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!

Writing the Golden State: The New Literary Terrain of California explores California through essays that look beyond the clichés of the “California Dream, " portraying a state that is deviant and recalcitrant, proud and humble, joyful and communal. It is a California that reclaims the beauty of the unwanted, the quotidian, and the out-of-place. Readings by Daniel Rivers, Sue Mark, Fred Williams, Romeo Guzmán and Samine Joudat. They’ll be joined by Yaccaira Salvatierra, author of Sons of Salt. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

Romeo Guzmán was born in Goleta, California, to migrant parents from Guadalajara; he has deep affinities for Pomona and South El Monte/El Monte. He came to know Pomona by practicing and playing at many of its elementary, middle school, and high schools futbol fields. He hung out at the old pool hall on second street, where the owner, Leo, played classic rock. He has come to know El Monte and South El Monte through family parties and celebrations as well as the slow and beautiful labor of collaboratively writing its history. To learn more visit romeoguzman.com

 The movement that has shaped Samine Joudat’s upbringing in the world—born in Iran before immigrating to different parts of the United States and Europe via Ecuador—now shapes the way he thinks of home. Beyond a place locked into land, he finds home in moments, people, notes, and words, too. His mind is never far from pondering the forces that uproot, displace, and transfigure notions of home and the longing we often feel for it. He finds duty, meaning, and joy in the negotiation between looking back in search of recovery and looking forward in search of transformation. He hopes that all beings are afforded the dignity to do the same. Find him on Instagram @saminejoudat.

 Rooted in the Golden Gate neighborhood, Commons Archive stands on the shoulders of the Black Panther Party’s survival programs. Sue Mark, Commons Archive founder, is a cultural researcher, artist and literacy educator. A North Oakland neighbor for three decades, Sue supports community resiliency by creating spaces for connection and learning. Along with Heidi Herrera, Sue produced a tribute to Fred Williams.

Born in Silicon Valley a few years before the ‘90s tech boom, Daniel Lanza Rivers grew up between Sunnyvale, San Diego, and the East Bay suburbs. Though Daniel spent their childhood summers (and much of grad school) driving “the Five,” they mostly stick to I-680 these days—commuting between their home in El Sobrante and their office at San José State. In recent years, Daniel has developed a new appreciation for the 99 freeway, which connects them and their partner, Rowan, to family in Modesto, Escalon, and Oakdale (the “cowboy capital of the world”).

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. 

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!

!Familia Medicine For Nightmares is having a birthday pachanga and you are all invited! !

Tios will be bringing six packs of chelas. Paleta cart curanderos will provide the mota and 24th Street espiritus will be in attendance. The Elote Lady may or may not show up however expect comedic stylistics from Spaghetti Vaquera, poetic pyrotechnics by Kill The Backyard Rockstar, and musical medicina by Red Fast Luck as we celebrate the 3rd year of your favorite Portal’s existance.

There will also be copies of Portales #3(A Medicine For Nightmares Poetry Anthology) available and those Medicine for Nightmares t-shirts you’ve all been asking about. There will also probably be atole.

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Two renown Women of Color poetas , ire'ne lara silva and Barbara Jane Reyes, will be sharing their poetic works, heart-dark with love and rage in our galeria this evening. Don’t miss this one it’s going to be pura medicina on so many levels

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, two chapbooks, Enduring Azucares and Hibiscus Tacos, and a short story collection, flesh to bone, which won the Premio Aztlán. ire’ne is the recipient of 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. Most recently, ire’ne was awarded the 2021 Texas Institute of Letters Shrake Award for Best Short Nonfiction. ire’ne is currently a Writer at Large for Texas Highways Magazine. Her first comic book, VENDAVAL, was released by the Chispa Imprint of Scout Comics in July 2024. Her second short story collection, the light of your body, will be published by Arte Publico Press in Spring 2025.

Barbara Jane Reyes was born in Manila, Philippines, raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the author of Gravities of Center (Arkipelago Books, 2003), Poeta en San Francisco (TinFish Press, 2005), Diwata (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2010), To Love as Aswang (Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc., 2015), Invocation to Daughters (City Lights Publishing, 2017), Letters to a Young Brown Girl (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2020), and Wanna Peek Into My Notebook?: Notes on Pinay Liminality (Paloma Press, 2022). She is also the author of the chapbooks, For the City That Nearly Broke Me (Aztlan Libre Press, 2012), Cherry (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, 2007), and Easter Sunday (Ypolita Press, 2007). An Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow, a recipient of the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets, the Global Filipino Literary Award, and a San Francisco Press Club Journalism Award, she teaches in the Yuchengco Philippine Studies Program at University of San Francisco.

Kulintang music is an ancient art form from the Southern Philippines that involves a gong and drum ensemble. The word "kulintang" literally translates to "golden sound moving" in English.

Do you want to learn how to “speak” the language of Kulintang gongs? Join us for this introductory hands-on workshop on “Sinulog a Kamamatuan”! Presentation & learning is paired with discussion. L

Suggested sliding scale admission $5-$10 with all proceeds going to NAFCON.

NAFCON is a national alliance of Filipino organizations, institutions, and individuals that responds to the concerns of Filipinos in the US and in the Philippines by creating an action-oriented platform that brings people together through culture & heritage, education, health & wellness, and advocacy.

Join us for a very special evening as we welcome author Layla Martinez. Layla will be discussing and reading from her strange and terrifying new book Woodworm(Two Lines Press 2024)

The house breathes. The house contains bodies and secrets. The house is visited by ghosts, by angels that line the roof like insects, and by saints that burn the bedsheets with their haloes. It was built by a smalltime hustler as a means of controlling his wife, and even after so many years, their daughter and her granddaughter can’t leave. They may be witches or they may just be angry, but when the mysterious disappearance of a young boy draws unwanted attention, the two isolated women, already subjects of public scorn, combine forces with the spirits that haunt them in pursuit of something that resembles justice.

In this lush translation by Sophie Hughes and Annie McDermott, Layla Martínez’s eerie debut novel is class-conscious horror that drags generations of monsters into the sun. Described by Mariana Enriquez as “a house of women and shadows, built from poetry and revenge,” this vision of a broken family in our unjust world places power in the hands of the eccentric, the radical, and the desperate.

Layla Martínez (Madrid, 1987) is the author of  two nonfiction books in Spanish, Surrogate Pregnancy (Pepitas de calabaza, 2019) and Utopia is not an Island (Episkaia, 2020), as well as stories and articles in numerous anthologies. She has translated essays and novels, writes about music for El Salto, and about television for La Última Hora. Since 2014 she has co-directed the independent publisher Antipersona. Woodworm (Two Lines Press, 2024) is her first novel.

Copy and paste the Eventbrite link below to register;

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/layla-martinez-on-woodworm-with-daniela-blei-tickets-1048285639567?aff=oddtdtcreator

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.

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 Twango and friends.

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. This month’s guest musicians are Pawan Benjamin, Sindhu Natarajan, Rupa Ramanathan and Conal Sathi. Minimum $10 suggested donation towards artists. Indian Classical Sessions are produced by RootStock Arts (www.rootstockarts.com).

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!

FAMILIA join us tonight for a very special evening with Puerto Rican activist, journalist, Young Lord, and founding member of The Last Poets Felipe Luciano!, Felipe will be reading from his memoir Flesh and Spirit; Confessions of a Yong Lord.

Felipe Luciano was born in East Harlem in 1947. His mother was a first-generation Puerto Rican born in New York and his father was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 1968, Luciano became a founding member of the original Last Poets with Gylan Kain and David Nelson. The trio of New York-based performers emphasized a black re-awakening and were the subject of Herbert Danska’s 1970 documentary Right On!. The Last Poets influenced hip-hop, jazz, and spoken word.

In 1969, Luciano co-founded the New York chapter of the Young Lords, a Puerto Rican nationalist organization modeled on the Black Panthers founded a year earlier in Chicago. The Young Lords stressed the importance of self-determination and community service and challenged various forms of oppression. The New York branch started as an affiliate organization of the Chicago Young Lords, before separating to become the Young Lords Party. In contrast, the Chicago group became known as the Young Lords Organization. The Young Lords Party organized community-based interventions including free breakfast and clothing programs, health service programs, and childcare. Luciano emerged as a gripping orator for the Young Lords Party and was elected chairman. He spoke at many of their demonstrations, calling for widescale reform and social empowerment for his community. The activism of the Young Lords Party succeeded in creating lasting change for their local communities and launched the activist careers of many of its members, including Luciano.

Following his departure from the Young Lords, Luciano began hosting radio programs where he plays musicians such as Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, and Celia Cruz and converses with artists and academics about various aspects of Latin music. He was the first Puerto Rican news anchor of a major media network station in the U.S. and won two Emmy awards for his journalism. Luciano continues to speak on social justice and community empowerment. 

His memoir Flesh and Spirit: Confessions of a Young Lord was published in 2023 by Fordham University Press and won the Before Columbus Foundation’s prestigious American Book Award in 2024.

This event is made possible by the generous support of the Before Columbus Foundation.

(photo credit; Gabriel Moreno)

San Francisco biggest literary festival, LitQuake, ends tonight with a momentous poetry crawl through La Mision. Medicina is over la Luna excited to be hosting three fantastic y chingon literary evntos;

5-6pm(Phase 1); La Raiz Magazine Empowerment Poetry Reading.

6:30-7:30pm(Phase2);SWANA Stories

8-9pm(Phase 3); !Speaking Axolotl; El Lit Crawl Edition!

Join us for a very special afternoon of música and poesía that speak to the Arab and Chicanx diasporic hearts with themes of love, resilience, nostalgia and our shared commitment for collective liberation. 

Featuring poets Zeina Hashem Beck and Naomi Helena Quiñonez and a special musical duet edition of Corazón de Cedro with Evelyn Donají and Camellia Boutros, who will be sharing Son Jarocho and Arabic folk songs. Presented by Acción Latina’s Paseo Artístico, free bilingual community art walk.

Zeina Hashem Beck is a Lebanese poet. Her collection of 40 palindromic sonnets, titled This Was Supposed to Be About Beauty, is forthcoming from Penguin Poets in Spring 2027. She’s the winner of the 2023 Arab American Book Award for Poetry for O, which was named a Best Book of the Year by Literary Hub and The New York Public Library. She’s also the author of Louder than Hearts and To Live in Autumn, as well as the chapbooks 3arabi Song and There Was and How Much There Was. Her work has appeared in LARB, Lithub, The Nation, Academy of American Poets, and elsewhere. She’s the co-editor, with Hala Alyan, of the anthology We Call to the Eye and the Night: Love Poems by Writers of Arab Descent. She’s the co-creator and co-host, with poet Farah Chamma, of Maqsouda, a podcast in Arabic about Arabic poetry. After a lifetime in Lebanon and a decade in Dubai, Zeina has recently moved with her family to California.

A 2024 winner of the Juan Felipe Herrera Prize in Poetry, Dr. Naomi Quiñonez, Chicana poet, educator and activist, is the author of three collections of poetry: Exiled Moon, The Smoking Mirror and Hummingbird Dream/Sueño de Colibri. Her work appears in many publications including In Xochitl in Cuicatl:100 years of chicanx/latinx poetry, Voices From Our Ancestors and Maestrapeace to name a few. She has been a featured poet for numerous readings throughout the U.S, Mexico, Cuba and Spain. She edited several publications including Invocation L.A: Urban Multicultural Poetry and Decolonial Voices. Quiñonez is a recipient of a Rockefeller Fellowship, the American Book Award, the City of Berkeley Lifetime Achievement Award in Poetry, the Bay Area Flor y Canto Teyolia Award and is a San Francisco Yerba Buena Center for the Arts honoree. She is featured in Notable Hispanic Women and the Dictionary of Literary Biography. Quiñonez holds a PhD in American history and contributes to the scholarship of Chicana/Latina women. She has curated literary fundraisers for families seeking asylum at the border and for banned books causes. She currently lives in Oakland, Califas.

Corazón de Cedro is an all-femme Son Jarocho and Arabic folk musical project based in San Francisco, California. The group’s arrangements explore the connection between Arabic and Mexican folk musical traditions through the Arabic oud, the jarana Jarocha, zapateado and more. Corazón de Cedro aims to serenade the diasporic heart through melodies, rhythms and poesia that speak of love, resilience, and our shared struggle for collective liberation. Featuring special duet by Evelyn Donají & Camellia Boutros.

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 MCD(Matias Arizmendi on guitar, Cy Thompson on drums, David Boyce on saxes and EFX)

Medicine para Pesadillas has a VHS movie night and you are all invited!

Noche de Movies will happen the 4th Thursday of every month featuring movies of the strange, irreedimable and chingon kind. presented in sturdy VHS format. Expect swear words, violence, and some nudity. Hosted by the pinche pochxs soledad con carne y Josiah Luis Alderete.

This month’s feature is Johnny Mnemonic starring Keanu Reeves, Ice-T, and Henry Rollins.

Johnny Mnemonic is a 1995 cyberpunk action film about a data courier in a dystopian future who must retrieve a secret stash of information from his brain before it kills him: Set in 2021, the film is about a data courier named Johnny (Keanu Reeves) who has a brain implant that stores confidential information. Johnny is tasked with transporting 320 gigabytes of data from Beijing to Newark, but the data will kill him if he doesn't retrieve it within 48 hours. Meanwhile, he is hunted by a gangster and a businessman who both want the data. Robert Longo directed the film, which was written by Sci-Fi author William Gibson, who also wrote the 1981 short story that the film is based on. 

Tonight B-Side Galaxy performs original songs composed by Bay Area native Sean Yarbrough aka Griffin at Medicine for Nightmares in the glorious Mission District. Joining B-Side Galaxy will be Steve Lew on Bass(Eskimo, The Billy Nayer Show, The Fuxedos,and The New Xombies), Chris McGrew on Drums(Seal Party), and Doug Ellington on Trumpet.

B-Side Galaxy-a curated experience of “sonic cinema”. The musicians play mostly original songs featuring elements of art rock, jazz, trip hop, metal, and electronica as montages edited from films in the public domain shift into each other on a projection screen. Think film noir, Ray Harryhausen, Federico Fellini, Marvel Comics, spies, sea life, dreams, romance, and ballet dancers.

Nostalgic for Nothing Cinema is excited to show Foragers (2022) by Jumana Manna.

Foragers depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine/Israel with wry humor and a meditative pace. Shot in the Golan Heights, the Galilee and Jerusalem, it employs fiction, documentary and archival footage to portray the impact of Israeli nature protection laws on these customs. The restrictions prohibit the collection of the artichoke-like ’akkoub and za’atar (thyme), and have resulted in fines and trials for hundreds caught collecting these native plants. For Palestinians, these laws constitute an ecological veil for legislation that further alienates them from their land while Israeli state representatives insist on their scientific expertise and duty to protect. Following the plants from the wild to the kitchen, from the chases between the foragers and the nature patrol, to courtroom defenses, Foragers captures the joy and knowledge embodied in these traditions alongside their resilience to the prohibitive law. By reframing the terms and constraints of preservation, the film raises questions around the politics of extinction, namely who determines what is made extinct and what gets to live on.

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!

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 dose of musical medicina is being provided by Big Smoke(Josh Sirotiak tuba, PC Munoz percussion and flying hook rug, David Boyce horns and EFX)

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. Our chingon feature Coco Oliver will be joining us this month in a collaboration with Galeria de la Raza.

!You are not going to want to miss this very special Speaking Axolotl Poetry Posada to the Lunada!

"Connie Mae Concepción Oliver is a Venezuelan poet. Her first book of poems, Cosmos A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan Ann Druyan Steven Soter And Me is about nuclear disarmament. Her second book, Science Fiction Fiction, is an homage to Miami-Dade County and color photography in the early aughts. Her new collection of poems, dormilona, is a bilingual book that explores dream states, distance, the rituals of sleep, and the elusive nature of time and memory. Both “nightgown” and “sleepyhead” in Venezuelan Spanish, dormilona weaves a neural network linking sleep to language, memory, matrilineal bonds, geography, and history."

Come join us in our galleria for a very special night showcasing poets from Sampaguita Press!

Poets Reggie Imbat, Keana Aguila Labra, Ellie Lopez, Lorenz Mazon Dumuk, and David Maduli will be blessing us with their words.

Reggie Imbat (he/him) is an Ilocano Filipino from the Bay Area. He loves playing the guitar and watching movies with his best friends. His love language is bringing food over to the house and playing with cats. 

Keana Aguila Labra (they/she) is a Cebuano-Tagalog Filipino from San Jose. They are the co-founder of SAMPAGUITA PRESS and their first full-length collection THE LANGUAGE OF UNBREAKING is forthcoming late 2024. 

Ellie Lopez (she/her) is a photographer & storyteller from the 209. She is a community college dropout and failed music journalist. When she’s not ear hustling for the best chismes she writes poetry about grief, pop culture and her family chismes. Her work has been published in Sin Cesar (formally DRYLAND), Maria’s at Sampaguitas, and CWAA Fresno Flies, Cockroaches & Poets. “While in Mourning” is her first micro chapbook BuiLit Zine.

Lorenz Mazon Dumuk (he/they) is a poet, spoken word artist, and curator. He is a VONA alumni, and a MALI (Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute) alumni. Lorenz has two collections of poetry, Ay Nako: Writing Through the Struggle, and I Think In Poetry. Lorenz had curated various events such as ReWrite Open Mic, Glowing with the Moon, and the Eastridge Open Mic. His want to create a nourishing experience at his events, pushes his desire to connect communities and its people. An awkward adorable poet who sometimes gets caught doing hip circles before a reading.

David Maduli (he/him) 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.   

Sampaguita Press is a nonprofit independent micropress committed to serving underrepresented voices and communities who may not have access to traditional publishing spaces. We publish works by and for Black, Indigenous, and POC artists of all genders and LGBTQIA+ identities.

Come listen and learn directly from Po’ Folk, housing rights organizers, and student organizers for Palestine to learn how the Grants Pass vs Johnson ruling criminalizes poverty and attempts to suppress solidarity encampments.

In collaboration with POOR Magazine, Street Spirit, West Side Tenants Association, and Student Organizers for a Free Palestine.