Power to the Poets: Uproar

Please join us on Thursday, July 9, 2020 at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern for POWER TO THE POETS: UPROAR!

Via FB Live: https://www.facebook.com/events/1869493649860368/?active_tab=about

Hosts:
Amos White & Aileen Cassinetto

Featuring:

JOSIAH LUIS ALDERETE
curates and hosts the Latinx reading series SPEAKING AXOLOTL in Oakland which happens every third Thursday of the month at Nomadic Press Studios. His frst book of poems, Baby Axolotls y Old Pochos, is forthcoming from Black Freighter Press.

BERNARD COLLINS
is a visual artist and faculty member at Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia. He is also a spoken word artist whose humorous style hearkens back to the “Toasting” traditions of African American culture seen in poems like the “Signifying Monkey” or “Shine.”

SHANELLE GABRIEL
Shanelle Gabriel has toured internationally and is known for both opening and featuring on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam alongside Jill Scott. She has also shared the stage with artists such as Talib Kweli, Nas, Dave Chapelle, and more. Shanelle was spotlighted on the Rachael Ray Show, and was named one of “8 Millennial Feminist Poets That Deserve Recognition” by BET.com and a “Powerful Indie Artist Activist You Should Know” by Blavity.com. She was selected to curate a series of poems for Fast Company Magazine’s 2019 European Innovation Festival at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy, and was the subject of a mini-documentary on the Lifetime Network regarding her battle with Lupus. She presently resides in Brooklyn. For links to her music & poetry and to learn more, visit www.shanellegabriel.com.

AMBITION THE POET HARPER
is a poet, workshop instructor, entrepreneur, and author of From the Tongue of a Foster Child. He lives in Sicklerville, New Jersey.

ANTONIO LOPEZ
is an East Palo Alto native and PhD student in Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford University. He holds degrees in African American Studies and Modern Middle Eastern Studies from Duke University and the University of Oxford. His debut collection, Gentefication, won the 2019 Four Way Books Levis Prize in Poetry, and is set to be published fall of 2021.

SHIKHA MALAVIYA
is the author of the internationally-acclaimed, Geography of Tongues, former Poet Laureate of San Ramon, co-founder of The (Great) Indian Poetry Collective, Sangam Arts Mosaic Fellow, TEDx speaker, and 2020 poetry judge of AWP’s Kurt Brown Prize. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and has appeared in PLUME, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. She currently lives in the San Francisco Bay area. https://shikhamalaviya.com

TUREEDA MIKELL
is a Story Medicine Woman, award winning poet and performance artist. She was a featured poet/storyteller at the National Association of Black Storytellers, Lawrence Hall and Golden Gate Academy of Sciences, Museum of the African Diaspora, Randall and Oakland Museums, The Black Panther’s 50th Anniversary, Octavia Butler’s 70th Birthday, Eth-Noh-Tec Nu Wa in Beijing, China, and at the de Young Museum’s Soul of a Nation. Her book, Synchronicity: The Oracle of Sun Medicine, was published by Nomadic Press in February 2020.

ALBERT MILLS
is the Poet Laureate of Delaware. He is a community-based social worker deeply rooted in the juvenile justice system. Mills has designed and led organizations that provide services for delinquent youth and their families. As a therapist, he serves New Castle County Delaware’s Multisystemic Therapy Services. Mills is a certified A.R.T. therapist, and takes pride in his efforts to utilize art as a tool for foundational change in youth, families, communities, and our society. A cofounder of G.O.A.L.S., and S.Y.A.-Tutoring and Mentoring Programs in Wilmington, Mills is also an honored army veteran who served in Iraq and speaks about his struggles with PTSD as a result of the war. https://arts.delaware.gov/poet-laureate/

ELIJAH PRINGLE III
is a Philadelphia poet, lyric baritone, composer, actor, and artivist. He is the author of At the Cornerstone, Feeding the Sparrow, and Second Saturday at Serenity, and has appeared on radio, TV & stage. He has been quoted in print in Newsweek, The New York Times, The Philadelphia Daily News, and others. He credits his true education to five generations of teachers.

OCTAVIO QUINTANILLA
is Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at Our Lady of the Lake University and former Poet Laureate of San Antonio, Texas. He is the author of the poetry collection, If I Go Missing. His poetry, fiction, translations, and photography have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Salamander, Poetry Northwest, RHINO, and elsewhere. His visual poems have been exhibited in several galleries, including Presa House Gallery, Equinox Gallery, and at the Southwest School of Art in San Antonio, TX. He holds a PhD from the University of North Texas and is the regional editor for Texas Books in Review and poetry editor for The Journal of Latina Critical Feminism & for Voices de la Luna: A Quarterly Literature & Arts Magazine. https://www.octavioquintanilla.com

GENTLE RAMIREZ
(THEY/THEM) is a trans non-binary poet from the Bronx. A 2020 Lyvo Fellow and recipient of The Oluwatoyin Salua Freedom Fighters Grant (2020), Gentle’s work has been featured in NYUnited, Bryant Park Poetry, West 10th, PoetNY, Write About Now Poetry, and more. Gentle is a BA candidate at New York University and most recently the author of their first book, Ultram (KDP 2018). https://www.gentleramirez.com

AMOS WHITE
The Founder and Chief Planter at 100K Trees for Humanity, Amos White is a Climate Mobilization Strategist, Coro Fellow in Public Affairs, author, poet, arts impresario, civil rights activist, father, and husband based in Alameda, California.

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POWER TO THE POETS is a live reading series curated by San Mateo County Poet Laureate Aileen Cassinetto. We’ll be broadcasting live on this event page. Video will appear as a post under the Discussion tab. The reading will be archived at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7ih0FYXei_j7pJk4hcfeg

Past events:

Power to the Poets: Poets of Color for Change, https://migozine.org/category/blacklivesmatter/

Power to the Poets: A Juneteenth Special, https://migozine.org/category/juneteenth-2/