Conjuring Poetic Words as Medicine for Nightmares is a two part event organized by the Culture Counts Reading Series of San José, CA. The first part is a poetry writing workshop from 4:30p-6p. The second is a poetry reading from 7p-9p. This event is free and open to the public. 

Poetry readins from Sara Borjas, soledad con carne,Josiah Luis Alderete, and our featured poet Annie Abundiz.

BIOS;

SARA BORJAS is a Xicanx pocha and a Fresno poet. Her debut collection of poetry, Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff was published by Noemi Press in 2019. Sara was named one of Poets & Writers 2019 Debut Poets, is a 2017 CantoMundo Fellow, and the recipient of a 2020 American Book Award. She teaches innovative undergraduates at UC Riverside, lives in Los Angeles, and stays rooted in Fresno. Find her @saraborhaz or at www.saraborjas.com.

soledad con carne is a casually queer, intergalactic Oakland/Ohlone-based chicanx punk poet, working/poor multiple high school drop-out bookstore lackey, poet laureate of the San Fernando Valley, and blatant smoker sharing-trauma-with-their-mother.

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.

Annie Abundiz is a Chicana poet raised by the communities of east side San Jose and San Juan del Monte, Jalisco. She is a San Jose State University alumnus with a B.A. in Chicanx Studies, dedicated to abolitionist and decolonial education. Her work has been inspired by educators in XITO (Xicanx Institute for Teaching and Organizing), an Intercambio with teachers of color and Zapatistas in Chiapas, and storytellers within her immigrant family. Their recent work includes collaborating with UTRGV as an ethnic studies consultant and working as a kindergarten teacher in east side San Jose. She is currently part of the Culture Counts Reading Series, a poetic space for engaging youth in story-circles, writing, and social justice needs.