on sale at the website after April 10. Thank you for your ongoing support.

Lit Crawl

Saturday, October 13th, 2007
7:00 – 7:45 pm
New College Creamery
780 Valencia Street

Go: readings about movement & tangents featuring Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Thy Tran, Oscar Bermeo, Vanessa Merina, Bushra Rehman, & Rebecca Foust

presented as part of the Litquake Festival

Join KSW and Litquake for a reading about movement & tangents, featuring the voices of six local writers.

about the artists

Born in Ecuador and raised in the Bronx, OSCAR BERMEO is a BRIO (Bronx Recognizes Its Own) award-winning poet. Oscar lives in Oakland, is the poetry editor for Tea Party magazine, and is married to poet Barbara Jane Reyes. For more information, visit www.oscarbermeo.com.

REBECCA FOUST’s work appears in Twelve Ways (Kearny Street Press 2007) and is forthcoming in Margie, Marin Poetry Center Anthology, North American Review, Nimrod, Poetry East, and Taproot. A finalist in the Pablo Neruda, James Hearst and Ruth Stone Poetry Awards, she also won a first place in Writer’s Digest’s Competition.

Poet and novelist LINDA WATANABE MCFERRIN contributes regularly to both literary and commercial publications. A popular teacher and speaker, she’s authored two poetry collections, an award-winning novel and a short story collection and has edited four literary anthologies. She is the founder of Left Coast Writers®.

VANESSA MERINA was born in California and schooled in Vermont. She writes short fiction and essays. Her work has appeared in Silo, Upstairs at Duroc, and the anthology Cheers to Muses: Contemporary Works by Asian American Women.

BUSHRA REHMAN is a vagabond who traveled for years with a greyhound ticket and book bag full of poems. She is author of Marianna’s Beauty Salon and co-editor of Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism. To read poetry or excerpts of her on-the-road desi adventure novel, visit www.bushrarehman.com.

THY TRAN is a freelance writer specializing in the history and culture of food. She recently received a grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission to complete a collection of essays exploring how food changes in families across time and place. Read more about her work at www.wanderingspoon.com.

KSW Press Literary Reading at the Actor’s Center of San Francisco

The Actors Center of San FranciscoTuesday, Sept. 25, 2007, 7 – 9pm
Bunsen Burnt: KSW Press Reading & Chapbook Release
The Actors Center of San Francisco
180 Capp St. @17th St., 2nd floor
$10-20 sliding scale ($8-$20 for KSW members)

Join us for an evening of literary readings and the launch of a new chapbook, Bunsen Burnt, from KSW Press. Featuring readings by

Neelanjana Banerjee
Oscar Bermeo
Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik
Nicole Bohn
Vanessa Huang
Susanna Kwan
Margaret Rhee

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Buy Tickets at manja.org arrow

On A Mission


Poetry Mission @ Dalva
Originally uploaded by geminipoet

Mad fun yesterday. Arrived to find quite the “intimate” setting (any one who has ever read for a room knows exactly what I’m talking bout here). Yeah, it was 7:20 and looking a bit bleak but twenty minutes later we actually had some folks in the house and it was on.

This was a pretty easy set list to put together: combine poems from the 12 Ways and La Peña readings with some covers, some poems from the chapbook, two new poems from Truong’s class and make it all fit into twenty minutes. Ima take a second and defend the word easy because while the set list is easy actually shaping the poems and editing them into a cohesive narrative unit is hella hard. Finding new forms and inspirations while keeping a sense of voice but not relying of techniques that “work” is hella hard. And working towards a manuscript length series of poems is hella hard. But being able to share some of this work and see the results, that we can file under easy.

Happy to say it all worked out right and was even able to add a defense to the culinary credibility of da Boogie Down and a proper defense to NYC Pizza while still telling mah story with a minimum of exposition. Palabra.

SET LIST
– Psalm for Anywhere Avenue

– Intersections

– Section Four

– Revelation & Anywhere Avenue

– Villanelle written around the lyrics of Afrikka Bambaattaa and the Soul Sonic Force

– Psalm: The Heaven I Want by Jack Agüeros

– On The Subway (That’s Never On Time)

– How much for the building? (Tenants optional)

– I’m Jus Askin

– Oaktown, CA by Reginald Lockett

– Sepia

– The Blackout

– My Father, A Cabdriver, Chimes In With A Few Words of His Own on the Myth of Racism as He Drives by Times Square

– Sonnet for the Lexington Avenue Express—Mt Eden Ave Stop

– Ode To A Stitched Mouth