San Francisco Solidarity Collective hosts Letter Writing and Correspondence Night

Our focus is on prison abolitionist work centered on the struggle of people in prison, jails, and immigrant and juvenile detention centers locally and worldwide. Join us for exchanging letters, starting a pen-pal, or just one-time birthday cards. No commitment necessary We will provide statements from incarcerated individuals, addresses, stamps, and envelopes. We got you, come write with us familia.

Colectivo de Solidaridad de San Francisco
 Noche de Escritura de Cartas y Correspondencias.
 Nuestro enfoque está en el trabajo abolicionista de las prisiones,
centrado en la lucha de las personas en prisiones, cárceles y centros
de detención juvenil y de inmigrantes a nivel local y mundial. Únase con nosotros para intercambiar cartas, iniciar amistades por correspondencia o simplemente escribir tarjetas de cumpleaños. No es necesario comprometerse. Nosotros proveeremos declaraciones de las personas encarceladas, direcciones, sellos y sobres.
¡Estamos para ti! Vengan a escribir con nosotros familia!

No Kings! No Queens! is the super-chill community chess club that gathers the 1st Sunday of every month in the galeria. Hosted by Danny Cao, all ages and skill levels are encouraged to come. Never played chess? We'll teach you! Come hang out, talk chess and play a few games.

Art show and screening of the short film Mi Tesoro by Milani Medina.

Mi Tesoro is a film that explores the treasures of the human soul. What began as a simple question to overcome a language barrier turned into a journey to reveal the gold residing in people’s hearts, minds, and lives. 

There will be two screenings of the film at 7pm and 8pm. The pop up art show will be up until 10pm. Participants include;

@belowsycamore
@elygoat
@_embriiz
@_blackwell @swapfilm.co
@zlickkids
@isonn._
@jdma.sf
@mil4ni.mp4
DJ:
@nick.derenzi

Other Dimensions in Sound is our Friday music series curated and hosted by Boohaabian multi reed player extraordinare David Boyce. Each week David will be inviting different musical guests to join him in our galeria for a night of sonic sustenance.

Tonight’s sonic sustenance is being provided by Josh Berman(cornet) and Fred Lonberg-Holm(cello).

Fred Lonberg-Holm is a musician / free improviser / cellist  currently living in El Cerrito CA.   Recent collaborators include Farida Amadou, Michael Bisio,  Tomeka Reid, Simon Camatta, John Edwards, Ahmed El Mottassem, Helena Espvall, Frode Gjerstad, Mat Maneri, Joe McPhee,  Paal Nilssen-Love, Dave Rempis, Roscoe Mitchell and Ben Vida to name a few.
While mostly focusing on free improvising in “ad-hoc” situations, current ongoing projects include Ballister, Survival Unit III, Ear Scratcher, Camatta/Lonberg-Holm, Jakal, The Flying Cellos, the Lightbox Orchestra, Party Knullers and Stirrup.
As a session musician, he has contributed cello sounds to numerous recording projects including those of Califone, Freakwater, Kaki King, God-is-my-co-pilot, Simon Joyner, Smog, Super Chunk, US Maple, Wilco, Protomartyr, Ryley Walker and many others.
Past projects of note include the Peter Brotzmann Chicago Tentet, Vandermark 5, Anthony Coleman’s Selfhaters, Joelle Leandre’s Atlantic Septet, and his own Terminal 4 and the Valentine Trio.

Josh Berman is an internationally recognized cornetist and composer. He has led the acclaimed Old Idea, Josh Berman and his Gang, and his own trio. In addition to being an indispensable contributor to Chicago’s jazz and improvised music scene, Berman has been a concert presenter in Chicago, producing hundreds of shows over the past 20 years. Berman’s work has been critically acclaimed in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, JazzTimes, and DownBeat, among others. His recordings can be found on the Chicago’s legendary Delmark Records and more recently on Austin’s Astral Spirits Records.

Join Ruby authors Susanna Kwan (Awake in the Floating City, Pantheon Books) and Mia Ayumi Malhotra (Mothersalt, Alice James Books) for a reading in celebration of their new books, both released on May 13, 2025. 

Kwan’s debut novel imagines a future flooded San Francisco that, according to Meng Jin, “expands the known world, making room within its unbearable devastation for beauty, compassion, and love,” while Mothersalt, Malhotra’s second collection of poetry, “charts—astoundingly, wondrously—the vast territories of the unnarratable that constitute motherhood” (Jenny Xie). Both works, written side by side at The Ruby beginning in 2018, explore what it means to exist in a world unmoored from its bearings—bewildered, disbelieving, and yet fully awakened to what it means to be human. 

Following the reading, writer, producer, and oral historian Shanna Farrell will moderate a conversation between the two authors about caregiving and connection, imagined/disappearing worlds, creative community, and more.

Susanna Kwan is an artist and writer from San Francisco. Her work has been supported by fellowships from Kundiman, Storyknife, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, The Writers' Grotto, and Vanderbilt University. Awake in the Floating City is her first novel. She teaches writing with The Dream Side.

Mia Ayumi Malhotra is the author of Mothersalt, the chapbook Notes from the Birth Year, and Isako Isako, a California Book Award finalist and winner of the Alice James Award, Nautilus Gold Award for Poetry, National Indie Excellence Award, and Maine Literary Award. Her work has received the Hawker Prize for Southeast Asian Poetry and the Singapore Poetry Prize, and she is a Kundiman Fellow and founding member of The Ruby SF. Currently she teaches poetry at Left Margin LIT and is working on a new book about music and the interior life.

Shanna Farrell is an interviewer at UC Berkeley's Oral History Center, where she works on a wide variety of projects and specializes in arts and cultural, food and beverage, and environmental history. She is the author of A Good Drink: In Pursuit of Sustainable Spirits and Bay Area Cocktails: A History of Culture, Community and Craft. She is currently working on a book about fertility. 

San Francisco Solidarity Collective hosts Letter Writing and Correspondence Night

Our focus is on prison abolitionist work centered on the struggle of people in prison, jails, and immigrant and juvenile detention centers locally and worldwide. Join us for exchanging letters, starting a pen-pal, or just one-time birthday cards. No commitment necessary We will provide statements from incarcerated individuals, addresses, stamps, and envelopes. We got you, come write with us familia.

Colectivo de Solidaridad de San Francisco
 Noche de Escritura de Cartas y Correspondencias.
 Nuestro enfoque está en el trabajo abolicionista de las prisiones,
centrado en la lucha de las personas en prisiones, cárceles y centros
de detención juvenil y de inmigrantes a nivel local y mundial. Únase con nosotros para intercambiar cartas, iniciar amistades por correspondencia o simplemente escribir tarjetas de cumpleaños. No es necesario comprometerse. Nosotros proveeremos declaraciones de las personas encarceladas, direcciones, sellos y sobres.
¡Estamos para ti! Vengan a escribir con nosotros familia!

Join Bay Area poets in solidarity with Gaza featuring Paul Flores, Vanessa Torres and more TBA

!PALESTINE IS THE NAME OF ALL THE PEOPLES OF THE EARTH!

Humanity is burning in the flames of war. In Gaza, the tender bodies of children are consumed daily by relentless Zionist bombardments. The mobilization of civil society and the hesitant declarations of politicians rejecting this brutal invasion are not enough to contain the catastrophe. We are all Palestinians today — the childhood of the world is being exterminated in a beautiful and beloved land. The roots that bind us to the earth are being severed.

We are poets, and our only instrument of defense for tortured life is language. We will use it fully, launching a vast poetic action across the world to denounce the machinery of annihilation deployed by the pale murderers. Life is sacred; no one has the right to extinguish it. Palestinian land is sacred; no occupying force has the right to seize it. The martyrs are sacred; their red blood spilled on green grass will nourish and raise the soul of the world.

The World Poetry Movement (WPM) calls upon all human beings of deep conscience and burning heart — poets, artists, and thinkers around the planet — to rise in solidarity. We urge demonstrations in every country, by every possible means, on May 15, 2025, marking the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, the day when 700,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes.

We also call for global actions on 28-29 June 2025, with massive poetry readings, performances, conferences, talks, concerts, and exhibitions — in public spaces and in private venues. We encourage workshops and discussions in schools and colleges, in cities and villages around the world, to share and spread Palestinian poetry of resistance.

We know that writing and reading poems alone will not be enough to end the war in Gaza or halt the extermination. Yet it will form part of a worldwide poetic revolution — one that can awaken the confused spirit of our species and return us to our deepest humanity, marching firmly toward the realization of true peace on earth, in profound unity, and the recovery of humanity’s forgotten greatest hopes.

More info at https://worldpoetrymovement.org/palestine-is-the-name-of-all-the-peoples-of-the-earth/

Book talk tonight regarding the recently discovered letter of Fernando Tupac Amaru. The book contains 16 letters written by Fernando Túpac Amaru between 1787 and 1798 in Spain, as well as a selection of documents of diverse authorship and that keep some relation with the letters. All these documents and the letters signed by Fernando Túpac Amaru have been found in the AGI - Archivo General de Indias in Seville by Viola Varotto (Isole).

Fernando Túpac Amaru Bastidas (1768-1798), was born on May 31, 1768 in Pampamarca (Cusco). He was son of José Gabriel TúpacAmaru and Micaela Bastidas, considered forerunners of independence of Peru. In 1781 Fernando Túpac Amaru was condemned to exile in Africa by the visitor José Antonio de Areche, but this did not happen because this sentence was changed to banishment to Spain. Fernando arrived in Cadiz as a prisoner in 1786, being interned in the Castle of Santa Catalina. After a long stay in two schools of the Piarist Fathers in Getafe and Lavapiés, he lived in Madrid until his death in 1798. During his exile in Spain he wrote several letters, some of them addressed to Kings Charles III and Charles IV. This book rescues, from the Archivo General de Indias, all those found there, and gathers them together with a group of documents not written by Fernando Túpac Amaru, but which are useful to reconstruct his life. The entire process, from the reading of the letters to the research and the editorial care of the book, was possible thanks to a collective work by Ana Karina Barandiarán (art), Rosaly Benites (pedagogy), Rosaura De La Cruz (art), Lizet Díaz Machuca (history of art), Vero Ferrari (linguistics), Cecilia Méndez (history), Eduardo Pérez (archive), Jackeline Sosa (social), Javi Vargas (art) and Viola Varotto, (history of art) between 2023 and 2025.

Moderated by Professor Cecilia Méndez a Peruvian historian specializing in the social and political history of the Andean region during the national period, Peru, in particular. After graduating as a licenciada in History at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (Lima), in 1986, Cecilia took a teaching position at the Universidad Nacional  de Huamanga, in Ayacucho. At that time, Ayacucho’s mostly rural and Quechua-speaking hinterland had become the epicenter of the political violence unleashed by Shining Path’s (Sendero Luminoso’s) insurgency in 1980. Deemed the biggest insurrection in the history of Peru, and the bloodiest in modern Latin America, the inner war, which spanned from 1980 to 2000, claimed nearly 70,000 lives, most of them Quechua-speaking peasants. Her experience in Ayacucho, which was prior to her pursual of graduate studies in the U.S., turned out to be decisive in her professional choices. Henceforth, the largest part of Cecilia’s research has been devoted to the study of the role of Andean peasant society in Peru’s national life.

!We know of no better way to celebrate Pride than having the one and only Baruch Porras-Hernadez in our front window as part of Paeo Artisitco; De Colores!

Baruch Porras Hernandez is a writer, performer, and stand up comedian that has performed all over north america, from LA to DC, sexual health clinics, fancy theatres, a cave once, and your dad's back porch. He was born in Toluca, Mexico, and came here to steal all your jobs. In this performance he will bring a mix of gay mexican immigrant storytelling, poetry, comedy, and maybe a little burlesque. He will also be doing an excerpt from his solo play "Love in the Time of Piñatas" which just won "Best Solo Comedy" at The New York City Fringe Festival! 

Baruch Porras Hernandez has been called a “Multi Hyphenated Artist! Daring, candid and inventive!” by the San Francisco Chronicle, was named a “Writer to Watch” by 7x7 Magazine, and is a poet, comedian, and illustrator who has performed all over North America, a strip club, and a cave once. He's the author of two small poetry collections “Lovers of the Deep Fried Circle”, “I Miss You Delicate” with Sibling Rivalry Press, had a donut named after him, ask for the “Baruchador!” at Dynamo Donuts, he is the host and creator of Donde Esta Mi Gente? Latinx Performance Showcase and is a regular host for KQED Live. His comedy show “Donde Esta Mi Comedy?” has been a part of SF SketchFest Comedy Festival four years in a row! He’s toured with the legendary Sister Spit Queer poetry tour in 2019,  toured with the Foglifter Literary Tour in 2021, and was part of the “Sluts!” Anthology literary tour with Michelle Tea.  He is a two-time winner of Literary Death Match, he’s won The Moth, won WriteClubSF, won Happy Endings, and was the reigning Muni Haiku Champion for three years. He’s featured at SF Sketchfest Comedy Festival, the LitQuake Literary festival, and his sold out solo show “Love in the Time of Piñatas” got a clapping man from the San Francisco Chronicle.  He was born in Toluca, Mexico, then came here to steal all your jobs and make out with your dad. He Loves San Francisco.

Other Dimensions in Sound is our Friday music series curated and hosted by Boohaabian multi reed player extraordinare David Boyce. Each week David will be inviting different musical guests to join him in our galeria for a night of sonic sustenance.

Tonight’s sonic sustenance is a solo set music box set by Sidney Chen.

All This Safety is Killing Us is an abolitionist anthology that unpacks the critical role the medical world has to play in the violence of incarceration. There are contributions from incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people, medical professionals, organizers, and artists. It's a book that starts a much needed conversation—especially here in California where people in state women's prisons were unknowingly sterilized until very recently, prison doctors are continually accused of horrific abuse, and ICE detention centers notoriously neglect people's medical needs.

Tonight join Jennifer Esteen, Clio Sady and the editors of the abolitionist anthology All This Safety Is Killing Us, Ronica Mukerjee and Carlos Martinez, as they discuss this multidisciplinary guide to abolition through the lens of healthcare and medicine. Featuring writings and artwork from more than ten incarcerated and post-detention activists.

Carlos Martinez, MPH, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Depart- ment of Latin American and Latino Studies and core faculty member of the Global and Community Health program at the University of Cal- ifornia, Santa Cruz.

Ronica Mukerjee, DNP, is a family and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner and an acupuncturist. They are currently an assistant professor in Columbia University’s School of Nursing. 

Jennifer Esteen, RN, is a registered nurse, mother, and community leader who has served as vice president of the Alameda Health System Board of Trustees and is currently a council member on the Eden Municipal Advisory Council. 

Clio Sady is an illustrator living in San Francisco, California. Sady worked for many years as a tattoo artist and uses the skills from tattooing in their comics. 

The Indian Classical Sessions are an informal gathering dedicated to sharing the meditative beauty, ecstatic energy, and sheer majesty of South Asian music. This gathering focuses on curating 4 short live sets that represent different influences and traditions surrounding South Asian music. Our goal is to connect, build our raga music loving community, and share South Asian classical music in an impromptu, casual and attentive setting.

This month's curation features the Indian classical music collective known as BAYRAAGIS

Featuring: 

Swati Jhaveri (vocal)

and Gayathri Srinidhi (vocal)

Paritosh Katre (vocal + harmonium)
and Neeraja Abhyankar (vocal)

Madhurranjan Mohaan (vocal)
Krishna Parthasarathy (vocal + violin)

Arvind Sathe (tabla)
and Shiva Iyer (mridangam)

For all sets:

Tabla accompaniment - Arvind Sathe

Mridangam accompaniment - Shiva Iyer

Violin - Krishna Parthasarathy (also Nagma for Set 4)

Harmonium - Paritosh Katre

$10 at the door!

"Kitchen Table, Grand Coffee, and Medicine for Nightmares are coming together for a book launch and fundraiser to support displaced Palestinian youth. To celebrate the debut of poetry chapbook 'These Empires, These Flowers,' Kitchen Table co-founder Paolo Bicchieri invited local writers Arati Warrier, D'Mani Thomas, Keith Donnell Jr., Kevin Madrigal Galindo, Lucie Pereira, and Giovanna Lomanto together for a night of readings and food. Grand Coffee will provide tea and Palestinian snacks thanks to co-owner Nabeel Silmi.

$20 to attend which includes a copy of the book, food, and drinks. Funds go directly to a family in Gaza. No pre-purchase is required."

Arati Warrier (she/they) is writing and living in the Bay Area. Their work has been published in The Shade Journal, The Rumpus, and the Academy of American Poets, and they co-authored the collaborative chapbook Longing and Other Heirlooms. Arati's other interests include eating extremely good produce and talking about tv. She is caste/class privileged.

Keith Donnell Jr. is a California-based poet and book editor. He is a graduate of the Creative Writing MFA Program at San Francisco State University and the author of The Move (Nomadic Press, 2021) and supreme night (Black Lawrence Press, 2025). He is a previous Editor-in-Chief of Fourteen Hills: The SFSU Review and his work has appeared in journals and anthologies, including POETRY and Best American Nonrequired Reading.

Giovanna Lomanto is a Pushcart-Prize nominated poet and artist. She has published six books of various lengths and genres. A recent graduate of NYU’s MFA program, her work has been supported by U.C. Berkeley, KQED, and the SFMOMA archive. In addition to working as a teaching artist and nonprofit organizer, she has also co-hosted the Living Room Poetry series and served as the lead curator for the San Francisco Literary Festival’s inaugural Out Loud weekend for Queer & BIPOC writers. Currently, she serves as the co-owner of the indie press Game Over Books. She lives in Oakland with her partner and their lion head bunny Maggie.

Paolo Bicchieri is a writer living on the coast. His work has been featured in the Seattle Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Ghost City Press, and Nomadic Press. 'These Empires, These Flowers' is their latest chapbook and their second collection of poems after 2021's 'Familial Animals' which won Animal Heart Press's poetry chapbook contest. He enjoys strong coffee and stronger labor politics. 

D'mani Thomas (he \ they) is a writer, and creative from Oakland, California (Ohlone territory). Their work currently explores surveillance, intimacy, and the insidious ways Black queers have been impacted by both. D’mani has received fellowships from UC Berkeley’s Art & Research Center via The Engaging the Senses Foundation, The Watering Hole, The Outpost Foundation, Foglifter, and others. In 2023, they became a finalist for the Penrose Poetry Prize, and were awarded a California Arts Council grant through Youth Speaks. His work can be found in Muzzle Magazine, The Shade Journal, Oroboro Lit Journal, KALW 91.7 FM, The Auburn Avenue, and elsewhere. His debut chapbook, “Grown-up Elementary”, is now available through Black Lawrence Press. Outside of poetry, catch them studying horror movies, dancing, and eating too many fries.

Lucie Pereira (she/her) is a writer and educator living in San Francisco. Her work has appeared in Honey Literary and Stanchion Zine, among others, and her debut chapbook, From Here to the Ocean, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. She is currently pursuing a master’s in creative writing at University College Cork.

Sagaree (they/she) is a poet, educator, organizer, and queer from the Bay. Their writing has been featured in Autostraddle, The Margins, them. magazine, and The Offing, where they served as the Micro Editor. Their book SHRINES is out from Game Over Books now. They are moving from class and caste privilege to caste abolition, class suicide, and housing for all. They are down to help you redistribute your wealth.

San Francisco Solidarity Collective hosts Letter Writing and Correspondence Night

Our focus is on prison abolitionist work centered on the struggle of people in prison, jails, and immigrant and juvenile detention centers locally and worldwide. Join us for exchanging letters, starting a pen-pal, or just one-time birthday cards. No commitment necessary We will provide statements from incarcerated individuals, addresses, stamps, and envelopes. We got you, come write with us familia.

Colectivo de Solidaridad de San Francisco
 Noche de Escritura de Cartas y Correspondencias.
 Nuestro enfoque está en el trabajo abolicionista de las prisiones,
centrado en la lucha de las personas en prisiones, cárceles y centros
de detención juvenil y de inmigrantes a nivel local y mundial. Únase con nosotros para intercambiar cartas, iniciar amistades por correspondencia o simplemente escribir tarjetas de cumpleaños. No es necesario comprometerse. Nosotros proveeremos declaraciones de las personas encarceladas, direcciones, sellos y sobres.
¡Estamos para ti! Vengan a escribir con nosotros familia!

Join us for a very special closing ceremony to this year’s Flor y Canto as we honor one of La Mision’s most beloved poets, the one and only Francisco X. Alarcon. Featuring flores, poetry, Maria’s Mama’s pozole and remebrances of Francisco by Lito Sandoval and Dr. Naomi Helena Quinonez.

This event is part of the San Francisco International Flor Y Canto Literary Festival which takes place in La Mision Friday June 20th-Sunday June 22nd. For a complete list of events go to the IG page; sfflorycanto

Poet and Author Darren J. de Leon reads from his new YA book “The Hoops and Crosses of Mt. Vernon” as part of the San Francisco International Flor y Canto Literary Festival.

Rey Rey, a 15-year-old Chicano teenager, navigates the complexities of growing up in the barrio. He finds himself caught between the dangerous world of violence and drug abuse, and the world of social justice and creative expression. The "hoops and crosses" of his life represent the challenges and burdens he faces as he grapples with gangs, education, alcohol and drugs, religion, assimilation, and his growing socio-political awareness. The Hoops and Crosses of Mt. Vernon is Rey Rey's journey of survival, as he learns to maneuver through the road signs of both the hood and the world of adults.

Author Darren J. de Leon draws from his own experiences to guide readers through Rey Rey's story. The narrative is a collection of short stories, reflections, and poetry that vividly illustrate the choices many young Chicano males encounter. This is de Leon's first YA Lit book, and he brings his award-winning poetic voice to the page. de Leon is a poet, the founder of the San Francisco avant-garde spoken word ensemble Los Delicados: Poetas del Sol, and a radio and podcast producer.

This event is part of the San Francisco International Flor Y Canto Literary Festival which happens in La Mision Friday June 20th-Domingo June 22nd. For a complete schedule of events go to the Instagram page; sfflorycanto

Join us for an afternoon of fun craftmaking for kids and young people with Flor Y Canto artistic director Amanda Ayala!

 Artist Amanda Ayala will lead us through a colorful one-hour art workshop making simple portal pop-up books to take home. You can also visit the Crystal Corner with Rocio Evans Ramirez. 

This event is part of the San Francisco International Flor Y Canto Literary Festival. which happens Friday June 20th-Sunday June 22nd here in La Mision. For a full schedule of events go to the IG page; sfflorycanto

Join us for a very special y chingon evening with Texas writer Fernando Flores as he reads from his latest briliant BIPOC dystopian novel Brother Bronte. Fernando will be joined in conversation with Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta.

In Brother Bronte two women fight to save their dystopian border town—and literature—in this gonzo near-future adventure…The year is 2038, and the formerly bustling town of Three Rivers, Texas, is a surreal wasteland. Under the authoritarian thumb of its tech industrialist mayor, Pablo Henry Crick, the town has outlawed reading and forced most of its mothers to work as indentured laborers at the Big Tex Fish Cannery, which poisons the atmosphere and lines Crick’s pockets. Scraping by in this godforsaken landscape are best friends Proserpina and Neftalí. One of Three Rivers’ last literate citizens, Neftalí hides and reads the books of the mysterious renegade author Jazzmin Monelle Rivas, whose last novel, Brother Brontë, is finally in Neftalí’s possession. But after a series of increasingly violent atrocities committed by Crick’s forces, Neftalí and Proserpina, with the help of a wounded Bengal tigress, three scheming triplets, and an underground network of rebel tías, rise up to reclaim their city—and in the process, unlock Rivas’s connection to Three Rivers itself. An adventure that only the acclaimed Fernando A. Flores could dream up, Brother Brontë is a mordant, gonzo romp through a ruined world that, in its dysfunction, tyranny, and disparity, feels uncannily like our own. With his most ambitious book yet, Flores once again bends what fiction can do, in the process crafting a moving and unforgettable story of perseverance.

Fernando A. Flores was born in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, and grew up in South Texas. He is the author of the collections Death to the Bullshit Artists of South Texas and Valleyesque and the novel Tears of the Trufflepig, which was long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and named a best book of 2019 by Tor.com. His fiction has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly, American Short Fiction, Ploughshares, Frieze, Porter House Review, and elsewhere. His latest novel Brother Bronte was published in 2023. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta is a queer anarchist anti-zionist Jewish Nicaragüense artist, poet, and sexual health educator from the lands of the Tongva people who now lives in Yelamu, Ramaytush Ohlone territory.

This event is part of the San Francisco International Flor Y Canto Literary Festival. which happens Friday June 20th-Sunday June 22nd here in La Mision. For a full schedule of events go to the IG page; sfflorycanto

Huizache,the magazine of a new America, presents a very special poetry reading as part of the San Francisco International Flor y Canto Literary Festival. This event is presented in partnership with the SFPL. Participating poets are;

Yaccaira Salvatierra’s debut poetry collection, Sons of Salt, published by BOA Editions, was deemed one of the "Best Books for Adults 2024" by the New York Public Library. She has been a contributing poetry editor for Huizache and lives in Oakland, where she teaches literacy and poetry to youth.

María Esquinca is the winner of the 2024 Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize, selected by Juan Felipe Herrera. Her debut poetry collection Where Heaven Sinks will be published in fall 2025. She was born in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, grew up in El Paso, TX, and is currently based in Oakland. María’s poetry was published in Huizache 11.

Lourdes Figueroa is a queer chicanx oral poet & poetry filmmaker. Based in the Bay Area, they have served as a family case manager, domestic violence advocate, housing advocate, interpreter, translator, and community organizer. Lourdes's offerings are the chapbooks yolotl, Ruidos = To Learn Speak, Vuelta, and most recently with La Universidad Autónoma De Nuevo León their long verse poem I will kiss your mouth b/w the overgrown Milpa. Their poetry will appear in Huizache 12.

José Vadi is the author of Inter State: Essays from California and Chipped: Writing from a Skateboarder’s Lens. An award-winning essayist, poet, playwright and film producer, his work has been featured by the Paris Review, The Atlantic, the PBS NewsHour, KQED, Free Skate Magazine, Alta Journal, and the Yale Review. He lives and writes in Sacramento. His essay on Rage Against the Machine will be published in Huizache 12.

Vincente G. Perez is a decolonial poet and scholar working at the intersection of poetry, Hip-Hop, and digital culture. His debut chapbook, Other Stories to Tell Ourselves, won an Eric Hoffer finalist award. His poems have appeared in Obsidian, Poet Lore, Honey Literary, and will appear soon in Huizache 12.

hector son of hectoris from Long Beach, CA and currently lives in Oakland. He is the child of Mexican immigrants, works in a hospital, dreams of short stories and writes poetry in secret. His poems will appear in Huizache 12.

Join us on Saturday June 21st as Eric Drooker, renowned for his numerous covers for the New Yorker magazine, presents his latest book, titled NAKED CITY: A Graphic Novel. Eric Drooker will give a slide lecture about the changing landscape of the city and will also accompany himself on a variety of instruments as he will struggle to answer the question: "Is it possible for an artist to survive in the 21st Century?” This event is being presented in partnership with the Before Columbus Foundation.

Eric Drooker, a native of Manhattan, began creating street art as a teenager. His iconic drawings and posters have become hallmarks of the global street art movement, with dozens of his paintings appearing on the covers of The New Yorker.

His first book, Flood, won the American Book Award, and was followed by Blood Song, which is currently in development as a feature film. Naked City completes his acclaimed City Trilogy. Drooker’s graphic novels have been translated into numerous languages, and his animation work for the film HOWL led to a collaboration with DreamWorks Animation.

Drooker’s art is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Library of Congress. He is available for speaking engagements and frequently delivers slide lectures at colleges and universities.

This event is part of the San Francisco International Flor Y Canto Literary Festival which takes place in La Mision Friday June 20th-Sunday June 22nd. For a complete list of events go to the IG page; sfflorycanto

4 powerful Filipinx poetas read their work in our galeria as part of the San Francisco International Flor Y Canto Literary Festival. Come gather and hear decolonized verses and Pinay poetics from Zoe Dorado, Aimee Suzara, Barbara Jane Reyes, and Aileen Cassinetto. Curated and hosted by Barbara Jane Reyes.

This event is part of the San Francisco International Flor Y Canto Literary Festival. which happens Friday June 20th-Sunday June 22nd here in La Mision. For a full schedule of events go to the IG page; sfflorycanto

Contributors from the Latinx speculative fiction anthology “Not Your Papi's Utopia” come together for an afternoon of BIPOC stories from the future and other related timelines. Readers include Matthew David Goodwin, Sara Daniele Rivera, Wenmimareba Klobah Collins, Rolando Andre Lopez, and Roxane Llanque.

This event is part of the San Francisco International Flor Y Canto Literary Festival which happens in La Mision Friday June 20th-Domingo June 22nd. For a complete schedule of events go to the Instagram page; sfflorycanto

Here are some of my books…sketchbooks, notebooks, journals, books I sewed together, books gifted and filled, books that hold things I want to remember, things others have shared with me and commitments I have made to and for myself. When we create, these pieces of ourselves are reflections of hours and generations of thinking, feeling, trying, changing, experiencing and dreaming. These books are filled with this and more, lots of experimenting, painting, drawing, gluing, sewing, layering. Look through them and you can see some of my mind and life. I wonder how they might remind you of anything you have been through, anything you want for yourself and for the world. What books have you filled/would you fill?  

LIBROS exhibition is part of the San Francisco International Flor y Canto Literary Festival 2025.

Amanda Ayala is an interdisciplinary Xicana Indigenous artist and maker who centers people targeted by oppression and acknowledges their brilliance. Amanda leads and facilitates workshops that combine artist liberation and social justice for people of all ages. She creates within community as a way to heal and transform society.  linktr.ee/xicanaollin

Come gather and hear decolonized verses, spanglish poesia, Latine spokenword, Pocho poems and neighborhood chisme at Speaking Axolotl, the Bay Area’s long running monthly Latine Reading series.

This month Speaking Axolotl is being taken over by Trenches Full of Poets, a Long Beach reading series that happens at Page Against The Machine. Curator and host of Trenches Full of Poets, Nikolai Garcia will be bringing three LA poetas with him so get ready for Trenches Full of Axolotls!

Participating poets include;

Guadalupe Salgado Partida loves reading poetry and sauntering. She has received support from Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA) and is currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing at California State University, Fresno. Additionally, she was a reader for the 2024 Philip Levine Prize. Her work has been published by The Acentos Review, Zócalo Public Square, The San Joaquin Review, The Dewdrop and others. She can be found on IG @salgadopartida

Grace Olguin is a poet and storyteller. She printed her first chapbook collection of poems in 2009 and was awarded the Powell Grant for "Art In the Public Places" by the City of Santa Fe Springs. Her first book of poetry “A List of Things I Lost” will be released this fall through World Stage Press. When at home in Long Beach, CA she enjoys life with her three animal companions — a dog, a bird and a tortoise. 

Mauricio 'Soul on Fire' Moreno is an award-winning poet and writer from New Jersey. He is the cohost of Trenches Full of Poets, a monthly reading series in Long Beach. He writes about his experiences as a Colombian-American, son of immigrants, and to understand the world around him. 

10 slot open mic opens up a las 6;50pm

NOTA; Speaking Axolotl is a BIPOC reading series which means black and brown poets on the mic. Whyte folks are welcome to attend and listen but your presence is not required.

Un espacio íntimo para compartir lecturas latinoamericanas, recorrer paisajes y voces únicas de la región, y abrir conversaciones que nos atraviesan y nos invitan a pensar juntxs.

An intimate space to share Latin American literature, explore the region’s unique voices and landscapes, and open up conversations that move us and invite us to think together.

Líneas del Sur is a book membership program designed to connect passionate Spanish-speaking readers with the rich literary landscape of Latin America. Members explore fresh voices from the region through carefully curated books, contextual articles, and editorial notes. The experience is enriched by lively conversations in both online and in-person book clubs, fostering a vibrant community of literary enthusiasts.

This month’s book is Maria Elena Moran’s “Los Continentes del Adentro”. Copies are available at Medicina Para Pesadillas.

Meet and hear two authors discuss their new books on China!

Befriending China by Dee Knight tells of China’s “opening” to a flood of visitors, as part of “People-To- People Peacemaking.” Partially based on three recent visits to China, it highlights exciting tourism opportunities, and describes the achievements China has made in infrastructure, education, health care, and poverty alleviation. It includes an eye-witness account of visiting Xinjiang, debunking official US rumors of abuse of the Uyghur population there.

Why The World Needs China by Kyle Ferrana “Kyle has written a beautiful book. In a time when we are bombarded with lies and propaganda, he offers us an exploration into China. Our efforts at China Is Not Our Enemy are for all of us to see each other in ways that lead to cooperation, appreciation and working together for a vibrant future for all. I felt at the core of Kyle’s book is this offering; a pathway to peace.” JODIE EVANS, co-founder CODEPINK and China Is Not Our Enemy

Dee Knight is on the Advisory Council of the Friends of Socialist China, and on the China Working Group of DSA’s International Committee. He visited China 3 times recently.

Kyle Ferrana is a writer, software engineer, and tenant organizer. He is a contributor to e International magazine. He recently returned from a solidarity and study tour in China.

San Francisco Solidarity Collective hosts Letter Writing and Correspondence Night

Our focus is on prison abolitionist work centered on the struggle of people in prison, jails, and immigrant and juvenile detention centers locally and worldwide. Join us for exchanging letters, starting a pen-pal, or just one-time birthday cards. No commitment necessary We will provide statements from incarcerated individuals, addresses, stamps, and envelopes. We got you, come write with us familia.

Colectivo de Solidaridad de San Francisco
 Noche de Escritura de Cartas y Correspondencias.
 Nuestro enfoque está en el trabajo abolicionista de las prisiones,
centrado en la lucha de las personas en prisiones, cárceles y centros
de detención juvenil y de inmigrantes a nivel local y mundial. Únase con nosotros para intercambiar cartas, iniciar amistades por correspondencia o simplemente escribir tarjetas de cumpleaños. No es necesario comprometerse. Nosotros proveeremos declaraciones de las personas encarceladas, direcciones, sellos y sobres.
¡Estamos para ti! Vengan a escribir con nosotros familia!

Join us this Father’s Day for an interactive book reading of Shawn D Taylor’s, “The Alphabet for New and Expecting Fathers.” Guests should be prepared to participate. The Alphabet for New and Expecting Fathers by Shawn D. Taylor is a heartfelt and humorous collection of 26 essays—each tied to a letter of the alphabet—that offers a fresh perspective on fatherhood. With wit, wisdom, and striking vulnerability, Taylor reflects on the joys, fears, challenges, and unexpected lessons of becoming a dad. From A to Z, this book is a unique guide and companion for new and soon-to-be fathers, blending personal stories with insights that are both deeply relatable and emotionally resonant.

Bio: Shawn D. Taylor is a writer, educator, public speaker, and culture cartographer whose work bridges the worlds of storytelling, philosophy, performance art, and folklore. An Oakland Slam champion and winner of a The Moth StorySLAM, Shawn's storytelling prowess extends to his acclaimed book, The Alphabet for New and Expecting Fathers, a collection of 26 essays offering heartfelt and humorous insights into fatherhood. His writings have been featured in Rad Dad, The New York Times, and Ebony Magazine.​

Shawn is a Senior Fellow with the Pop Culture Collaborative, where he explores how fandoms can drive social change.His research delves into the transformative power of fandoms, emphasizing their potential to foster empathy, activism, and community-building . He is also a co-founder of The Nerds of Color, a leading platform celebrating people of color in geek culture.

Shawn holds degrees in philosophy, religious studies, and digital humanities. He and his family live in the Bay Are, a wee bit too close to the water. 

Other Dimensions in Sound is our Friday music series curated and hosted by Boohaabian multi reed player extraordinare David Boyce. Each week David will be inviting different musical guests to join him in our galeria for a night of sonic sustenance.

Tonight’s musical medicina is being provided by Ferren+Rodvien.(Andrew Ferren-saxophone, flute, and electronics. Brian Rodvien-drums, percussion, and electronics)