Come gather and hear Decolonized Verses, Spanglish Poesia,, Latinx Spoken Word and neighborhood chisme at Speaking Axolotl, the Bay Area’s long running monthly Latinx Reading series.

!This month our feature is none other than Lorna Dee Cervantes!

Born in San Francisco, raised in San José, Barrio Horseshoe, Lorna Dee Cervantes was a self-taught activist by 15, taught herself how to run her own printing press and was Founding Editor/Publisher of MANGO Publications at 20, and the author of EMPLUMADA at 24. A XícanIndX poet (Chumash/Purépecha), Cervantes (PhD, History of Consciousness) was a Professor of English for 20 years at CU Boulder, serving as Director of Creative Writing. Awarded 2 NEA Fellowships, 2 Pushcart Prizes, a Lila Wallace/Readers Digest Award, state arts grants, Best Book awards for 6 books of poetry including EMPLUMADA and APRIL ON OLYMPIA, Cervantes now lives and writes in Seattle.

Open mic lista goes up a las 6:50pm first come first served.

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!

As our year comes to a close, we feel called to take a moment this season to thank every single present that has come to our lives We invite our community to join us for a cozy afternoon to celebrate one another this holiday season. We will open the mic to our community for short sharings: we’d love to hear who or what you’d like us to celebrate with you We celebrate:– Our Sagittarius birthdays, as well as the arrival of new precious beings to our Earth – The growing success of Bayanihan Boxing: an affordable, inclusive and holistic martial arts program in our community – The soft launch of our multi-medium production company, Versus Odds We also celebrate & thank Arts.Co.Lab, Medicine for Nightmares, and the beautiful web of people who make up our community

Join us for a preview of “Unmuted Echoes of Peace,” the “Unmuted Echoes” film series, and “Paper Trail of FREEDOM”: three projects that are coming out of Versus Odds early next year. Take home an advanced reader of “Unmuted Echoes of Peace.”

follow Versus Odds: @versusodds on IG, youtube.com/VSOdds

www.jxtheo.net/vsodds

Enjoy performances by: Momos Cheeskos, Sol Butta, jxtheo, and more to be announced

And yes, this is a potluck! Please consider bringing any food or drinks to share with at least four other people. Let us know if you are bringing anything. We will share a running menu as we get updates on each item everyone is bringing. There is no expectation to bring anything. Your presence is the best gift

This event is free and open to our entire community Donations or tips to help cover any costs are much appreciated If you are driving, please allow at least 30 minutes to look for parking.

RSVP now at https://bit.ly/cherishedpotluck. The QR code is in our flyer

Biographies

(optional, if there is room)

Versus Odds

"Revolutionary culture epidemic as a weapon, infecting probabilities in systemic oppression."

Versus Odds is a multi-medium production company that aims to democratize art, culture and media. We intend to challenge existing hegemonies and monopolies in these fields by featuring critical voices from communities that deserve more visibility. We are a literary publisher, a social media platform, and a creator of spaces for brilliant, independent Bay Area artists. As a platform by cultural workers, we carry the purpose of empowering people to take action for genuine progress in our world.

Odds are probabilities based on existing dynamics of power. By challenging these odds, we intend to change courses of power towards the people, so that we can build a more equitable, just, progressive and liberated society.

jxtheo

jxtheo (j-thee-o), also known as Jean (JT) Teodoro, is an environmentalist, internationalist, poet and educator. They create art to inspire proficiency in the language of revolutionary action. They were born in QC, Philippines, and raised in both QC & Unceded Ramaytush Ohlone Land (San Francisco, CA). They are a co-founder and vocalist of the hip-hop & rock band Boondock Squad. They founded Bayanihan Boxing – a sports and martial arts program with a holistic approach to the sweet science. They also founded Versus Odds – a multi-medium production company that aims to democratize art, culture and media by featuring critical voices from communities that deserve more visibility. They have worked as an instructor in Filipino language, social sciences and creative writing.

Their debut publication, a graphic poetry book titled “Paper Trail of FREEDOM,” is scheduled for its reissue and released in Spring 2025. Pre-order your copy now!

Join us for a presale reading of Coco Oliver's new collection of poems, dormilona. QR postcards will be available to make advance purchases: all author earnings for this book will be donated to MECA (Middle East Children's Alliance), for more information visit mecaforpeace.org. 

dormilona is a bilingual book of poetry exploring dream states, distance, and the rituals of sleep. In this collection, the fluidity of language reflects the elusive nature of time and memory, centering on matrilineal consciousness and variable notions of home. The ancient forests surrounding Mount Roraima and the bright pink sands of Playa Colorada inhabit the speaker’s dreams, and in these topographies, she finds harmony with brain wave patterns drawn from sleep studies. Meaning both “nightgown” and “sleepyhead” in Venezuelan Spanish, dormilona weaves a neural network linking sleep to matrilineal memory, time, and geography. 

Coco will be joined by María Esquinca, author of Where Heaven Sinks, a collection of poetry that received the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize and is forthcoming next year., and East Bay poet Niambi Walker.

Coco Oliver is a poet and artist living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her first book of poems, Cosmos A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan Ann Druyan Steven Soter And Me (Operating System, 2017) is about nuclear disarmament. Her second book, Science Fiction Fiction (Spuyten Duyvil, 2020) is an homage to Miami-Dade County and color photography in the early aughts.

María Esquinca is a poet and journalist. A fronteriza, she was born in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico and grew up in El Paso, Texas. She is currently a producer for The Bay, a podcast out of KQED. Before that, she was a New York Women's Foundation IGNITE Fellow with Latino USA where she produced narrated and non-narrated episodes. In 2019, she was selected as a Report for America Fellow for Radio Bilingue, as the only full time reporter she covered the San Joaquin Valley. She wrote several stories about COVID-outbreaks at places like Avenal State Prison, the Mesa Verde Detention Center, and Foster Farms, one of the largest poultry producers. Before that, she interned with WLRN. In 2024 she won the Andres Montoya Poetry Prize, chosen by Juan Felipe Herrera, for her forthcoming book of poetry Where Heaven Sinks(2025).

Niambi Walker (she/they) is a black, queer, writer, and spoken word artist born in Oakland, Ca and raised in Atlanta, Ga. She released her first chapbook "Accidentally Ordered an Espresso" in 2020. They have championed and featured at numerous slam poetry spaces and were a part of the 2022 Berkeley Slam Poetry Team. She strives to represent and unite her community through the written word focusing on experiences with identity, mental health, and the complexity of being human. Their next book "Cup Full of Bees" is set to release in January 2025.

From the organizing body that brings you the Berkeley Slam and the Oakland Slam, RichOak Events presents a new poetry show in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District. In partnership with Medicine for Nightmares, the Day Dreamer’s Poetry Showcase is a spoken word event where voices that have often been silenced or overlooked have a chance to shine.

Join us every 2nd Saturday in the Galleria as we invite local and traveling poets to shape and nurture the very dreams we as poets refuse to let die.

Every month, we will be bringing featuring poets from all walks of life to inspire our audience with beauty of story telling and the alchemy of word play. You don't wanna miss this!

Other Dimensions in Sond 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 and musical medicina.

Tonight serious sonic sustenance is being provided by The Lost Shapes

A Book Launch Reading and Solidarity Building Evening. Please join Xochiquetzal Candelaria as she reads from her new collection, Show Me the Bells, and talks about how in the words of June Jordan, “We Are the One’s We’ve Been Waiting For.” 

Xochiquetzal Candelaria is the author of two books of poetry, Empire and Show Me the Bells. Her work has appeared in The Nation, Tin House, Colorado Review and other magazines. She is the recipient of awards including an NEA Fellowship in Poetry and grants from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, and the LEF Foundation. Her poetry and essays have been anthologized, most recently in Other Musics: New Latina Poetry, The Poetry of Capital, and The Awesome Difficult Work of Love: June Jordan’s Legacy. She teaches writing at CCSF and lives in San Francisco, California.

LYNX / Shadow Dances is an eclectic violin duo program that invites us to see beyond the veil of the ordinary. A gateway to the strange and uncharted—featuring Saint-Saen’s Danse Macabre, where death invites the living to a midnight dance, the iconic theme from the 90s sci-fi series The X-Files, and selections from Bartok’s 44 Duos for 2 Violins, known for its unexpected tonalities and asymmetrical rhythms.

LYNX is a violin duo that takes its name from both the distant constellation and the enigmatic animal known for its sharp vision and ability to see in the dark. Both in mythology and in nature, the lynx is a symbol of deep intuition and hidden knowledge, traits that guide us as we explore unexpected linkages between works across a wide variety of genres, time periods, and universes.

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 tonight for the opening of Los Pobres Artists collective show “Home Is Where The Heart Is”!

Los pobres artistas are a group of artists, educators and friends based in Oakland, CA. They are a group of multidisciplinary artists with a strong practice in muralism, whose work is revolutionary and community-oriented. They strive to break down borders and unite people through art. The group is made up of Sarah Siskin, Keena Romano, Fredericko Alvarado,Thitiwat Phromratanapongse, Rafasz,Thomas Jones, and Stephanie Hooper. They believe that art is vital in the healing and transformation of the communities they serve.

A student led event with poetry, prison letter writing and panelists to speak about policing and abolition. It is an event to advocate for black and brown youth facing criminalization , police brutality and restorative justice.

Panelists and Participants will include;

Michelle and Ashley Monterrosa (Panelists)

Michelle and Ashley Monterrosa are Sean Monterrosa sisters. Sean Monterrosa was shot and killed by Detective Jarrett Tonn (who was part of Vallejo PD) while protesting the police murder of George Floyd in 2020. The Monterrosa sisters began advocating for the justice of their brother and other families who have suffered police brutality. His family continues to spread awareness about Sean and police brutality in the bay area – they host events, protests, unite with other victims’ families and they created the Sean Monterrosa Project. Michelle recently had gone to the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention to address gun violence in Latino communities. Ashley is a board director at the California Endowments Board. Their resilience stands strong to this day.

CURYJ is a non-profit org that helps youth dream beyond bars. Their goal is to end youth criminalization and mass incarceration by leading programs for youth to be involved such as community garden, murals, cultural celebrations and more. They also teach ethnic studies, facilitate restorative justice circles, and share cultural healing practices. They will be sending someone over to talk about the work they do to end youth criminalization and the importance of community organizing.

SF Solidarity Collective (Prison Letter Writing)

Community Works (Holiday Donation Drive) Community Works is a non-profit organization that focuses on meeting the needs of people who are in the justice system. They have over 25 years of experience in implementing restorative justice programs. They will be helping us facilitate a holiday donation drive for children whose families are incarcerated. They gave us a list of hygiene products, feminine products, school supplies and clothing.

Los Bayuncos (Catering) Los Bayuncos are a family-owned Salvadoran restaurant/business. They will be catering for our event outside of the bookstore. They serve pupusas, putacos and other delicious Salvadoran dishes.

Other Dimensions in Sond 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 and musical medicina.

Tonight double dose of sonic sustenance is being provided by Ghost Dub/Dymaxion Trio

What if a think tank was fun and open to the public? We are tackling different subjects with solution-oriented thinking, humor, and a healthy dose of irreverence (cause bad ideas come with the good ones). The first episode is called Mister Information and is about the distance between Misinformation and Disinformation. Join us as we collectively try to solve the world's problems, fumbling toward good ideas, one outrageous suggestion at a time.

Hosted and Moderated by Sean Levon Nash (Heyoka, a.k.a. trickster/academic) and Jade Raybin (artist/activist. Featuring a panel discussion with Victoria Canby, Indigenous Leader and Artist, Tom Fritsche, Journalist and Art Historian, Anika Thielbar, Psychologist, Wyatt Mcguire, Deep Tech Alchemist. 

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.

The colonial project of European settlers colonialism occured during the timeframe associated with the flowering of Western science in the works of Copernicus, Vesaliius, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes and Isaac Newton. It should be no surprise that the two processes got interwoven, through the degree to which “western science” was formulated in support of colonial values and procedures should alarm us. Historian of science David Kubrin will explicate the warp and the woof of colonialism.

Historian of science David Kubrin is a community organizer with the Mission Arts Performance Project(MAPP) and the 1969 recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship for his investigations into the science of Isaac Newton. He is a lay healer, an apprentice artist, & the author of “Marxism & Witchcraft”.

Other Dimensions in Sond 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 and musical medicina.

Tonight’s serious sonic sustenance is being provided by the sax trio of Nora Free, Francis Wong, and David Boyce

Nostalgic for Nothing Cinema is excited to present a screening of the classic documentary of the Kanien’kéhaka Resistance known as the "Oka Crisis", Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance. On the eve of so-called "Thanksgiving", we hope this film provides insight to the hundreds of years of settler colonialism on Turtle Island and the ongoing native resistance for land, sovereignty, and liberation.

In July 1990, a dispute over a proposed golf course to be built on Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk) lands in Oka, Quebec set the stage for a historic confrontation that would grab international headlines and sear itself into the Canadian consciousness. Pathbreaking filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin – at times with a small crew, at times alone – spent 78 days behind Kanien’kéhaka lines filming the armed standoff between protesters, the Quebec police, and the Canadian army. The result is a uniquely harrowing, unsettling, and impactful cinematic experience.

Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance / dir. Alanis Obomsawin / 1993 / 118 min

Masks required.

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 crown-making and poetry reading event to celebrate the release of Lorenz Mazon Dumuk's full-length collection, HELD. The first half of the event will be a flower crown creation, with materials provided (we encourage you to bring your favorite flowers if possible!) Afterwards, join Lorenz and fellow poets David Maduli, Tshaka, SevanKelee Boult (Lucky 7), and Josiah Luis Alderete throwdown with their performances of their work with laughter and tears, and heartwarming feelings all around. 

Lorenz Mazon Dumuk is a poet, spoken word artist, and curator. He is a VONA alumni, and a MALI (Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute) alumni. His two book collections of poetry are Ay Nako: Writing Through the Struggle, and I Think in Poetry. Lorenz has curated various events such as ReWrite Open Mic, Glowing with the Moon, and the Eastridge Open Mic. His wish to create a nourishing experience at his events pushes his desire to connect communities and their people.

David Maduli's was born in San Francisco. His maternal grandmother lived into her 100s in her home in St. Mary’s Park not far from here. His poetry, often inflected by many years as a DJ, public school teacher and father, has received the Joy Harjo Poetry Prize. A longtime resident of East Oakland, Lisjan Ohlone land, David completed his MFA at Mills College with a fellowship in Community Poetics. In addition to his educational leadership work with schools and districts across the state and beyond, he is an instructor in the MFA in Writing program at Lindenwood University.    

Tshaka is an internationally accomplished poet, artist, performer and the first black Santa Clara County Poet Laureate. He is a husband and father inspired by life and asks the world to “Listen Different!”.

SevanKelee Boult (Lucky 7) is a well known Bay Area poet and performance artist. This UC Berkeley graduate and June Jordan Poetry for the People Alum is continuously redefining her poetry and performance. Gracing such stages as The Palace of Fine Arts, Yerba Buena, De Young Museum, Brava Theater and The Marsh Theater(s) in San Francisco, she has also represented several Bay Area slam teams over the past fifteen years. In 2014, she became the only woman in the Bay to win the honored title Grand Slam Champion of of different Bay Area Slam teams (SF, Berkeley, Oakland, and Palo Alto). SevanKelee has been the host of shows including AI Live, Oakland Slam and Berkeley Poetry slam.

Josiah Luis Alderete is a full blooded Spanglish speaking Pocho y left handed callejero de Aztlán who has been part of La Area Bahia’s spoken word scene for over twenty years. He is the curator and host of the long running Latinx reading series Speaking Axolotl and is the author of two books of poetry “Baby Axolotls & Old Pochos(Black Freighter Press 2021) and the chapbook “Fuchi Faces de los Estados Jodidos”(For The Pueblo 2023). In 2023 he was the Poetry Center’s Mazza Writer in Residence at San Francisco State. Along with his bookstore sister Tân Khanh Cao,Josiah tends the portal known as Medicina Para Pesadillas Bookstore y Galeria on 24th street in La Mission

Other Dimensions in Sond 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 and musical medicina.

Tonight serious sonic sustenance is being provided by Zachary Watkins, Robert Diaz, Evelyn Davis, and David Boyce.

Speaking Axolotl La Area Bahia’s long running monthly Latinx reading series happens the third Thursday of each month. Come gather and hear Decolonized Verses, Spanglish Poesia,, Latinx Spoken Word and neighborhood chisme. This month we are over la luna excited to feature Yaccaira Salvatieera who will be reading from her new book “Sons of Salt” (published in 2024 by BOA)

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

Born in Los Ángeles, California, Yaccaira Salvatierra is a poet, translator, and dedicated educator teaching for over 20 years while raising her two sons as a single parent.  She earned her BA at the University of California at Santa Cruz, an MA at San José State University, and an MFA at Randolph College. She received the Dorrit Sibley Award for Poetry and the Puerto del Sol Poetry Prize. She has been awarded the Lucille Clifton Memorial Scholarship as a fellow at the Community of Writers Workshop, and scholarships for the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference, Bread Loaf Translator’s Conference, and Macondo. Her first book of poetry Sons of Salt was published this year by BOA Editions. She lives in Oakland, CA, where she teaches literacy and poetry to youth. 

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!

Celebrate the launch of Old California Strikes Back, the debut novel by Scott Russell Duncan, described as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas meets "Yo Soy Joaquín". This magical memoir and meta-novel reclaims the history of Californios and the Chicano experience, blending myth with personal discovery. Join SRD and the talking head of Joaquin Murrieta as they race to uncover the last relic of Old California in a story that challenges colonial narratives and honors Chicano and Indigenous heritage. The event will feature a reading followed by an interview with Blanca Torres-Aldana, KQED Producer and Reporter.

Scott Russell Duncan, a Xicano writer, was editor on the first Chicano sci-fi anthology, El Porvenir, ¡Ya!, which was a finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards.  He is director of Palabras del Pueblo, a writing workshop for la raza. His nonfiction piece “Mexican American Psycho is in Your Dreams” won first place in the 2019 Solstice Literary Magazine Annual Literary Contest.  He is at work on a collection of short stories called Plurality. His novel, Old California Strikes Back, a magic memoir and meta-novel tour of California with the head of Joaquin Murrieta is published through FlowerSong Press. www.scottrussellduncan.com.

Blanca Torres-Aldana grew up on the dry, eastern side of Washington state. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and earned a Masters of Fine Arts in fiction from Mills College She has worked as a reporter for several major newspapers and now works as a producer and reporter for KQED, a public radio station in San Francisco. She is a founding member of Sunday Stories, a Bay Area writing group for writers of color. Blanca lives in the East Bay with her husband and two amazing daughters. She writes short stories, personal essays, and is working on a memoir about her mother’s childhood in Mexico.

Join us Saturday November 16th for a panel discussion with members of the Palestinian Youth Movement and Richard Becker, on two new books published by 1804 Books: “The Trinity of Fundamentals” by Waseem Rafeedie and “Palestine, Israel, and the U.S. Empire” by Richard Becker. 

“The Trinity of Fundamentals” is the fictionalized account of former Palestinian prisoner Rafeedie’s nine-year experience hiding from the Occupation, now presented in its first-ever English translation, a project of @palestinianyouthmovement Twenty-two-year-old Kan’an is driven by an unshakable commitment to the Palestinian cause. His compelling journey filled with sacrifice and struggle, love and pain, isolation and liberation. Throughout all this, Kan’an maintains a spirit of revolutionary optimism so strong that the reader is bound to be transformed.

“Palestine, Israel, and the U.S. Empire” by Richard Becker is an essential book for the current moment and is for anyone who’s fighting against the colonial occupation of Palestine, and for your friends and family who are seeking to learn more about Palestine’s history. From the division of the Middle East by Western powers and the Zionist settler movement, to the founding of Israel and its role as a watchdog for US interests, to present day conflicts and the prospects for a just resolution—this narrative is firmly rooted in the politics of Palestinian liberation.

Wisam Rafeedie is a former Palestinian political prisoner, full-time researcher and lecturer at the Department of Social Sciences at Bethlehem University – Palestine. He previously worked as a part-time lecturer in Sociology and Cultural Studies at Birzeit University. He holds two master’s degrees from Birzeit University, one in sociology for his thesis on the changes in the status of women in contemporary Palestinian literature before and after Oslo, and the other in contemporary Arab studies.

Richard Becker is the Western Region Coordinator of the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) Coalition, and the author of Palestine, Israel and the U.S. Empire, and The Myth of Democracy and the Rule of the Banks.

1804 Books is your publishing shop for socialist literature and revolutionary theory with internationalist resources for political education, organizing & movement building.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation is comprised of leaders and organizers, workers and students, of all backgrounds. We are deeply involved in a wide range of struggles, from battles over affordable housing and racist police brutality, to the fight for a higher minimum wage and union rights, to the global issues of imperialist war and environmental destruction. We are united in our belief that capitalism—the system in which all wealth and power is held by a tiny group of billionaires and their state—is the source of the main problems confronting humanity today. It must be replaced by socialism, a system where poor and working people have power and the wealth of society is used in a planned and sustainable way to meet people’s needs. Our mission is to link the everyday struggles of oppressed and exploited people to the fight for a new world. Join Us!

Other Dimensions in Sond 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 and musical medicina.

Tonight’s musical medicina is being provided by Mystery School(Philip Greenlief and David Boyce saxes)

Join us this evening as San Francisco-based writer Michael Holt read from his new short story collection, How We Got Into This, followed by a discussion with Scott Laughlin, co-director of the Disquiet Literary Festival in Lisbon.

Michael Holt is the author of the novella The Seaside Hotel (Sublunary Editions) and the short story collection How We Got Into This (11:11 Press). His fiction has appeared in Fence, Conjunctions, Gulf Coast, The Threepenny Review, Ninth Letter, and others. He lives in San Francisco.

Join us for Chicanofuturism Now!, a reading from a groundbreaking raza futurology anthology that explores visions of a decolonized future. Featuring Scott Russell Duncan, W. O. Torres, Juan G. Berumen, M. M. Olivas, and Ricardo Tavarez, this event showcases bold narratives and speculative fiction, where Chicano and Indigenous identities intersect with futuristic themes, challenging colonial structures and imagining liberated possibilities for our communities.

Scott Russell Duncan, a Xicano writer, was editor on the first Chicano sci-fi anthology, El Porvenir, ¡Ya!, which was a finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards.  He is director of Palabras del Pueblo, a writing workshop for la raza. His nonfiction piece “Mexican American Psycho is in Your Dreams” won first place in the 2019 Solstice Literary Magazine Annual Literary Contest.  He is at work on a collection of short stories called Plurality. His novel, Old California Strikes Back, a magic memoir and meta-novel tour of California with the head of Joaquin Murrieta is published through FlowerSong Press. www.scottrussellduncan.com.

M. M. Olivas is an alumna of the 2022 Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop and the 2023 Under the Volcano Writers Residency. She received her bachelor’s degree in creative writing from the University of California Riverside and once worked as an Associate Editor for Escape Pod Magazine. Her short fiction has appeared in several publications, including Uncanny Magazine, Weird Horror Magazine, Apex, and Bourbon Penn. Her short story “If There May Be Ghosts” was on Reactor Magazine’s Must-Read Speculative Short Fiction list for July 2022, and her short story “The Prince of Oakland” was featured in Tenebrous Press’ Brave New Weird Anthology for 2024. Olivas also made the longlist for the 2021 Samuel R. Delany Fellowship and was a recipient of the 2022 George R. R. Martin Sense of Wonder Scholarship. As a trans, first-generation Chicana horror writer, Olivas explores the intersection of queer and diasporic experiences in her fiction. She currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, earning her MFA in Creative Writing at San Jose State University and collecting transforming robots. Olivas’ debut novel, Sundown in San Ojuela, a gothic spaghetti western that follows Aztec Vampires in California’s Inland Empire is available for preorder online and through indie bookstores, and will release in paperback, kindle, and as an audiobook November 19th.

W.O. Torres resides in Northern California along with his beautiful wife, brilliant daughters, and their wonder dog, where he often writes once everyone is finally asleep.
As a child of the ’70s, his original works are inspired by his love of the golden age of Marvel Comics, Saturday afternoon Kung-Fu Theatre, Star Wars, Star Trek, James Bond, The Twilight Zone, and all things strange and unexplained. These obsessions helped him avoid gangs, violence, drugs, and dropping out of high school, which were sadly all too familiar occurrences in his neighborhood on his way to being the first person in his family to graduate college. When not writing, Mr. Torres can be found coaching youth sports, attending dance recitals, going on family hikes and on occasion, sharing some cervezas and tacos with his wife.

Ricardo Tavarez is a Bay Area educator who teaches at Contra Costa College. He directs the Pan Dulce Poets reading series in The Mission District at La Reyna Bakery and is a member of La Brigada, an arts collective that organizes the SF International Flor y Canto Literary Festival. Ricardo’s writing is a reflection on cultural dynamics, music and memory.

Juan G. Berumen, PhD. Raised in the Bay Area, Juan is a teatrista and filmmaker who positions storytelling for self-expression while empowering our communities and transforming society. Currently, Juan is an Ethnic Studies Lecturer at UC Berkeley and is in production for his second short film Recetas. 

Join us for the San Francisco book launch of The Nutcracker Chronicles: A Fairytale Memoir. 

Janine Kovac was seven years old when she got a fluttery feeling in her chest while watching her first performance of The Nutcracker. From that moment, she knew she wanted to be a ballerina. It wasn’t long before she herself was dancing the part of a snowflake, flower, mouse, soldier, and Fritz, Clara’s brother, who snatches the nutcracker from her and yanks off its head—all in search of the magic she felt only on the stage. Over a twelve-year career, Janine dances with ballet companies in San Francisco, Seattle, Germany, Iceland, and Italy, returning home every holiday season to perform The Nutcracker with Ballet El Paso. Despite the challenges of the ballet world, Janine can’t resist the inner glow and effortlessness she feels on stage, under the lights, dancing to Tchaikovsky in the Land of Sweets, ruled by a sugar plum fairy. Eventually, however, she is relegated to watching other people dance—her husband, her children, her students—and her claim to the spotlight is replaced by the quest to find joy in her new roles.

JANINE KOVAC enjoyed a twelve-year career as a professional ballet dancer in Iceland, Italy, Seattle, San Francisco, and her hometown of El Paso, Texas. Outside of the ballet world, her distinctions include U.C. Berkeley’s Glushko Award for Distinguished Research in Cognitive Science, an Elizabeth George Foundation Fellowship from Hedgebrook, and the Calderwood Fellowship for Journalism from MacDowell. Janine is the author of Brain Changer: A Mother’s Guide to Cognitive Science and Spinning: Choreography for Coming Home, which received a National Indie Excellence Award. She lives in Oakland, California. Learn more about her life and work at: https://www.janinekovac.com/ 

Kaitlin Solimine is a writer, mother, start-up founder, and an advisor to impact-driven early-stage companies. Her debut novel, Empire of Glass, was a finalist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, the Firecracker Awards for Independent Literature, and the Eyelands Book Awards. Kaitlin is the host of The Postpartum Production, a podcast about postpartum and creative practice.

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!