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Berkeley Poetry Festival 2026
We are so honored to offer the community a week of FREE poetry events.
16 March—7pm—Monday: Poems as Portals Virtual Workshop—Zoom—FULL
17 March—7PM—Tuesday: Rooted & Written—Zoom—
Come gather with us for an evening of poems that honor where we come from, question where we’re headed, and remind us that writing—like root, hosted by Rowena Leong Singer, Readers: Angel Bista, Ashia S. Ajani, Kevin Madrigal Galindo, Sabina Khan-Ibarra & Zara Jamshed.
More info & RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1980166922570?aff=oddtdtcreator
18 March—6:30-8pm—Wednesday: Open Mic with Nazelah Jamison with readings by darius simpson and Wendy M. Thompson—Pegasus Books, Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley.
19 March—7PM—Thursday: A Celebration of Queer Poetics—La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley.
CQP is migrating space embracing radical tenderness to celebrate a queer poetics with poets Juju Martinez, Maria Esquinca, Maribel Martínez, Melí Gómez, Michelle Ngô, Zander Moreno Lozano & performance by Corazón de Cedro Duet Evelyn Donají & Camellia Boutros, emceed by Lourdes Figueroa.
More info & RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1981274259645?aff=oddtdtcreator
20 March—6:30PM—Friday: SF Write Now: Life into Action/Action into Words—2727 California Street, Berkeley—
SF Write Now is a community reading series, created to hold space for poets across generations and styles—poetry that listens as much as it speaks. Readings by Shizue Seigel, Christl Rikka Perkins, and Andre Le Mont Wilson, hosted by Esperanza Cabrales.
More info & RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1981806247836?aff=oddtdtcreator
21 March—Saturday: Whispers from the Body: In person Workshop—1:30-2:30pm—Berkeley Public Library West Branch, 1125 University Avenue—A somatic writing and movement workshop: we will begin to access sudden pleasures, unexpected strength, hidden stresses and enduring scars that inhabit the body and our memories. Come wearing comfortable clothes and bring a pen and notebook. Led by Sharon Coleman.
Sign up: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1982242691250?aff=oddtdtcreator
21 March—Saturday: Creative PLAYshop Dance & Poetry—6pm—Berkeley Ballet Theater, 1370 Tenth Street, Berkeley.
Weaving sound and poetry that explores themes of healing, Jordon Ellis Dabney and Dazaun Soleyn create an immersive experience that begins with dance, music, words, followed by a dynamic workshop weaving sound and poetry that explores themes of healing. Open to all experience levels.
More info & RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1982741579438?aff=oddtdtcreator
22 March—3pm—Sunday: Lifetime Achievement Award Ceremony: Honoring devorah major and with readers Joyce E. Young and Leticia Hernández Linares—First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley.
The Berkeley Poetry Festival is honored to celebrate devorah major recipient of the 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award—a poet whose work has shaped revolutionary poetics, feminist thought, and cultural memory for decades.
devorah major’s writing insists on presence. It refuses erasure. Across poetry, essays, performance, and community work, she has traced the living intersections of race, gender, history, and imagination. Her voice has long been a compass for writers committed not just to craft, but to truth-telling, survival, and collective futures.
More info & RSVP: www.eventbrite.com/e/1982324268249?aff=oddtdtcreator