Pandemic Poetry: Poetry of social movements

In May, 2023, we hosted this amazing event in-person on the poetry of the pandemic.

We focussed on the social movements during the Pandemic and the poetry that it inspired. I’m sharing it a little bit later than

I expected to because we had some problems with the footage and had to make some creative edits to accommodate. It was the first event I hosted in-person since the pandemic began and since my maternity leave in Oct 2019!

I was the host by default because the original host and lead artist on the program, TONGO EISEN-MARTIN, could not be there in person so he hosted from zoom and we found a way to beam him in via projector and got creative with our hybrid capabilities. He curated the event with poets whose work he admired. We hosted the event at Medicine For Nightmares Bookstore. Before the pandemic and many moons ago, I used to curate and host a reading series there when it was Alley Cat Books called At the Inkwell SF.

I’m including the recording here in case you want to listen to it tonight when you make dinner, etc.

Lead Artist & Featured Poet:

Tongo Eisen-Martin is SF Poet Laureate and founder of Black Freighter Press. His poetry book, BLOOD ON THE FOG (City Lights Press) was named by the New York Times as one of the Best Books of 2021. Some of the first readings of those poems was at our original Dispatches from Quarantine event in February 2021.

Guest Poets:

Karla Brundage is a high school English teacher who hopes all her students will find and raise their voices.

Donté Clark, a poetic soul ‘nd child of the blues. 

Landon Smith (he/him) is a father, a professor, an introvert, and a Black Freighter poet.

DonJuan Carter-Woodard is a Activist, Teacher, Father & Poet who believes we are the Storytellers of our Generation 

Norman Antonio Zelaya is the author of two collections of short fiction, Orlando & Other Stories (Pochino 2017) and Gente, Folks (Black Freighter 2022), inspired by his Nicoya heritage and his lived experience as an SF native. 

There was also an open-mic at the end, where I read one of my poems written during the pandemic.

Over Labor Day weekend, I will be posting the latest batch of our accepted Dispatches submissions. Hope you have enjoyed this reading and the blog and that it made you realize that you are not alone.

Warmly,

Alexandra ❤

(Person who started this blog)

Alexandra Kostoulas

Founder & Executive Director

San Francisco Creative Writing Institute

San Francisco, California, USA