 Laura Zink Our third open mic for the festival is dedicated to J. De Salvo and it happens in Leg 3, in front of Dusk Coffee, in the Latham Square Plaza. Hosted by Laura Zink. Signups onsite. Pull up!  J. De Salvo  Dusk Coffee is a cafe in Oakland, CA. Our experienced staff provides friendly and prompt service for a remarkable cafe experience. We value our customers and strive to satisfy your coffee cravings by serving you our cafe's best and tastiest recipes. Our coffee shop is the perfect place to meet a high standard of flavor and sustainability. We are friendly and care about the customer experience here. We are confident that one visit will satisfy your cravings and give you an unforgettable day. Dusk Coffee also offers the following: Coffee, Matcha, Happy Hour Wine, Pastries, And More! At Dusk Coffee, we treat every customer like family. We are dedicated and committed to providing a comfortable environment. Our team ensures it continues to be the best destination for excellent and tasty beverages for any occasion. We are dedicated to ensuring that our customers are served exceptional quality drinks and food every time. For more information about our cafe and delicious food and drinks, do not hesitate to visit Dusk Coffee today! Leg 3: 7pm-8pm Venue: Latham Square/ Dusk Coffee
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Happy Endings: Special Edition Happy Endings is a four-year-old monthly reading series that takes place at the Make-Out Room every second Tuesday. Each show features five writers, poets, and comedians from the Bay Area who are asked to explore the outrageous and elusive notion of happiness, along with a dynamic monthly theme. Judges from the audience choose a favorite reader, who is invited to return and to help curate by recommending their favorite local writers. This helps the show make new friends and keep its stage open to the Bay's rich array of story-tellers. For Beast Crawl 2023, hosts Danielle Truppi and Joe Wadlington are preparing a special edition of the show: no judges, no theme, but maybe some happy endings.   Wonder Dave is a comedian, writer and performer from Minneapolis, MN, living in California. He has toured the country performing at comedy clubs, colleges, cabarets, comic and science fiction conventions, burlesque shows, theaters, strip clubs, and bowling alleys. He is the host of Mental Health Comedy Hour, Safewords Queer Comedy Showcase, and Literary Pop, a show where writers take a deep dive into their pop culture obsessions. Find him online at teamwonderdave.com.  photo credit: Sarah Deragon Edward Gunawan (he/they) is an interdisciplinary storyteller whose work meditates upon themes of displacement and (be)longing within the intersectional contexts of post-colonial queer transnationality. The author of two chapbooks The Way Back (winner of Start a Riot! Prize, Foglifter Press) and Press Play (Sweet Lit), Edward has also completed over 25 feature films and shorts projects as producer, writer, actor, and/or director. Other publications include TriQuarterly, Aquifer, and Intimate Strangers anthology (Signal 8). A queer Indonesian-born Chinese immigrant, he now resides on Ohlone land in Oakland, CA where he facilitates workshops and curates creative community gatherings such as HOME MADE @ ARTogether, a literary reading series championing immigrant/refugee writers. Visit addword.com for more.  Nelda Kerr is a teacher, painter, singer, writer, and photographer. She works in media design for Oakland Unified School District where she also teaches journalism. Nelda produces a TV show on Oakland's KDOL called "The Town Talks," where Oakland students get to interview local icons like Boots Riley and Rafael Casal. She holds a master's in philosophy of religion from Claremont. Her writing has appeared in SF Weekly, Broke Ass Stuart, and Eleven Magazine.  Anand Vedawala is a queer South Asian immigrant who is also a kindergarten teacher for San Francisco Unified School District and the executive director of San Francisco Zine Fest, which will take place on Sunday, Sept 3 at City View at Metreon. His self-published book 100 Years from Now Our Bones will be Different with Lawrence McWilliams received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, and his zine Hair was declared Best Zine and Best Perzine by Broken Pencil Zine Awards. He foolishly decided to teach summer school this year, so at this moment he's stressed and just very tired. LEG 3: 7pm-8pm Night Heron  Night Heron, a colorful cocktail bar that pays homage to Oakland’s history and diversity through the works of talented local artists.
Night Heron is an art-studded destination for craft cocktails, bento boxes, and all the right vibes located across the street from The Fox Theater. Food is available from neighboring restaurant Itani Ramen, whose chef/owner Kyle Itani curated two Bento Boxes exclusively for Night Heron. Patrons can order via QR code and food will be delivered directly to them. Collapse Press: BEASTS OF THE APOCALYPSECollapse Press is a small literary publisher specializing in poetry and prose by authors, established and new, whose work addresses the current social atmosphere of a society in turmoil and on the verge of transformation.  Hey everyone, let’s shudder together! Armageddon’s a comin’ and Collapse Press has got the writers and poets to make it all go down easier. Or harder. Or whatever you want. Because it doesn’t matter! Join us as Juba Kalamka, Richard Loranger, Missy Church, Taneesh Kaur, The Propaganda Poet and Lynn Alexander ride roughshod over the terrain of the End Times.  Richard Loranger is a multi-genre writer, performer and all-around squeaky wheel currently residing in Oakland. His upcoming collection of poetry and flash prose, Mammal, is due out from Roof Books in the fall of 2023. You can find more about his work and scandals at his website.  E. Lynn Alexander is a poet, artist, and zine/book maker. She cohosts The Friday Collapse and the Lehigh Valley Poetry Virtual Salon and Open Mic. Her recent books include Find Me In The Iris (Collapse Press) and The Shouldspeak Disease, published by Naked Bulb Press, exploring themes of shame language.  Taneesh Kaur is a teaching artist of East Indian descent based in San Francisco, a social justice advocate who uses nature to understand and dismantle systems of mental and physical oppression. Her visual art has been shown in galleries in the Bay and SoCal, and has received praise from the international Luxembourg Art Prize 2022. Their poetry appears in the SF Public Library's Poem of the Day, The Bloom, Great Weather for Media among others, and was long-listed for the 2021 Frontier Poetry OPEN prize. Their poetry chapbook "Thawing" is forthcoming in 2023. More of her work can be found in English and Spanish at www.TaneeshCantos.com.  Juba Kalamka is most recognized for his work with performance troupes Sins Invalid and Mangos With Chili and as co-founder and producer of the queer hip hop group Deep Dickollective (D/DC). His writing appears in numerous journals and anthologies, including The Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press,2010),Queer and Trans Artists of Color:The Stories of Some of Our Lives (2014) Recognize: The Voices of Bisexual Men (Bisexual Resource Center,2015) and Hustling Verse: An Anthology of Sex Workers’ Poetry(Arsenal Pulp Press,2019). His first full-length poetry collection, Son of Byford (Nomadic Press) and his debut album with queer nü metal/rap-rock collective COMMANDO (on Kill Rock Stars) were released in 2022.  PropagandaPoet (Bear Wolf) is a Shawnee Gypsy Jew social justice humanist making his triumphant return to California. He sees tattoos as physical manifestations of emotional scars and lost count of his somewhere around 20. His works include an array of poetry, music, performance and teaching at the collegiate level, including creating and curating the Hearing Marginalized Voices Through Poetry series. In the end, this quote describes him best: “This world makes no sense to me, so I make music and poetry.”  Missy Church is a death doula and educator living in California. She has created a curriculum to help young children understand death through story, poetry, observation, and personal experience. Along with Andrew J. Thomas, she publishes local writers through Naked Bulb Press. She also publishes anthologies and has a book of poetry available from Paper Press- Church: Retrospective. Her poetry book, “deathaiku” was released on Collapse Press in 2022. You can follow Missy on Instagram @deathaiku. LEG 3: 7-8p VENUE: Oaklandish 1444 Broadway
Oaklandish is all about local love and local impact. We are committed to purchasing at least 50% of non-labor expenses from local independent suppliers and/or serving at least 75% (in terms of revenue) of local independent customers. Why is this important? Learn more about the local multiplier effect.
 La Area Bahia’s long running monthly Latinx/Chicanx reading series comes to Beast Crawl! Come hear decolinized verse, Spanglish poesia, Latinx lyrics and poetic chismes from some of La Area Bahia’s most chingon poets.  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.  Hilary Cruz Mejia (they/she/elle) is a poet and activist from the coastal waters of Guatemala. Her work has appeared in a couple of online magazines. Hilary’s transition to the U.S. as a queer, immigrant, and first-generation college student has been presented in her poetry where she also encourages her readers to preserve the indigenous roots of the lands that were stolen. Outside of writing, she spends her time learning her abuela’s recipes, decolonizing her tongue, and keeping on track with her homework. Follow her on Instagram @hilary_natasha.”  Josiah Luis Alderete is a full blooded Spanglish speaking Poeta from La Area Bahia y left handed callejero de Aztlán. He has published two books of poetry “Baby Axolotls & Old Pochos” (Black Freighter Press 2021) and “Fuchi Faces de los Estados Jodidos (pinche pandemico poems and other Nalga-Hyde chismes)” (For The Pueblo 2023). Currently Josiah Luis tends the portal known as Medicina Para Pesadillas Bookstore & Galeria.  Xavi Burgos is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, organizer, and educator from New York City and Chicago who currently resides in San Francisco. Leg 3 (7pm - 8pm) Venue: The Hatch  The Hatch We are back! Thank you for your support. Its been a year like no other but we are happy to still be here serving you your favorite food and drinks. Small bites for every occasion featuring our world famous fresh cut fries and homemade sauces. Enjoy our signature burgers and sandwiches or make your own custom creation. Sky's the limit. Your favorite Hatch Cocktails, Slushes and beers are now available for takeout. Your friends at The Hatch. The Berkeley slam team showcaseJoin us for a magical evening of poetry featuring the 2023 Berkeley Poetry Slam Team. Earlier this year, the placed 3rd place at the Bigfoot Regional Slam in Portland, OR. Tune in for the poems that these poets brought with them to represent what the Bay Area poetry scene has to offer.   RichOak Events is a spoken word and literary arts organization based in the SF Bay Area dedicated to providing equitable platforms for self expression to underserved and intentionally silenced communities both through virtual media and in person interactive engagements. Our top priority at RichOak Events is to facilitate a space to empower people of all genders, sexualities, ethnicities, abilities and ages to tell their own stories in ways that will produce positive change on a local, national, and global level. Learn more about us at richoakevents.org. Leg 3 (7pm - 8pm) Venue: Tamarack  Tamarack is a collectively run bar and restaurant, serving simple and delicious comfort food with inspiration from all over the world. Our menu includes rotating craft cocktails focused on house made ingredients, in addition to a selection of local beer, wine, and premium liquor. We see the communal act of eating, drinking, and being together as a foundation for growing friendships and building the world of our dreams.
MoonDrop Productions Presents Ode to Oakland MoonDrop Productions is the creation of Kelechi Ubozoh & Cassandra Dallett. It is a quarterly submission based/themed reading. We encourage writers to share their personal evolutions, revolution, love and lust. We strive to hear from a diverse group of writers and are committed to creating new spaces where those who haven't been given a stage can shine. Contact us at moondropproductionswriters@gmail For the 2023 Best Crawl Literary Festival, MoonDrop Productions presents a diverse group of poets who all have a special connection with Oakland and we are going to rock the house. Asantewaa Boykin Asantewaa Boykin is a Co-founder of APTP (Anti Police-Terror Project) an organization committed to the eradication of police terror in all of its forms. She uses her knowledge of nursing and activism to provide Street Medic training for direct actions and community training on Trauma Centered First -Aid. Along with being a RADICAL nurse, she is also a founding member of the Capital City Black Nurses Association. Asantewaa along with a brave group of organizers and medical professionals developed Mental Health First or MH FIRST a mobile mental health crisis response team aimed at minimizing police contact with those who are in the midst of a mental health crisis. Her poetry and art combine her love of words, storytelling, and resistance. Exploring topics like; space-travel, black-femme militancy, & motherhood. Which describes her first full-length poetry collection, “Love, Lyric and Liberation (Nomadic Press), and embodies the essence of her visual art. The intersection of Art and Resistance is where Asantewaa feels most at home. As a self-proclaimed “Serial Crafter” she has found a creative outlet in most mediums while stacking words into poems, short stories and essays remain her first love. https://www.asantewaaboykin.com/about James Cagney James Cagney is poet and the author of Black Steel Magnolias In The Hour of Chaos Theory, (Nomadic Press, 2018), winner of the PEN Oakland 2019 Josephine Miles Award. His second collection, Martian: The Saint Of Loneliness, (Nomadic Press) was awarded the 2021 James Laughlin Award. James is a Cave Canem fellow who lives in Oakland. Adrienne Danyelle Oliver Adrienne Danyelle Oliver is a poet-educator from Little Rock, Arkansas. Her chapbook "Collective Madness" was nominated for the 2023 Maya Angelou Book Award. When she is not writing, she leads well-being writing circles and curates Black Gold Storytellers, an award-winning collective that features Black elders who have migrated to California. Jeneé Darden Jeneé Darden is an award-winning journalist, author, public speaker and mental health advocate. She grew up in a diverse, working-class neighborhood in Oakland, Calif. and learned so much about life, people and culture from her community. The greatest gift she ever received was a journal her mother gave her at seven years old. She hasn't stopped writing since. Jeneé has reported for NPR, The Los Angles Times, Shondaland, Ebony, Marketplace, Refinery 29 and many other outlets. In 2005, she contributed reporting on the London 7/7 transit bombings for Time magazine’s Europe edition. Listen to her on KALW 91.7 FM where she is the executive producer and host of the arts segment Sights & Sounds, as well as the show Sights + Sounds Magazine. She is also their East Oakland reporter. Her first short documentary Where is East Oakland was screened at the Oakland International Film Festival and has won awards. Christine No Christine No is a Korean American writer, teaching artist and daughter of immigrants. She is a Sundance Alum, VONA Fellow, Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net Nominee; and Kearny Street Workshop's APAture Festival's featured literary artist. You can find her work in the Columbia Journal, Story Magazine, The Rumpus amongst others. Her First full length poetry collection “Whatever Love Means” is available via Barrelhouse Books. Check her out on the internet at @iamchristineno. Heather Flesher Heather Flesher is a disabled trans woman who lives in Monterey. She writes poems, stories, plays, comics and essays in the cause of radical social justice. She has loved to perform her entire life, and in the face of an increasingly treacherous society, she strives to become louder and more eloquent. Leg 3 (7pm - 8pm) Venue: First Edition (Balcony)  About First Edition:
First Edition 1915 Located in Uptown Oakland, we have over 3000 square feet of available space, including two mezzanines, an outdoor roof deck, and two full bars. All of our art is graphic novel/comic book inspired and created by local artist Michael Brennan. We aim to create a casual, neighborhood environment where exploration of new cocktails and introductions to new friends is the norm. Whether you're enjoying a happy hour cocktail on the patio or dancing the night away with our weekend local DJs events, we’re here to share our passion for making cocktails fun and approachable in a clean, safe, inclusive environment.  LA PALABRA MUSICAL/THE MUSIC OF THE WORD is the East Bay’s longest running Multi-Lingual Poetry Reading & still going strong promoting the beauty of all our cultures, languages & diversity. We’ve featured Writers in Spanish/English, Cantonese/English, Tagalog/English, Yoruba/English, Farsi/English, 2 different Native American languages/English, Arabic, German, Ladino, Quechua, Haitian Creole, , etc. from international Poets & Storytellers & more. Many times we have Musicians & we always have 2 to 4 Features & 10 Open Mic readers & our Features have ranged from 10 Years Old to 92 years Young. The only requirement is excellence!!! We meet the 4th Saturday of every Month from 3PM to 5PM hosted by AVOTCJA Since the Pandemic shut down we’ve been meeting on Zoom, but we’ll be returning to our Home base hopefully in July. @ CESAR E. CHAVEZ BRANCH OAKLAND PUBLIC LIBRARY  Writer, Musician, Storyteller, KPOO & KPFA Avotcja Na (pronounced Avacha) is a card carrying New York born Music fanatic/sound junkie & popular Bay Area Radio DeeJay. She’s a lifelong Musician/Writer/Educator/Storyteller & is on a shamelessly Spirit driven melodic mission to heal herself. Avotcja talks to the Trees & listens to the Wind against the concrete & when they answer it usually winds up in a Poem or Short Story. Checl out Avotcja on Facebook or Youtube.  TONY ALDARONDO has performed music and poetry in venues throughout the San Francisco Bay area, overseas and once while standing up on a Jetblue airplane. He is also an actor and a voice over artist. His first poetry book titled, BIG HEART POET from Humming Word Press is out now! Website: tonyaldarondo.com  SUSANA PRAVER-PÉREZ is a Pushcart-nominated poet and a winner of the San Francisco/Nomadic Press Literary Award (2021). Her work has been widely published in journals and anthologies, and her first full-length collection of poetry, HURRICANES, LOVE AFFAIRS, & OTHER DISASTERS was released by Nomadic Press in June 2021. susanapraverperez.com  RAS MO MOSES is a poet, composer, singer, storyteller , educator & recording artist from the island of Dominica. He uses performing arts for violence prevention, gender & race equality, social justice and community building. He has published three books of poetry and two albums of music. Website: rasmomoses.com  Dizzy Jenkins, also known as Dimebag Dizzy, is the multi-talented singer/songwriter, bomba drummer and heavy metal vocalist hailing from New York City now calling the Bay Area their home. They have released two solo hip hop albums, City Baby and Algorithm & Blues, Skeleton Key, and her latest album, In Case I Don’t Make it, is a collaborative effort with Women’s Audio Mission, showcasing their incredible range as a bomba composer. Additionally, they are a talented spoken word artist who have recently featured at Litquake's Poetic Tuesdays.  Keith Mar is a spoken word artist and psychotherapist who specializes in the Asian-American experience. who works in images, colors and unflinchingly honest personal stories. His poetry asks questions about race, identity. Leg 3 (7pm - 8pm) Venue: Graffiti Pizza
BLACK FREIGHTER PRESS @ Beast Crawl Black Freighter Press publishes revolutionary books. We are committed to the exploration of liberation, using art to transform consciousness. A platform for Black and Brown writers to honor ancestry and propel radical imagination.  Black Freighter Press is excited to be curating a Beast Crawl reading featuring a few of our favorite creative minds. Meilani Clay, Zouhair Mussa, Ladi Rev, and Darius Simpson. Hosted by Alie Jones & Tongo Eisen-Martin
 Alie Jones is a self-care advocate, writer, artist, and Creole mermaid. She is Co-founder and Director of Black Freighter Press, a revolutionary press committed to the exploration of liberation, using art to transform consciousness. Alie graduated with her MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from Mills College. She is the host of the podcast called Chit Chat with Aliecat , a platform to explore self-care practices and journeys of self-love in community. Leg 3: 7-8p Venue: First Edition 1915 (patio)
 Black Lawrence Press, located in New York, specializes in contemporary poetry and prose. Black Lawrence Press is welcoming nearly 100 Nomadic Press titles to their repertoire, and they look forward to participating in Beast Crawl for an official meeting and promoting of the many authors who are joining Black Lawrence. This will be the first BLP + Nomadic reading! Don't miss it!  Luiza Flynn-Goodlett is the author of Borrowed Time (forthcoming from Northwestern University Press) and Look Alive (winner of the 2019 Cowles Poetry Book Prize from Southeast Missouri State University Press), along with seven chapbooks, most recently The Undead, winner of Sixth Finch Books' 2020 Chapbook Contest, and Shadow Box, winner of the 2019 Madhouse Press Editor's Prize. Her poetry can be found in Fugue, Five Points, TriQuarterly, and elsewhere. She serves as Managing Editor of the Whiting Award–winning LGBTQ+ literary journal and press Foglifter. Her critical work has appeared in Cleaver, Pleiades, The Adroit Journal, and other venues.  Kelliane Parker' s debut chapbook is, "Down the Foggy Streets of my Mind." A queer, Latinx, performance artist and poet living with Dissociative Identity Disorder, (DID), her work explores a lived experience of navigating the world through multiple lenses. She is a frequent feature at poetry readings and has been published in numerous anthologies such as, "Light on the Walls of Life", a tribute anthology to Lawrence Ferlinghetti and the Colossus series. When not reading poetry, she can be found speaking about de-pathologizing mental health.  MK Chavez is an Afro-Latinx writer, educator, multi-disciplinary artist, and curator. Chavez is co-director of the Berkeley Poetry Festival and co-founder and curator of Lyrics & Dirges and teaches and supports writers at Ouroboros Writing Lab. Chavez's writing explores identity, social injustice, environmental degradation, horror cinema, magic, and ritual and has been recognized with a Pen Oakland Josephine Miles award, the San Francisco Foundation/Nomadic Press Literary Award. Chavez is a 2018 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award recipient and a 2023 YBCA 100 fellow. Chavez’s literary offerings include Dear Animal, Mothermorphosis, the lyric essay chapbook A Brief History of the Selfie, and Virgin Eyes. Chavez’s work can be found among the trees in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park through the Voices of the Trees Project.  Cyrus Armajani teaches reading and creative writing to youth who are incarcerated. He is a Jefferson Award recipient for his literacy work in the juvenile justice system and a Pushcart nominee. His poems have appeared in Matter: A Journal of Political Poetry and Commentary, Poetry Magazine, RHINO 2018 and Sparkle and Blink, among other publications. Benefits of Doubt (Nomadic Press/Black Lawrence Press) is his first book. Cyrus is Iranian-American and lives in Oakland, California with his wife and two sons.  Lauren L. Wheeler writes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and what happens when they rub up against each other. A recovering slam poet, she twice competed at the National Poetry Slam and has featured at Cornell University, where she studied English Literature, as well as in Los Angeles, Miami, Austin, and throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Lauren is the author of the poetry collection In Between Places (Nomadic Press, 2022). Her work has appeared online and in print in such publications as PANK, The Nervous Breakdown, The Rumpus, and the pop-culture website Black Nerd Problems. Lauren also has spent most of the last two decades working in the tech industry as a producer, program manager, product manager — all the jobs that start with a P. She’s worked on video games (notably The Sims and Star Wars: The Old Republic), consumer robots (Cozmo and Anki Overdrive), and recently, self-driving cars at Cruise. Lauren also has experience in marketing, political organizing and communications, and is a proud Arena Summit alum. Lauren lives with her kid, spouse, and two brown dogs in West Oakland, California, also known as xučyun (Huichin), the unceded ancestral territory of the Chochenyo-speaking Ohlone people. She believes in paying her taxes. You can find her doomscrolling on Twitter as @fightingwords and posting ocular proof on Instagram at @fightingw0rds. Leg: 3 (7pm - 8pm) Venue: Chapter 510 & the Dept. of Make / Believe  MISSION Chapter 510 is a made-in-Oakland youth writing, bookmaking & publishing center. Our teaching artists and volunteers work side by side with educators to provide a safe space and supportive community so Black, brown, and queer youth ages 8-19 can bravely write. VISION We want every young person in Oakland to write with confidence and joy. WHAT WE STAND FOR We believe that writing is an act of liberation. Young people transform themselves and their communities when they write and get published, succeeding in work, school, and life. INSPIRED BY Chapter 510 & the Dept. of Make / Believe is and 826 National-inspired organization. PAPER PRESS PRESENTS: PRINCIPLES OF LIGHT Paper Press Books & Associates Publishing Company. This year at Beast Crawl Literary Festival, we present writers with whom we have worked in the past, whose work we cherish and value, yet have not published. These voices need to be heard. Purchase a Paper Press book today and see why writers and readers enjoy the time and energy we invest in every step of production. paperpressbooks.org   Charisel Angelle Parla is a bilingual Cuban-American poet and educator. Her poetry explores the nuances and intersections of memory, grief, heritage, addiction, and identity. A native of Miami, FL, Charisel earned her MFA in Creative Writing from The University of San Francisco, and currently resides in Oakland, CA where she works with recently arrived immigrant youth at Oakland International High School.  Thomas Dunn is a multi-media artist, poet, and experimental filmmaker from Midland, Michigan. A proud graduate of Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Thomas is currently completing his MFA in Writing at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco.  Antony Fangary is a writer and visual artist living in San Francisco. He was awarded the 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and is the author of HARAM (Etched Press 2019). His poetry has recently appeared in Gulf Coast, The Sycamore Review, West Branch, and elsewhere. His work has received support from the San Francisco Arts Commission, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the Center for Cultural Innovation.  Colleen Shoshana McKee, aging Riot Grrl and singer, is the author of six collections of poetry, memoir, and fiction including The Kingdom of Roly-Polys (Pedestrian Press); and Routine Bloodwork (Headmistress Press). She teaches writing, and US Citizenship Test preparation. She’s also an editor. Oakland is her home. ColleenShoshanaMcKee.com  A product of the hip-hop generation, Bleu’s storytelling first manifested itself in the form of rhythm and poetry as a rapper. He and his crew were local heroes, but sixteen bars limited his vision, so he changed up and took it to the next level. From seeking that next level and stepping out of his comfort zone, Bleu learned that inspiration cannot be stifled and that evolution is imminent. If you are looking for raw, honest expression from the underground, you’ve found it in LaMont Anthony Wright. Although Bleu’s family tree is peppered with a long line of story tellers, smack talkers and intellectuals, some of his early influences also came from works by Edgar Allen Poe, Orson Welles and Rod Sterling. www.gbleu.com Leg 3: 7pm-8pm Venue: Make Westing, 1741 Telegraph  ABOUT MAKE WESTING: www.makewesting.com What's with the name? The name "Make Westing" comes from a short story by Oakland native Jack London. While a bit grim and violent, the tale centers on the overwhelming need to make the westing wind back home to Oakland - to a place of warmth and family (and bocce courts?). Who are we? Make Westing is located in the thriving Uptown district of Oakland. Wood, iron, and slate make up the décor that resonates with the industrial heritage of our city. We are equipped with a full bar, a variety of gourmet bites, an outdoor patio, and two indoor bocce courts. The Fox theater is less than one block away, and the 19th st. BART stop is across the street. Why Bocce? While we are not bocce aficionados per se, we did play at some of our favorite bars in Brooklyn and the lanes fit the space perfectly, while serving as an entertaining companion to a cocktail. The courts are first come, first serve and are free. When there are others waiting, each group may play one game to seven and then give up the court to the next group in line. If you would like to rent the bocce courts, we do so at $50 per hour, per court. What else? Make Westing is more a bar than restaurant and as such (according to the alcohol beverage control rules) no one under 21 is allowed, infants included. For credit cards, we request a $10 minimum. As relates to credit cards - some banks will place a temporary double charge on certain cards only as a hold and will release the charge within 7-10 business days. We have no idea why they do this, but it happens often enough that we thought we should mention it. We have an ATM on site. |
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