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 5 minutes to read.
!This month’s Speaking Axolotl is being guest curated by Yen La Poeta and features Zaifen King L., Bryan Chavez Castro.
Zaifen King L. is an independent Mexican author of oneiric and emotional narratives. Her stories explore love, obsession, loss, and transformation through characters who inhabit the space between the intimate and the strange. Her work blends sensitivity, emotional tension, and an intimate gaze into human bonds, creating tales where pain, beauty, and discomfort coexist in the same space.Her writing is distinguished by melancholic atmospheres, unsettling images, and a profound exploration of what remains within people even when they try to leave it behind.
Bryan Chavez Castro is a poet, writer, and translator from El Salvador’s rural east. He was the Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Fellow at UC Berkeley, where he studied comparative literature. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Antiphony, Huizache, Acentos Review, and elsewhere. His translations appear in The Offing. He now lives in Oakland, CA.
Yenia Jimenez is a poet, community storyteller, whose poetry explores identity, memory, culture, love, survival, and the lived experiences of marginalized communities. Her poetry is rooted in personal experience, cultural history, and community, using raw and intimate storytelling as a form of reflection, resistance, and connection.
Yenia has been featured in Huizache Magazine and founded her own poetry collective Molcaje Poets to uplift and highlight poets from across the diasporas and create space for diverse voices to be heard and celebrated.
Her work extends beyond the page through poetry workshops, youth programming, curriculum development, open mics, and community arts projects. For Yenia, poetry is more than an art form; it is a way of remembering, questioning, connecting, and story telling through prose.