California poets in the schools

Preachers, Reachers, and Teachers

California Poets in the Schools Laney College presents "Preachers, Reachers and Teachers." Tobey Kaplan and friends: Long -time Oakland poet and educator presents the best of the BEAST-- literary luminaries--writers who teach and encourage critical and creative process in the classroom and in the streets; these EAST BAY instructors will share their own work that inspires others to craft their own memoirs, poetry, essays and fiction.

Tobey Kaplan, a poet originally from New York City, with degrees from Syracuse and San Francisco State Universities, has been teaching in the San Francisco Bay Area for thirty years.  An active member of California Poets in the Schools and Associated Writing Programs,  Ms. Kaplan has given readings, workshops and presentations throughout the country regarding creative process, literacy and social change. She had previously worked for the Washoe Tribe to coordinate a range of educational services and identify career building programs for the Native American community in Alameda Country.

Ms. Kaplan has received grants from the California Arts Council, 1979-1982 to serve as poet in residence at community mental health centers, and has also taught creative writing as an adult education instructor at  Pleasant Hill Adult School. She has also worked for Contra Costa County  Schools as an instructor in the jails, and for Project Second Chance as the detention facilities tutor coordinator.  Her honors include: being named Dorland Mountain Colony Fellow, honorable mention Crazyhorse poetry prize 2008 and Affiliate Artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts, as well as being the recipient of a Bay Area Award (New Langton Arts, 1996). Among her publications are: Across the Great Divide ( Androgyne, 1995). Her poems are contained in numerous literary anthologies. As an adjunct faculty member, Tobey Kaplan currently teaches creative writing, literature, humanities, reading and composition at several East Bay community colleges.

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Novelist, poet and essayist Judy Juanita’s poetry collection, Manhattan my ass, you’re in Oakland, won the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 2021. In her semi-autobiographical novel, Virgin Soul [Viking, 2013]; its protagonist joins the Black Panther Party in the sixties in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her collection of short stories, The High Price of Freeways, won the 2021 Tartt Fiction Award, [Livingston Press, 2022 ]. Her work has Pushcart Prize nominations for (poem) “Bling” 2012; (essay) “The Gun as Performance Poem” 2014; and (short story) “The Black House” 2022.

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Sarah Kobrinsky is the former Poet Laureate of Emeryville, CA. She is the author of Nighttime on the Other Side of Everything (New Rivers Press). Her poems and stories have appeared in Magma Poetry, Red Light Lit, Eleven Eleven, Monkeybicycle, *82 Review, 100 Word Story, Fjords Review, among many others. She was long-listed for the 2019 University of Canberra Vice Chancellor's Poetry Prize.  She was born in Canada, raised in North Dakota, seasoned in England, and tempered in California. Sarah and her husband have a handmade ceramic dinnerware company in the Bay Area called Jered's Pottery. She is also a martial artist and an aspiring polyglot.

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Carol Dorf is a Zoeglossia fellow, whose poetry has been published in several chapbooks and in journals that include "About Place," “Cutthroat, “Unlikely Stories," "Great Weather For Media,” "The Mom Egg," "Sin Fronteras," "Scientific American," and "Maintenant." She is founding poetry editor of Talking Writing. She’s taught in a variety of settings including BCC, Berkeley High School, Berkeley Arts Magnet, Lawrence Hall of Science, and as a California poet-in-the-schools.

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Leg 2 (5:30pm - 6:30pm) Venue: ​​Oakland Photo Workshop

Oakland Photo Workshop is a community gallery and workspace, offering exhibitions by local photographers and community groups, as well as photography classes, talks by local artists, photo walks, and meetups.
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We’re in the historic Asian Resource Center building, in the heart of beautiful Oakland Chinatown.

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