DEAR OAKTOWN BEASTIES!

Mark your calendars for an unforgettable weekend of creativity and support! Join us at Chapter 510 & The Dept. of Make/Believe on Saturday, July 26, 2025, starting at 12 Noon.

We’re thrilled to announce our fundraising event and the Trans Writers Workshop Anthology Launch at Chapter 510 on Saturday, July 26. This event promises a powerful accompanying lineup.

2025 BEAST CRAWL LITERARY FUNDRAISER:

ALL EVENTS ARE TAKING PLACE AT 
CHAPTER 510: THE DEPARTMENT OF MAKE BELIEVE
546 HUEY NEWTON WAY
@ 9th AND CLAY STREETS IN OLD OAKLAND

DAY 1:  Friday, July 25th 6 PM - 8 PM
Kick-Off Fundraising Reading!
with Tureeda Mikell, Cassandra Dallett, Vanessa Torres, Laura Zink, Paul Corman-Roberts & more TBA! 

ONLINE ONLY ON ZOOM!
THE FRIDAY COLLAPSE BEAST AID EDITION
6:30 - 8:30 PM, PACIFIC STANDARD TIME
ZOOM  ID#  896 - 9952- 5358 zoom ID 896-9952-5358  zoom ID 896-9952-5358

DAY 2: Sunday, July 27, 2025, with book fair.

Beast Aid Open Mic  (courtyard)
12:30 - 1:45 PM

Showcase:   (Interior)
1:45 - 2:30
SOCIAL SATURDAYS

Beast Aid Open (courtyard)
2:30 - 3

Showcase (Interior)
3:00-3:45
COLOSSUS PRESS

Beast Aid Open (courtyard)
3:45-4:15

Showcase:  (Interior)
4:15-5
BEAST MOON

Beast Aid Open (interior)
5 - 5:30

Showcase:  
Doors at 5:30
​Show at 6:30
Chapter 510 TransWriters Workshop Anthology Launch
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DAY 3 - (with book fair!)

Beast Aid Open (Parklet)
1 - 1:30

Showcase (Interior)
1:30 - 2:15
BLACK FREIGHTER PRESS

Showcase (Interior)
2:15 - 3:00 PM
MARTILLO PRESS

Showcase (Interior)
3:00 - 3:45
I NEED A NEW PLEDGE

Beast Aid Open(Parklet)
3:40 - 4:00

Showcase (Interior)
4:00 - 4:45
CHERRY PIE PRESS

Beast Aid Open (Parklet)
4:45 - 5:15

Showcase:  (Interior)
5:15 - 6:00
WHEN THE SMOKE COMES
​-------------------------------------

We heartily encourage you to show up and support Beast Crawl and the Trans Writer’s Workshop on Saturday. Open mic signup will take place on Swan's courtyard with the list opening five minutes before the mic starts!

Check in at 12:00 PM on Saturday at Chapter 510 - 9th & Clay, Old Oakland.

When: October 29th at 1:30 PM
Where: Berkeley City College Auditorium

The Bay Area is facing a growing crisis of homelessness. In recent years, cities like San Francisco and Oakland have seen a surge in the number of unhoused people living on the streets. This has led to increased tensions between the unhoused population and local residents, as well as between the unhoused and law enforcement.

In response to this crisis, a panel discussion will be held at Berkeley City College on October 29th at 1:30 PM to explore the issue of the Bay Area's war on the unhoused. The panel will feature:

• Alastair Boone: Director of Street Spirit and a Beat Reporting Fellow with KALW (91.7 FM).
• Bradley Penner: Editor and Lead Reporter for Street Spirit.
• Andrea M. Henson: Executive Director and Legal Counsel for Where Do We Go?, an advocacy and outreach organization for the unhoused community.

The panel will discuss the various issues surrounding the Bay Area's war on the unhoused, including:

• The root causes of homelessness in the Bay Area
• The impact of homelessness on the community
• The effectiveness of current policies and programs
• The role of law enforcement in addressing homelessness
• The need for a more compassionate and humane approach to homelessness

This is a critical issue that affects all of us. Please join us for this important discussion.

Additional Resources:

• Street Spirit: https://thestreetspirit.org/
• Where Do We Go?: https://www.facebook.com/oakland/
• Bay Area's War on the Unhoused: https://www.ebar.com/
• The Crisis of Homelessness in the Bay Area: https://www.ebar.com/​

Beast Crawl Literary Festival is thrilled to announce another exciting event with our partner Sistah SciFi.
Join us on Friday, October 11th for a captivating conversation with Dr. Michele Tracy Berger, author of "Doll Seed: Stories". This incredible event will delve into intersectional feminism, Afrofuturism, and Dr. Berger's thought-provoking work.
Date and Time: Friday, October 11th, 6:30-8 PM PDT
Location: Chapter 510 & the Dept. of Make / Believe, 546 9th Street Oakland, CA 94607
Get your free tickets now
Don't miss this opportunity to hear from a groundbreaking author and be part of a vibrant literary community.
Michele Tracy Berger is the Eric and Jane Nord Family Professor in the Department of Religious Studies and director of the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities at Case Western Reserve University. She has a secondary appointment in the Department of English. Her short fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction has appeared in 100 Word Story, Apex Magazine, Glint Literary Journal, The Wild Word, Blood and Bourbon, FIYAH: Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, Midnight and Indigo, Oracle: Fine Arts Review, Carolina Woman, Ms., and various anthologies.
​

She is the 2019 winner of the Carl Brandon Kindred Award from the Carl Brandon Society for her story "Doll Seed" published in FIYAH: Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction.

In 2020, her science fiction novella, "Reenu-You" about a mysterious virus transmitted through a hair care product billed as a natural hair relaxer was published by Falstaff Books. The experiences of five unlikely heroines weave a speculative tale that explores race, gender, female friendship, the politics of beauty and corporate conspiracy.

Much of her work explores psychological horror, especially through issues of race and gender.

Dr. Berger’s books include Workable Sisterhood: The Political Journey of Stigmatized Women with HIV/AIDS (Princeton University Press, 2004), the co-edited collections Gaining Access: A Practical and Theoretical Guide for Qualitative Researchers (Altamira Press, 2003) and The Intersectional Approach: Transforming the Academy Through Race, Class and Gender(University of North Carolina Press, 2010) and the co-authored Transforming Scholarship: Why Women’s and Gender Studies Students Are Changing Themselves and the World (Routledge 2011, 2014, 2021).

She is the author, most recently, of Black Women’s Health: Paths to Wellness for Mothers and Daughters (New York University Press, 2022), the first monograph to focus on the role of southern African American mothers and their adolescent daughters in shaping health practices.

She is a sought-after public speaker and commentator. Her public scholarship has appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Ed, Ms. Magazine, The Feminist Wire and other media outlets. She is currently co-chair of the Ms. Scholars Board.


For this event, Michele will be in conversation with Isis Asare.

We get it. Beast Crawl Literary Festival is a total BEAST! Lots of fun and literary wildness in the streets. But did you miss a show and wish you could watch it? Did you catch a show and wish you could replay it for yourself or a friend? That's where documentation comes in handy.

Do you have video of the festival that you can share? Please share it! Send all video and photos to our handy dandy email address right here. Or just tag us. That works too. But we'd like to include it in our youtube channel. Anything you got, send it to us.

We just posted the three events held at the Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment in the former Swans center in Old Oakland. They sent us the raw video and we included it in our latest offerings with sweet intro music, Beasty graphics, you know tha drill.

Events are:
Alameda County Youth Poet Laureates - video
16th & Mission Chalk Circle - video
Paper Press Books presents MARHABA - video

Find them in our 2024 festival playlist at the top of the page. Hope you enjoy!

Don't miss out on their Pneumatic Poetry Prescription party!

WHAT: Dept. of Make / Believe PNEUMATIC POETRY PRESCRIPTION Party
WHEN: Friday, September 6, 2024, 5:00 PM 9:00 PM
WHERE: Chapter 510 & the Dept. of Make / Believe 546 9th Street Oakland, CA, 94607 United States (map)

The BAM House, in conjunction with the Beast Crawl Literary Festival present;  

THE POET LAUREATES SHOWCASE

FRIDAY, JULY 26th AT 7 PM
BAM HOUSE 
1540 Broadway, Oakland CA 94612

7:00 doors open - music-open mic sign up
7:15- open mic. 5, 3 minute slots
​
Feature Intros/Laureates' Address 
WITH
​
Zouhair Mussa
Ayodele Nzinga
Nazelah Jameson
James  Cagney

7pm Leg 3 - BAM house  -  ​1540 Broadway, Oakland CA 94612

7pm Leg 3 - Commune Oakland - Info Table

When The Smoke Comes  - Kinfolx

7pm Leg 3 - Kinfolx

Tales From the Town - Binny’s


These diverse readers and community leaders from the Oakland, CA metro area challenge the problematic "doom loop" rhetoric and show how writers and cultural workers can play vital roles in chronicling and supporting equitable social transformation.


Nayomi Munaweera's debut novel, Island of a Thousand Mirrors, won the 2013 Commonwealth Prize for Asia. The New York Times called it "incandescent." Her second novel What Lies Between Us drew comparisons to the voices of Michael Ondaatje and Jhumpa Lahiri.


Norma Smith is a writer, community organizer, social researcher, editor, writing coach, and event and conference organizer who has called the East Bay home since 1969. She lived on Ivy Hill in East Oakland for a quarter century.


Aimee Suzara is a Filipino-American poet, playwright, performing artist and educator based in Oakland, CA. Her accomplishments include a Willa-Award Finalist book of poems, SOUVENIR, a YBCAway award and AROHO Spirited Woman Award. She teaches writing at colleges throughout the Bay Area.


Nazelah Jamison is a Bay Area-based performance poet, author, comedian, vocalist, and emcee. Her first book of poetry, Evolutionary Heart, was reprinted and re-released by Black Lawrence Press in Fall 2023. She hosts Thee Virtual Open Mic every 1st & 3rd Friday on Zoom.


Thaddeus Howze is an award-winning genre author, climate podcaster, and transmedia essayist out of Hayward, California. Thaddeus' speculative fiction and fantasy have appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals. He has published two books: Hayward's Reach (2011) and Broken Glass (2013).

7pm Leg 3 - Binny’s