KINAM es una práctica de entrenamiento psicofísico basada en la filosofía Tolteca/Anawaka (Mesoamerica antes de la colonización) y en sus antiguas posturas de equilibrio y de poder, creada a partir de diversas técnicas de movimiento funcional, meditación, y "posturas de poder toltecas". En esta clase buscamos recuperar las raíces culturales de América Prehispánica a través de la exploración de nuestra atención y consciencia y el balance de nuestros centros perceptuales: cuerpo físico, mente, emociones y energía vital.

Materiales a traer: Un mat de yoga o un tapete, ropa cómoda

*Apto para todas las edades 

KINAM is a psychophysical training practice based on Toltec/Anawak (Mesoamerica before colonization) philosophy and its ancient postures of balance and power, created from various techniques of functional movement, meditation, and “Toltec power postures.” In this class, we seek to recover the cultural roots of Pre-Hispanic America through the exploration of our awareness and consciousness while balancing our perceptual centers: physical body, mind, emotions, and vital energy.

Materials needed: Yoga mat and comfortable clothes
*All ages are welcomed

The Molcajete Poets are opening a new poetry space rooted in community, creativity, and care. Our vision is to cultivate poets through intentional workshops and open mic gatherings where every voice is valued.We invite poets of all backgrounds and identities to share space with us. Whether you’re just beginning or have been writing for years. This is a space to grow, to be heard, and to build together. Join us for our first open mic as we set the tone for a safe, welcoming, and intentional environment through our words. Come listen, come share, come be part of something we’re creating together.

Participating poets include;;

Yenia Jimenez is a Mother, Poet and Educator. She is born & rased in occupied Ohlone Ramayatush Land. She is a mother, community advocate, and a self published author with two collections of poetry and prose. “Visualize what you read” and “An Ode to Resilience” Yenia believes that BIPOC stories are highly underrepresented in literature and need to be elevated. She hopes to continue to inspire people and most importantly as an educator to continue to inspire youth through teaching poetry, song writing workshops with an emphasis on the history of Jazz, Blues and its connection to the African Diaspora.

Gaia.te, also known as "Gaia the Empress," is a 27-year-old bisexual priestess and artist, born in Brooklyn and raised in Frisco. Her vibrance surges from NYC to San Francisco and beyond. Grounded by her Afro-Latina roots, she champions the earth's energies channeling them through a unique blend of poetry, hip-hop, techno, and Neo-Soul. Over the past decade, her community involvement through workshops, performances, and art exemplifies her unwavering commitment to bettering the world. As an MC who channels the universal spirit for all to see, she is unconditionally... Gaia.te

Téo Arias is a non-binary Chicane poet born and raised in Watsonville, California. Their writing unfolds at the intersections of their identity—it lies in the way their gender queerness and decolonial ideology braid together with lived trauma.Téo believes that poetry is an act of resistance and applies that not only in their writing but also in their work with students in poetry workshops.

Esperanza Cabrales (they/them) is a queer, trans nonbinary Xicanx spoken word artist currently based in unceded Muwekma Ohlone land. They're an organizer for the Berkeley Poetry Slam, workshop facilitator, certified Gemini summer baby, events organizer, polyglot, jewelry designer, and multi-media artist. Their poetry is deeply entwined with their queerness, sense of community, curiosity, and intersectionality.

Gabriel Cortez is a poet, educator, and organizer based in the Bay Area, California. His work has appeared in Poem-A-Day by The Academy of American Poets, The New York Times, The Rumpus, The Breakbeat Poets Anthology Volume 4, and elsewhere. A VONA, Poetry Incubator, and #BARS workshop alum, he has received awards from the Gerbode Foundation, the Rainin Foundation, the National Performance Network, the University of California, Palette Poetry, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. He is pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing at St. Mary’s College of California 

J.Yuru Zhou / 周玉茹 (they, she) is a poet, writer, researcher, and artist rooting in San Francisco. She enjoys theorizing at the club, ambling in-and-out of the panopticon, and reveling in summery autumns in California. Her poems and essays have been exhibited in shows at Gray Area and Southern Exposure; looped at Asian Art Museum; performed at Litquake (Yerba Buena Gardens, Noisebridge), Berkeley Poetry Festival (Berkeley Ballet Theatre), the Pride Poets Hotline (ONE Gallery, Los Angeles Public Library); published by Inverse Magazine and the Los Angeles Times.

René Espejo is a queer, first-generation, Afro-Indo Caribbean visual artist, poet, performer, curator, and aspiring fantasy novelist… A longtime San Francisco resident, they are a self-taught Art-Witch whose various creative mediums inform one another. René work blends witchcraft, queer identity, and Caribbean culture to share hidden stories that exist within their inner world.

Bryan Chávez Castro is a Salvadoran poet now local to Northern California. He was 2026 Rooted and Written Fellow at The Writers Grotto and the Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Fellow at UC Berkeley where he studied comparative literature. His poems have appeared in Huizache, Acentos Review, and Tierra Narrative's "Title Card #1."

Pápí Grande (He/Him/Prince) is an Oakland-raised spoken word artist, educator, and published author known for his dynamic stage presence and emotionally resonant storytelling. His work explores identity, community, and personal evolution, creating powerful connections with audiences and students alike.He is the author of Theme of Identity.

Darius Simpson is a New Afrikan writer, educator, farmer, and skilled living room dancer from Akron, Ohio. Much like the means of production, he believes poetry must be used for the positive social, political, and economic development of the majority of society. He is the recipient of fellowships from Poetry Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and others. His book, Never Catch Me, is out now and available at buttonpoetry.com. Darius believes in the dissolution of empire and the total liberation of Africans and all oppressed people by any means available. Free The People! Free The Land!

Marvin Flores

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 musical medicina.

Tonight’s sonic sustenance is coming to you courtesy of the Larry Ochs Group.

Come celebrate the publication of this year's edition of Forum, a student-run literary journal providing a platform for the contemporary, urban voices of City College since 1937. Our launch party will feature readings by this year's Forum authors, copies of the 2026 edition for sale, food, drink, and a raffle of archival editions of Forum. All are welcome!

Featured readers:

Aaron Lee is a 22 year old, Chinese writer living in San Francisco. He used to live at Music City Hostel where this happened.

Jason Flaig is a writer and artist from the Bay Area who has lived in San Francisco for five years. An experienced technical and strategy guide writer in the video game industry, he writes flash fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction.

Adrienne Gilliam is a San Francisco based multimedia artist and writer. She explores themes of myth, nostalgia, and trauma. Adrienne can often be found writing on long walks through Golden Gate park. When she’s not writing, she enjoys cooking and eating above all else.

Holly Juliet Zimbert now resides in San Francisco, CA. She is deeply inspired by the profound experiences of writing thousands of custom poems for strangers through her public facing typewriter poetry practice, Holly Juliet Zimbert Pop Up Poetry.

Alaina Kafkes Alaina started taking classes at CCSF a year ago. She had a lot of fun writing her story that appears in Forum.

Claribel Caamal Amodei is a San Francis co native that enjoys all forms of creative writing. Although fiction is her first love she has recently started writing poetry and hopes to convey the difficult emotions she feels to others through artistic expression.

Efrain Gutierrez lives in San Francisco. Originally from the Central Valley, Efrain takes film courses at the City College.

Ayo Khensu-Ra writes at the intersection of poetry and fiction. A definite lover of poetry aloud he has featured at several Bay Area-based series including Voz Sin Tinta, Moondrop Productions, and La Prabla Musical. He has studied English and photography at CCSF. He is more ellipsis than period.

Carla Schick is a queer activist for Palestine,an educator and a person who believes in the transformative power of art. They won an honorable mention in the 2025 Tom Howard Poetry Prize. Their work can be found in Qu, Queens Review, The Closed Eye Open and anthologies

Block printing workshop for community activists. We'll have tools, paper, tinta, and small blocks, and start off with a conversation about printmaking as cultural and political expression. Second Wednesdays in March, April, and May. Suggested donation $20 for artist and book store.

Clase de grabado para activistas de la comunidad / Tendremos herramientas, papel, tinta, y pequeños bloques, y empezamos con una conversación sobre el grabado como expresión cultural y política. Segundo Miercoles en marzo, abril, y mayo. Donación sugerida $20 para artista y librería.

Fernando Martí (he/him) is an artist, poet, community architect and housing activist, originally from Ecuador, based in San Francisco, Ramaytush Ohlone land.

Fernando Martí (el) es un artista, poeta, arquitecto comunitario y activista de vivienda, originario del Ecuador, y basado en San Francisco, tierra Ramaytush Ohlone.

For his latest book launch, Alan Chazaro will be reading from These Spaceships Weren't Built For Us, a collection of speculative poems that reconsider the possibilities of space travel as the son of Mexican immigrants. Fresno Poet Laureate Joseph Rios writes that these poems "unlock portals of memory like the vinyl ridges on a record. His poems create temporal shifts and catalog neighborhood histories from Oakland to Jackson Heights. The poems are laced with references just for the homies. They're shoutouts. With These Spaceships Weren't Built for Us, Chazaro transforms the ranfla, the hooptie, and the G-ride into a spaceship, a time machine." Chazaro will be joined by his friends and poets, Sarah O'Neal, Kevin Madrigal, and Sara Borjas for a night of Bay Area literary celebration and astro gazing.

ALAN CHAZARO is the author of This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album, Piñata Theory and Notes from the Eastern Span of the Bay Bridge. He is a graduate of June Jordan’s Poetry for the People program at UC Berkeley and a former Lawrence Ferlinghetti Poetry Fellow at the University of San Francisco. His work can be found in GQ, NPR, The Guardian, L.A. Times and more.

KEVIN MADRIGAL is a queer Chicano poet. He is a first generation hijo de su chingada madre from South San Francisco by way of Zapopan, Jalisco. When Kevin isn't writing, he teaches nutrition and cooking classes in la Misión. Kevin also helps organize When The Smokes Comes, a free creative writing workshop in Oakland that seeks to end oppression. Alan first met Kevin at a pulqueria in Guadalajara, while Kevin was wearing a hella fire Andre Iguodala jersey, and Kevin later visited Alan in Xalapa, Veracruz, to drink mezcal and too much coffee.

SARA BORJAS is a Xicanx pocha, a Fresno poet and a poetry editor at Noemi Press. Her debut collection of poetry, Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff was published by Noemi Press in 2019 and won a 2020 American Book Award.Alanhas been Sara'sfanboysince her debut collection, and he washellaexcited and honored when she blurbed his first book. 

Sarah O’Neal is a writer and artist born and raised in the Bay. Her writing has been featured in the Institute for Palestine Studies, Teen Vogue, The Nation, KQED, and Bandcamp. When she is not writing, you can find her scheming on the end of empire, swimming laps, or on IG @atayqueen and Substack @sarahadbiboneal. Alan would definitely lose to her in a soccer game, and admires her barista skills, among other talents. 

Una exhibición de telares creados por el Grupo Artista Telar Maya Mam

Acompáñanos a una exposición de tejidos en telar de cintura creados por mujeres Maya Mam de los municipios de Xjan Xwan Atitan, Chimb’al y Torasant, Huehuetenango, Guatemala.

El poder de la mujer indígena se teje en cada hilo.
Cada hilo guarda memoria.
Cada color es territorio.
Cada telar es una historia viva.

Ja weya ob’aj wij · ex weya nchemaj reúne tejidos realizados por mujeres Maya Mam, donde el acto de tejer es también un acto de narrar, resistir y preservar conocimiento ancestral. En cada pieza habita la continuidad de la lengua, la tierra y la comunidad. Aunque estamos lejos de nuestra tierra ancestral, seguimos honrando nuestras tradiciones de tejido y creando nuevas prácticas en la diáspora.

El telar es fuerza, es raíz, es resistencia viva.

Producida por NAKA Dance Theater
En colaboración con Medicine for Nightmares Bookstore

An exhibition of textiles created by the Grupo Artista Telar Maya Mam.

Join us for an exhibition of Maya Mam backstrap weaving textiles created by women weavers from Xjan Xwan Atitan, Chimb'al and Torasant, Huehuetenango, Guatemala.

The power of Indigenous women is woven in each thread.
Each thread holds a memory.
Each color is a territory.
Each textile is a living history.

Ja weya ob’aj wij · ex weya nchemaj brings together textiles made by Maya Mam women, where the act of weaving is also an act of storytelling, resisting erasure, and preserving ancestral knowledge. In each piece resides the continuity of language, land, and community. Although we are far from our ancestral land, we continue to honor our weaving traditions and create new practices in the Diaspora.

Our weaving is our strength; it is our roots; it is our living resistance.

Produced by NAKA Dance Theater

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 musical medicina.

Tonight we have a double dose of sonic sustenance;

Set 1; Dymaxion Trio(Bruce Ackley-soprano sax, Pete Schmitt-bass, Dave Brandt-drums/gongs)

Set 2; Huegel/James/Jordan(two drum kits and a guitar)

No Kings, No Queens Chess Club 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.

Join Laughs w/ Benefits for our showcase, Laughs 4 Medicine! Watch the best up and coming comics for a night of laughs and to support social causes. All proceeds are donated to a different cause. This PRIDE month, we are raising funds for homeless queer youth. As this is a fundraiser, we are selling presale tickets. No one will be tunred away for lack of funds but we ask participants to donate to the cause! Donations suggested $20. 

Nola Bradley is an LA native, who now calls herself home in Oakland, CA. Her comedy is wickedly insightful about her absurdist journeys through transgender discovery, sexuality, addictions and mental illness. With the acerbicness of Wanda Sykes and the intimacy of Neal Brennan, she’s unsparing yet vulnerable about ridiculous trans stereotypes and our bleak political climate - while roasting her own self-absorbtion too. Nola is a thought provoking, generationally talented comedienne, but never too high brow for a girldick joke.

Rea Kapur is a Bay Area based comedian, almost professional filmmaker, and devout lesbian. A regular at the San Jose Improv, Rea has opened for acclaimed comedians like Dylan Carlino, Jackie Kashian, Tommy Tiernan, and Maria Bamford. She’s performed in SF Sketchfest, Oakland Comedy Festival, Santa Cruz Comedy Festival, and placed third at Rooster T’s 2025 Comedy Competition. Her brutal honesty and quick wit make her a dazzling, dynamic, and sometimes depressingly relatable comedian.

Vikki Baretta has done shows at Comedy Oakland, The Broadwater, The Hollywood Comedy

!FAMILIA come by tonight for the Flor Y Canto Pachanga Fundraiser!

Siiiiiiiii tonight is the night when we gather to raise money for the San Francisco International Flor Y Canto Literary Festival, San Francisco ONLY homegrown literary festival highlighting BIPOC authors, poets and our connected communities. The San Francisco International Flor Y Canto Literary Festival was started here in the Mission during Alejandro Murguria’s time as SF first Latino Poet Laureate and continues to this day organized and run by volunteers, ganas, y amore. Tonight’s Pachanga will feature a very special musical collaboration with poets Arlene Biala, Paul Flores, Cathy Arellano, and other surprise guest poets. The poets will be in musical/spoken word collaboration with the one and only musical concoction known as The Super P’s(Chris Trinidad-bass Unpil Baek-piano and Jimmy Biala-percussion). There will be yummy comida, drinks of an alcoholic y non alcoholic nature, as well as a chingon raffle with prizes donated by local artists as well as pecularities by some of our beloved literary luminares including the first Latino poets laureate of these DisUnited States Juan Felipe Herrera. 100% of the proceeds from tonight’s pachanga will go to the San Francisco International Flor y Canto Literary Festival. Aqui Estamos.

The Indian Classical Sessions are an informal gathering dedicated to sharing the meditative beauty, ecstatic energy, and sheer majesty of South Asian music. Hosted by percussionist, drumset and tabla player Sameer Gupta, 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.

Suggested Donation; $10

A welcoming space for queer musicians and songwriters to share their work, connect, and build community. Performers can sign up online in advance, join as walk-ins, or be featured as a monthly Featured Artist.

Featured Artist this month is Areli, a Chicana singer-songwriter half-raised in the Bay Area and Central Valley. She writes and covers songs about life and all types of love.

“The ADL was born of the belief that the best protection from antisemitism was admission into the white racial state and waging a vigorous defense of capitalism, individual rights, and the West against communists and barbarians. And it has never looked back.” –Robin D. G. Kelley

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) once sought to portray itself as a defender of civil rights aligned with racial justice movements in the United States. In a groundbreaking study that Publishers Weekly describes as a "gutsy, razor-sharp demystification of a powerful organization," Emmaia Gelman exposes the ADL’s alliance with American white supremacy and western empire and its historic investment in Cold War anticommunism. Her definitive account shows how the ADL as a Zionist organization has advanced and supported pro-state policing, a hate-crimes framework that obscures racialized structures of power, and a “War on Terror” that has stoked anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia.

Emmaia Gelman is the founding Director of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism. She has taught social and cultural analysis at NYU and social sciences at Sarah Lawrence College. Her writing appears in Jewish Currents, Boston Review, The Forward, and elsewhere.

Join us for an unforgettable evening as Latines in Film & Television at UC Berkeley closes out the year in celebration! A Través de Nuestros Ojos: Displacement & Discovery is a night dedicated to honoring the stories, resilience, and creative vision that define our community, on screen and beyond. This year's theme reflects the journeys we carry, the places we've left, the identities we've built, and the worlds we continue to discover through the lens of our own experiences. Through film, media, and art, we tell those stories. Tonight, we celebrate our community telling them. Come ready for an evening of local vendors, art making, and community, including a screening of our final cut from last semester's film project, a collective milestone we're so proud to share! The night will close with recognition of all the incredible members who made this year shine. Whether you're a longtime member, a Berkeley student, an alum, or a friend of the community, you are welcome here!

This night is for all of us, come celebrate with us!

Today come celebrate the release Cristy Road Carrera's Sink or Burn with a conversation between the author and legendary Bay Area author, artist, educator, and zine trailblazer, Ariel Gore. Readings, feelings, and Q&A! 

Unsung cult hero and eternal rabble rouser, Cristy Road Carrera is a first generation Cuban-American artist, writer, and musician. She’s been publishing illustrated novels, playing in punk bands, and creating art for cultural and social movements for over 25 years. Her last release, the Next World Tarot, is an ode to building another world based on social justice; while her latest illustrated novel, Sink or Burn, is a handbook for survival when that world falls apart. While exploring culture, sexuality, punk rock, and survival— Cristy Road creates a visual and audible soundtrack for a broken world.

Ariel Gore is a Lambda Award Winning editor and author of 13 books of fiction and nonfiction as well as a zillion zines and coloring books. Her latest: Rehearsals for Dying, a memoir about queer love versus the cancer industrial complex from the Feminist Press and Wonder Widow—part graphic-novel, part coloring book, all weirdness. She teaches online at literarykitchen.net

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 musical medicina.

Set 1 Karl Evangelista - Guitarist Karl Evangelista plays the entirety of Sonny Sharrock's legendary Guitar album - solo, as intended. This special performance utilizes live looping, knotty improvisation, and dense, powerful tones to recreate the transcendent energy of Sharrock's classic.

Set 2 Ghost Dub - David Michalak (lap steel, skatchbox), Bruce Ackley (winds), Darren Johnston (trumpet, mutes),  Tonight's Dub features an improvised set of good medicine.

Join us tonight for a reading where Norman Antonia Zelaya, of the Mission District, reads from Gente, Folks and JP Infante, visiting from Washington Heights, New York City reads from On the Tip of Your Mother's Tongue.

JP Infante is the author of On the Tip of Your Mother’s Tongueand Aquí y Allá: un retrato de la comunidad Dominicana en Washington Heights. He is the winner of PEN’s Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize and Thirty West’s Chapbook contest. His writing has appeared in Kweli, The Poetry Project, Rigorous, A Gathering of the Tribes, and elsewhere. He has been awarded scholarships and fellowships from the NY State Writers Institute, PEN America and The Center for Fiction. He holds an MFA from The New School.

Norman Antonio Zelaya is from San Francisco, CA. His writing is inspired by his Nicoya heritage and his lived experience as a SF native and Mission District homeboy. He’s the author of two collections of short fiction, Orlando & Other Stories (Pochino Press, 2017), and most recently, Gente, Folks (Black Freighter Press, 2022). His work has appeared in ZYZZYVA, Apogee Journal, NY Tyrant, 14 Hills, and Cipactli, among other journals. Mr. Zelaya has read and lectured throughout California, and across the country. Also, he’s appeared on stage, in film, and in the squared circle as the masked luchador, Super Pulga. He lives and works in San Francisco, where he’s completing a debut novel.

Join us for an afternoon of tatreez, Palestinian embroidery, as we come together in community to stitch. A tatreez circle is a gathering of tatreez artists who stitch together while sharing stories and learning from each other. All levels of experience are welcome but this is not meant to be a workshop. We will not be teaching tatreez but are happy to help guide you on what you need to get started before the event. Bring your own projects and your own supplies.

What is Tatreez? Tatreez is the art of Palestinian embroidery that has been practiced in Palestine for centuries. A practice passed down generationally from mother to daughter. Taking inspiration from the land and everyday life, Palestinian women hand stitched motifs and patterns directly onto their thobe that represented their social status, the villages/regions from which they hailed and their individuality.

Can I join if I'm not Palestinian? YES! This is a space for Palestinians and non-Palestinians who share a love of tatreez. Regardless of who practices tatreez, it is important to always remember the history of this beautiful art and the role it plays today in the Palestinian resistance movement, both in Palestine and within the diaspora. These circles are a safe space for Palestinians and our allies.

If you’re new to tatreez and have questions please reach out to sfbaytatreez@gmail.com.

Follow on Instagram @SFBayAreaTatreez

Tonight we celebrate the 101st birthdia of beloved San Francisco poet Bob Kaufman with a very special reading of his work by Mimi Tempestt, soledad con carne, and Josiah Luis Alderete. Following the reading will be a (non)lecture between the three participating poets discussing Kaufman outside of his pigeonholed perception as a crazy “beat” writer as well as his importance/significance to writers of color.

2023 Texas State Poet Laureate ire’ne lara silva will be leading a very special afternoon writing workshop today in our galeria. Poets don’t miss this oppurtunity to take a workshop with one of our most gifted poets and chingona educators around.

Gritos; On Finding the Source of Our Voices…

We will be using gritos as a way of finding our own deeper personel voice, to ground the creative mind in our bodies, to root the voice in our hearts, and to both release and control emotions in the body and the voice.. There will be various visualization exercises, a lot of playing with physical stances, a great deal of sound making experimentation, and a few short writing/art prompts to examine how we perceive our voices. No experience or familiarity with gritos is needed.

Registration fee; $100

To register email; irenelarasilva@yahoo.com

ire’ne lara silva, 2023 Texas State Poet Laureate, is the author of five poetry collections, furia, Blood Sugar Canto, CUICACALLI/House of Song, FirstPoems, and the eaters of flowers, which one Gold for the 2025 Juan Felipe Herrera Best Poetry Book/International Latino Book Awards, two chapbooks, Enduring Azucares and Hibiscus Tacos, a comic book, VENDAVAL, and a short story collection, flesh to bone, which won the Premio Aztlán. ire’ne is the recipient of the 2026 Jessie H. Jones, Fellowship, the 2025 Poetry Rising Star Award (ILBA), a 2025 Storyknife Writers Residency, the 2021 Texas Institute of Letters Shrake Award for Best Short Nonfiction, a 2021 Tasajillo Writers Grant, a 2017 NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant, the final Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Award, and was the Fiction Finalist for AROHO’s 2013 Gift of Freedom Award. Her second short story collection, the light of your body, will be published by Arte Publico Press in Spring 2026. http://www.irenelarasilva.wordpress.com

Join us tonight for a very special reading with ire’ne lara silva, 2023 Texas State Poet Laureate and author of the new short story collection, the light of your body & Maribel Martínez, poet/writer/playwright, author of the plays, Becoming (MAR), Mar in the Middle, and Mar Abierto.

TONIGHT come hear decolonized verses, spanglish poesia, Latine spokenword, Pocho poemas and neighborhood chisme at Speaking Axolotl, the Bay Area’s long running monthly Latine Reading series. 10 slot open mic goes up a las 6:50PM. Open mic poets have 6 minutes to read.

This month we welcome two quierido LA poetas Grace Olguin and Nikolai Garcia

Nikolai Garcia is the son of Mexican immigrants and grew up in South Central Los Angeles. His poems have been published in Huizache, Mobile Data Mag, Razorcake, Latino Book Review and various other journals and anthologies. His second chapbook, All the Sad Music, was published by DSTL Arts (2025). He is cohost, (with Mauricio Moreno), of Trenches Full of Poets, an open mic in Long Beach.

Grace Olguin (she/her) has had the privilege of sharing her poetry and prose at open mics since 2008. 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. In 2023 she joined Community Literature Initiative where she continued developing as a writer, and in June 2024 received the first printed copy of her manuscript. Leading up to her book release, Grace was invited to read at the international Flor y Canto literary festival in San Francisco, and LitHop Fresno. Her first book of poetry, A List of Things I Lost, was published December 2025 by World Stage Press. In her daily life, she loves hanging out with her three animal companions - her bird, her dog and her 15-year old tortoise. You can follow her photoblog at potentpeace.tumblr.com

NOTE; Speaking Axolotl is a BIPOC reading series which means BIPOC poets only on the mic. White folks are more than welcome to come and listen but their presence is not required.

Una exhibición de telares creados por el Grupo Artista Telar Maya Mam

Acompáñanos a una exposición de tejidos en telar de cintura creados por mujeres Maya Mam de los municipios de Xjan Xwan Atitan, Chimb’al y Torasant, Huehuetenango, Guatemala.

El poder de la mujer indígena se teje en cada hilo.
Cada hilo guarda memoria.
Cada color es territorio.
Cada telar es una historia viva.

Ja weya ob’aj wij · ex weya nchemaj reúne tejidos realizados por mujeres Maya Mam, donde el acto de tejer es también un acto de narrar, resistir y preservar conocimiento ancestral. En cada pieza habita la continuidad de la lengua, la tierra y la comunidad. Aunque estamos lejos de nuestra tierra ancestral, seguimos honrando nuestras tradiciones de tejido y creando nuevas prácticas en la diáspora.

El telar es fuerza, es raíz, es resistencia viva.

Producida por NAKA Dance Theater
En colaboración con Medicine for Nightmares Bookstore

01 Abril – 10 Mayo,  2026

Recepción de inauguración: Sabado 11 Abril, 2-6pm

Recepción de clausura: Sabado, 9 Mayo,  2-6pm

Foto: Scott Tsuchitani 

An exhibition of textiles created by the Grupo Artista Telar Maya Mam.

Join us for an exhibition of Maya Mam backstrap weaving textiles created by women weavers from Xjan Xwan Atitan, Chimb'al and Torasant, Huehuetenango, Guatemala.

The power of Indigenous women is woven in each thread.
Each thread holds a memory.
Each color is a territory.
Each textile is a living history.

Ja weya ob’aj wij · ex weya nchemaj brings together textiles made by Maya Mam women, where the act of weaving is also an act of storytelling, resisting erasure, and preserving ancestral knowledge. In each piece resides the continuity of language, land, and community. Although we are far from our ancestral land, we continue to honor our weaving traditions and create new practices in the Diaspora.

Our weaving is our strength; it is our roots; it is our living resistance.

Produced by NAKA Dance Theater
In collaboration with Medicine for Nightmares Bookstore
3036 24th St, San Francisco, CA

April 1– May 10, 2026

Opening Reception: Saturday, April 11, 2-6pm

Closing Reception: Saturday, May 9, 2-6pm

Tonight join us for a co-reading event celebrating the release of Debris: Stories by Daniel S.C. Sutter followed by a brief conversation between Daniel and guest poet Vida James.

Daniel S.C. Sutter:
A 2025-27 Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford, Daniel S.C. Sutter's story collection Debris has won the Press 53 Short Fiction Award and is now available. His work has appeared in The Georgia Review, The Greensboro Review, Mississippi Review, and elsewhere, and has been awarded the Robert Watson Literary Prize in Fiction. He holds a Ph.D. from Florida State University and an M.F.A. from the University of New Orleans Creative Writing Workshop. He is from Tampa, FL.

Vida James is Nuyorican, currently living in San Francisco. She is a Wallace Stegner fellow at Stanford University. She was a 2024 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow and a 2024 Center for Fiction Emerging Writer Fellow. She holds an MFA from the University of Massachusetts - Amherst and an MSW from Hunter College. Her writing has been supported by Periplus, Storyknife, Tin House, Bread Loaf, MASS MoCA, the St. Botolph Club Foundation, and VONA. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, Story, New England Review, and elsewhere.

Block printing workshop for community activists. We'll have tools, paper, tinta, and small blocks, and start off with a conversation about printmaking as cultural and political expression. Second Wednesdays in March, April, and May. Suggested donation $20 for artist and book store.

Clase de grabado para activistas de la comunidad / Tendremos herramientas, papel, tinta, y pequeños bloques, y empezamos con una conversación sobre el grabado como expresión cultural y política. Segundo Miercoles en marzo, abril, y mayo. Donación sugerida $20 para artista y librería.

Fernando Martí (he/him) is an artist, poet, community architect and housing activist, originally from Ecuador, based in San Francisco, Ramaytush Ohlone land.

Fernando Martí (el) es un artista, poeta, arquitecto comunitario y activista de vivienda, originario del Ecuador, y basado en San Francisco, tierra Ramaytush Ohlone.

Join Victoria Law and advocates who were incarcerated in California & New York for a conversation about the horrors of the pandemic behind bars and grassroots freedom organizing. Books will be available for sale & signing.

Victoria Law is a freelance journalist and author who has written about incarceration, particularly women's incarceration, for nearly two decades. Her books include Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women, Prison By Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms (co-authored with Maya Schenwar), and “Prisons Make Us Safer” and 20 Other Myths about Mass Incarceration. Her latest book, Corridors of Contagion: How the Pandemic Exposed the Cruelties of Incarceration, is sadly still relevant.

Kelly Savage-Rodriguez is the DROP LWOP coordinator for the  California Coalition For Women Prisoners. Kelly was incarcerated for 23 years. Governor Brown commuted her Life Without Parole sentence in December of 2017, and she was finally released on parole in November 2018. As a domestic violence survivor, Kelly was forced to experience the similarities between domestic violence and the violence of incarceration. She is also the executive chair of the Human Rights Watch National LWOP Leadership Council NLC.

David is a father and grandfather who was imprisoned in New York State for several decades, including the first 18 months of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

No Kings, No Queens Chess Club 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.