Milvia Street produces a print and online journal showcasing the diverse voices and visions of Berkeley City College students. The journal is all student-made to help usher them into professional publishing. Come hear the work of six up-and-coming and super talented writers and poets!! This year's readers are Angel Sunlight, Vida Felsenfeld, Tracy Abeyta, Heather Canfield, Mary Magagna, and r.a.d. Leng Leng!!! Check out the new issue of Milvia Street: www.milviastreet.com.
Leg 1 (4pm - 5pm) Venue: Bookmark Bookstore 721 Washington ABOUT BOOKMARK BOOKSTORE: Bookmark Bookstore The Bookmark Bookstore is a nonprofit used bookstore that is owned and operated by the Friends of the Oakland Public Library and staffed by volunteers. All of the many thousands of books and media in store are donated, and all proceeds support the Oakland Public Library. A true local establishment, the Bookmark celebrated its 30th anniversary this past year. Located at 721 Washington Street in Old Oakland, the store is open Wednesday-Friday from 11:00am – 4:00pm and Saturday-Sunday from 10:30am – 5:30pm.
0 Comments
1428 Poets presents-Friends of richard sanderell1428 Poets is a long running San Francisco poetry reading once hosted by Richard Sanderell. After Richard's passing, Antoinette Vella Payne continued the reading to keep it alive. A group of Richard's friends rescued Richard's poems from a broken laptop, YouTube readings and various anthologies and the much loved, dusty files of friends. Two years after Richard's passing, Mitch, who grew up in San Francisco, loves art. It’s her way of shouting at the world. She is a Spoken Word artist and Musician who has hosted Mitch’s Salon, a weekly online Open Mic Poetry series on Friday nights since 2020.
Alan Harris' spoken word is informed by his experience as a performer in sketch, improv and stand-up comedy. He has lived in New York and Los Angeles, but prefers San Francisco because it smells like weed everywhere. Alice Elizabeth Rogoff grew up in New Rochelle, New York. She received an MA in English: Creative Writing from San Francisco State. She's been in several poetry groups like Noe Valley Poets, LaborFest Writers, and with the Haight Ashbury Literary Journal as an Editor. She's been published in Poetry Pacific, Pudding Magazine, Avocet for nature poetry, Blue Collar Review and the anthologies Fog and Light by Blue Light Press, and Your Golden Sun Still Shines, by Manic D Press. She received a grant for poetry from the San Francisco Arts Commission, was a semi- finalist in the Codhill book award, and has won a Blue Light Book Award, and two District 7 awards. She has several books of poetry, and fiction in the on-line magazines Caveat Lector and So To Speak. Britt Peter was born in the North Arm of Indian Valley (Plumas County) in 1938. His poems can be found on the internet under britt peter poet (You Tube, Jerry Jazz Musician). He has published in the Richmond Anthology, Poetry Expressed, Grounds Are Sacred, Poetalk, Blue Collar Review and the California Quarterly. He puts great value to the conversations he had with “The Cursive Writer” on the 21 Bus, in Golden Gate Park, Café International, the Chavis Library, Sacred Ground Café and the Pork Shop.
LEG 1: 4-5p VENUE: Awaken Cafe 1429 Broadway ABOUT AWAKEN CAFE: Awaken Cafe Rocking it in downtown Oakland since 2008, Awaken Cafe & Roasting is a community coffee-house, espresso bar, best-in-class coffee gear retailer, restaurant, beer & wine bar, and event venue. But mainly we are here to help bring people together to launch what's next for Oakland and the world, and we might as well #drinkgoodcoffee while we're at it. We roast our coffee regularly at Pulley Collective in West Oakland Announcing the Afrosurreal Writers Workshop of California A reading of speculative fiction by members of the Afrosurreal Writers Workshop of Oakland and the announcement of the pending state wide anthology. Afrosurreal Writers Workshop of Oakland is a select group of speculative fiction, memoir and poetry writers whose writing is informed by our personal and individual heritage as members of the African Diaspora in California. Ellen McBarnette has been organizer of the Afrosurreal Writers Workshop of Oakland for four years. She is a life-long writer whose nonfiction work has been published as testimony, fact sheets and opinion pieces for organizations that include the Sierra Club and the American Bar Association. A performance storyteller, she writes speculative fiction in the Afrosurreal and Afrofuturist traditions as well as poetry and creative nonfiction. Her work caan be found in Midnight and Indigo and, coming soon, in the award winning Fault Zones. As a native New Yorker, she is delighted to find such a welcoming literary home in the SF Bay. She lives in Hayward with her partner Ben and their cat Java.
LaMar Mitchell was born in the North California East Bay Area on December 16, 1978 (same day Philip K. Dick was born as a matter of fact) LaMar was born and brought up by a family of giant ewoks who taught him the scrupulous art of the non sequitur. He bides his time chasing bisexual mermaids while trying to build a career in cyberpunk infused Surrealism. He has a digital poetry chapbook incubating in his womb along with a raw rough draft of a first time novel. He can be found in your local foxhole as the only atheist alive in there. Born to write, write, write and feverishly guard the gateways of his geeky opinions. Karla Tiffany is a Black poet and fiction writer from Oakland, CA. She holds a BA in Writing and Literature from California College of the Arts. She is a recipient of the San Francisco Foundation/Nomadic Press Literary Award for Poetry (2021). Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the San Francisco Public Library’s Poem of the Day series, Second Stutter, Gulf Coast Journal, Augur Magazine, When We Exhale (Black Freighter Press), midnight & indigo, and SAND Literature and Art. Leg: 1, 4pm -5pm Venue: Cape and Cowl Comics Cape and Cowl Comics Located between 16th St & 17th Streets in Downtown Oakland, just steps from Frank Ogawa Plaza and the 19th street BART station, Cape & Cowl Comics is your comic book store in downtown Oakland. Easy to find and easy parking. If we don't have want you're looking for we can order it for you. We are passionate about all genres and themes and just want to share our love of comic books with you. Drop in, say "Hello" and check us out. Naked bulb presents: The ReturnNaked Bulb began as a private, backyard open mic once a month in a tidy little Fruitvale neighborhood. The core tenant, that everyone has something to say, is what transformed Naked Bulb from a gathering of writers into a larger venue for the Oakland's creative community. Naked Bulb Press was born out of this gathering and is now on its seventh publication - Andrew J. Thomas, Elynn Alexander, Andy Keating, Kelly Landmine, Gary Turchin, Ruth Crossman, and G Macias Gusman. Tureeda Mikell is a story medicine woman, poet, Qi Energy Worker and Black Panther alum, selected MoAD 2022 Poet in Residence. Committed to voices seldom heard, she has published over 70 at-risk student classroom anthologies from five bay area counties. Her work has traveled or Zoomed across several countries and continents from China, U.K. to Egypt. Synchronicity: The Oracle of Sun Medicine, was nominated for the California Book Award, and co-curated The Patrice Lumumba Anthology with EastSide Arts Alliance both published by Nomadic Press, now available by Black Lawrence Press, New York. Since the pandemic, K.R. Morrison has been searching for mermaids in a sea town in Southern California, often returning to the Bay Area for her poetry nests and to play drums for two all-female fronted rock bands – HARRIOT and UNICRÖNE. Morrison is a Pushcart Nominee for her poem, “Her Altar” and still enjoys readings and podcasts celebrating Cauldrons, published by Paper Press Books. K.R. spent 17 years as a sea captain for the teens at Galileo High School– using creative writing and literature, she worked with countless students, earning the name “Mama Mo” with many who left her classroom armed with writing and literacy tools for healing. Morrison continues her work in education through workshops in the juvenal hall system and online teaching. These days, Morrison gypsies up and down the coast for music and poetry and drowns in an abyss of new poems that will hopefully, take the form of three separate manuscripts. Lee Foust is an author and performer from Oakland, California who has lived in Italy since the late-1990s. He teaches literature and creative writing at the Sant’Anna Institute in Sorrento and lives in the Piedigrotta neighborhood of Naples. He is the author of Poison and Antidote, nine Bohemian tales of 1980s San Francisco, and four novels: Inbetween, Here Lies, San Salvi, and Fake Novel. Foust’s fiction, poetry, recordings, and essays have appeared in journals in Europe, Australia, Canada, and the U.S.A. You can download his audiobooks and performance recordings at bandcamp.com. William Taylor Jr. lives and writes in San Francisco. He is the author of numerous books of poetry, and a volume of fiction. His work has been published widely in literary journals, including Rattle, The New York Quarterly, and The Chiron Review. He was a recipient of the 2013 Kathy Acker Award, and edited Cocky Moon: Selected Poems of Jack Micheline (Zeitgeist Press, 2014). His new poetry collection, A Room Above a Convenience Store, is available Roadside Press. M.D. Wallace Is a Bay area transplant from the Midwest. A musician and seeker of creative endeavors. His poetry is an expression of observation. Retired bus driver and all-around good guy Jon Nelson says poet Joel Landmine’s work is “pretty good.” Both of Landmine’s collections are available from Punk Hostage Press. He lives in Oakland with his wife and cats. LEG 2: 5:30pm-6:30pm Venue: Graffiti Pizza Festival day is July 22, 2023 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. Where Should We Begin?We all need to start somewhere. The Starting Points open mic team is inviting writers of all stripes, whether you’re new to reading in public or you read out every week, to come and share your freshest work with us in 3-minutes-or-less at this open mic event. Meet, mingle, and trade chapbooks with other members of the community. We have a feeling this will be the start of a beautiful friendship. Ruth CrossmanRuth Crossman is a Pushcart-nominated writer from Berkeley, California. She is the author of the auto-fiction collection All the Wrong Places and is currently looking for a home for her debut novella, All My Friends Lie. Her work has appeared in publications including The Fabulist, Litro, Maximum Rock n Roll. You can find out more information about her at https://msruthcrossman.com/ Sara BielSara Biel is a poet, visual artist, and social worker. Her work combines original text with different art materials. She is passionate about collaborative art and performance processes and focuses on art as a community-building medium. Her debut poetry collection, Prescribed Burn, was published by Finishing Line in 2023. Elisa SalasinElisa Salasin is a writer/poet and educator living in Berkeley, California. Her writing and photography have appeared in a range of online publications including AMP/Always Electric, CounterPunch, sPARKLE & bLINK, and Digital Paper, the online magazine for the Bay Area Writing Project. Her debut poetry collection, She Watches Wild Horses, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2023. Keith GabouryKeith Mark Gaboury earned a M.F.A. in creative writing from Emerson College, a M.A. in English from San Francisco State University, and a B.A. in English from Baker University. His poems have appeared in such literary publications as Poetry Quarterly and New Millennium Writings along with chapbooks from Duck Lake Books, The Pedestrian Press, and Finishing Line Press. Keith lives in Oakland, California. Leg 1 (4pm -5pm) Venue: Feelmore Adult Feelmore is the keeper of secrets such as: insecurities, infidelities, and sexual expression. Our ground-floor location represents a twilight zone for unlikely encounters and friendships to crystallize and collisions to occur. Conceived and raised in the stomping grounds of Oakland, Feelmore is redefining the retail experience for the city, small business owners, and community residents. Keeping with our tradition, we aim to preserve and build upon the hometown feel Oakland is known for. At Feelmore, it’s about more than just sex — it’s personal! 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. Beast Crawl Literary Festival created the Reginald Lockett Memorial Open Mic to commemorate the life and contributions of poet Reginald Lockett. Reginald was a founding member of the Black Students Alliance at San Francisco State University. He would later return to teach creative writing there, as well as at City College of San Francisco, Laney College and College of Marin. He was a tenured instructor of Language Arts at San Jose City College for the last 20 years. A dedicated teacher, Mr. Lockett was best known as a poet. He was also the owner and publisher of Juke Box Press, which published many other poets and raised thousands of dollars for Hurricane Katrina victims with the publication of "Words upon the Water." Reginald was the author of "Where the Birds Sing Bass," which won a PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award in 1996, "Good Times & No Bread," "The Party Crashers of Paradise" and "Random History Lessons," published by Creative Arts Books in 2003. (Source) Leg 2 (5:30pm - 6:30pm) Venue: 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. MoonDrop Productions Presents Ode to OaklandMoonDrop 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 BoykinAsantewaa 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 CagneyJames 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 OliverAdrienne 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 DardenJeneé 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 NoChristine 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 FlesherHeather 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. The Throwback was a low-tech literary journal edited and distributed by Dan O’Connell. Several issues were put out in the early 2000s. It was re-born for Beast Crawl 2022, and still lives. This year we feature five stellar writers from Nick's Lounge.
Leg 1 (4pm -5pm) Venue: Binny's Cocktail Bar & Restaurant A celebration of the return to an intimate and community-based bar and dining experience. Binny’s presents a tailored menu of original and classic cocktails with shareable plates of uncomplicated, veritable bites. From the Art Deco-inspired interiors to the elegant U-shaped bar and cozy banquet seats, Binny’s invites you to have a laugh, enjoy the atmosphere and stay awhile. |
the Shoutiest ever beastly blog
Here is the place for all BCLF News, Current events, Partnerships, and Festival Info. Categories
All
Archives
April 2024
|