There is a tremendous schedule of poetry-related happenings upon us, so I’m sending this now to get some of them in front of you, with more next week. I’m also catching up with new books from local authors—see below. Without more blabbing, here is your serving of this week’s poetry feast.
Calendar
Friday Mar 15, 4:30-6pm
Watsonville Youth Center.
Writing about the Ville. All youth 11-18 are invited to this free, fun writing session about home, place and community, with poet Victoria Bañales.
Friday Mar 15, 7-9pm
1817 Soquel Ave.
Barrios Unidos presents Poems for Cesár (Chavez)—featuring Luis Rodriguez, who you might know for a range of reasons, including his poetry and his time as LA Poet Laureate, and he founded Tia Chucha in LA… see graphic for more info. If you can get out Friday night I guarantee you will enjoy this event.
Sunday Mar 17, 2pm
Horticulture Building, Cabrillo College
Hummingbird Press hosts a book launch & reading for Paula Jones, My Floating Life. Paula's a Zen priest, brown robe; this is her first book, brought forth by her friends at Hummingbird Press.
Tuesday, Mar 19, 7pm
Satori Arts, 815 Almar Ave, Unit 9, SC (on the west side).
Inter|Act Spoken Word Open Mic: Featured Poet, Deb Gorlin. Deborah Gorlin is the author of three books of poems, winning the White Pine Poetry Press Prize and May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize. She is Emeritus co-director of the Writing Program at Hampshire College, and served for many years as a poetry editor at The Massachusetts Review.
Friday, Mar 22, Evening (save the date!)
Mello Center, Watsonville
Watsonville Poetry Reading (sponsored by America Scores). Several primary school-aged kids read their work as part of a celebration of their recent after school participation in America Scores.
I promise to update this item with more details next week.
New Books Out in the World
In February, Dion O’Reilly’s second book, Sadness of the Apex Predator was published. “The beauty and danger of an isolated family compound, the corruption that privilege can bring, an extensive burn injury that interrupts a girl's life, and the many predators who swoop in when the scarred woman is loosed, again, into the world—all of this is woven throughout Sadness of the Apex Predator, a collection of poems that studies both the way Sapiens feed on one another and also the redemption our hungers can bring.” You’ll want to sink into these poems—and they will sink into you.