Hello Cantab poets! We had a very chill “calm before the storm” show this past Wednesday, as many people in our community were preparing for the 2024 Northbeast Regional Poetry Slam and Festival. Everyone who wanted to read got to read, and we heard great stuff from first-time readers Portia and Sophie, as well as the return of long-time veterans Ed Wilkinson and ‘Nuff Said.
The ✏️Line of the Wednesday✏️ is from Michael M, with “There are days I don’t count as days because what I thought was dawn was dusk.”
We also had a silent auction running throughout the night, with some great prizes like Myles’ “Masculinity Parable Tour” leather jacket, staff books bundles, mystery chapbooks, the ability to commission a poem from staff members, and one-on-one coaching sessions with Zeke Russell. I hope the winners all enjoy what they won, and thank you for helping fund Northbeast!
Tonight, we have the long-awaited/postponed feature from Tongo Eisen-Martin, the poet laurate of San Francisco!
Tongo Eisen-Martin was born in San Francisco and earned his MA at Columbia University. He is the author of someone’s dead already (Bootstrap Press, 2015), nominated for a California Book Award; and Heaven Is All Goodbyes (City Lights, 2017), which received a 2018 American Book Award, a 2018 California Book Award, was named a 2018 National California Booksellers Association Poetry Book of the Year, and was shortlisted for the 2018 Griffin International Poetry Prize. Eisen-Martin is also an educator and organizer whose work centers on issues of mass incarceration, extrajudicial killings of Black people, and human rights. He has taught at detention centers around the country and at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University. He lives in San Francisco.
See you there!
– MFG 🚪
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