“Poetry is the shadow cast by our streetlight imaginations.”
― Lawrence Ferlinghetti
**Photo credit of Lawrence Ferlinghetti is “Happy Birthday Lawrence Ferlinghetti” by Christopher.Michel is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Mimi Lok is the author of the story collection Last Of Her Name, published October 2019 by Kaya Press. She is the winner of the 2020 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for debut short story collection, a California Book Award silver medal, and a Smithsonian Ingenuity Award. She is also a finalist for the 2020 National Magazine Award, Northern California Book Award, and CLMP Firecracker Award. Mimi’s work can be found in McSweeney’s, Electric Literature, Lucky Peach, Hyphen, the South China Morning Post, and elsewhere. She is currently working on a novel. Mimi is also the founding director and executive editor of Voice of Witness, an award-winning human rights & oral history nonprofit that amplifies marginalized voices through a book series and a national education program. UK-born and raised, she has lived and worked in China and is currently based in the US.
When
Tue, March 2, 2021
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM PST
Where
Register on Eventbrite to access the Zoom invitation!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fiction-reading-with-mimi-lok-tickets-142303362187
days
hours minutes seconds
until
February 16, 2021
To the CCSF and Forum Community,
The English Department and the Creative Writing program at City College wish to extend our apologies to all of you who attended Alan Chazaro’s poetry reading on Thursday, February 11th. We felt honored to have Alan read for us since, in addition to being a talented poet, he attended community college and went on to write about growing up in the Bay Area as a Mexican American. Alan received the Lawrence Ferlinghetti Scholarship at the University of San Francisco because of his focus on and commitment to social justice issues in America, and it is clear he is someone that many of us can see ourselves in and that he is a truly inspirational man.
In fact, Alan represents much of what we stand for at City College—a commitment to social equity and diversity. We are proud of our tradition of presenting writers of all races, ethnicities, and gender identities. For this reason, the attack on the reading that occurred when a group of intruders disrupted and insulted the poet and viewers, represents an assault on our values. As you may know, the group took over the Zoom screen and projected racist and pornographic images while they verbally attacked all present in the chat. This was a hate filled act that has no place at any college, let alone City College. City College’s Visiting Writers’ Series is about inclusivity and about presenting diverse voices that will help students, faculty, and Bay Area residents build a supportive and inclusive community based on love and acceptance.
We wish to extend deep and heartfelt thanks to Alan Chazaro for the generous gift of his poems and much gratitude to our audience for their patience and support. It was amazing to hear students immediately reject the intruders’ hate and turn to highlighting the connections they could make to his life and poems. It was inspiring to hear many of you mentioning favorite passages.
We strongly condemn these racial attacks on our presenter and audience members. After reflecting on the intrusion, we have made the following changes to how our online Visiting Writers’ Series events will be managed:
· All participants will be muted throughout the events and will be individually unmuted if they have raised their hand during the Q and A.
· Participants will not be able to change their screen names during an event.
· Participants will not be able to screenshare.
· At least one faculty member will manage the waiting room and settings while another hosts the event.
· All faculty hosting or cohosting a reading will be trained to manage disruptions.
· Chat may be restricted to the host only and disabled entirely if abused.
· Removed participants will not be able to rejoin the event.
· Members of the public will be required to register for the event with their full name and email address before receiving the Zoom link and password.
· Participants without first and last names in their profile will not be allowed in the meeting.
· Any attendee who attempts to disrupt the event will be reported to Zoom and our IT department as well as CCSF administrators.
We hope that all of you—and anyone who attends any of the English Department’s future events—will feel safe knowing that we have put in place measures to ensure that such intrusion will never occur again. We are dedicated to bringing a diverse range of writers—writers of all races, gender identifications, and religions—who honor inclusivity and the power of literature to bring people together in the spirit of love—and never hate.
Sincerely,
CCSF Creative Writing Program and English Department
Lit Night is back! Have you been churning out poems and stories and essays that you are desperate to share ? Are you perhaps looking for inspiration and a regular meet up with fellow writers?
Next Lit Night fun is February 15th. The theme is HOPE.
Visit litnight.org for themes, dates and Zoom links!
Lit Night is every third Monday from 7:30-9:00PM
Come join the fun!
You will need
–A preying mantis rescued from a lawnmower
–Five ants rescued from a kitchen where
the balabosta was going to crush them.
–A wrapped piece of grocery cake
Hostess
or my new favorite that comes from Mexico
white cake covered in chocolate with some
spots of red jelly Gansito
–Your favorite pair of colored socks
–Your favorite pair of comfortable worn-out socks
–A book you’re been meaning to read
–Miscellaneous secret government files
–My mother Felice’s fountain pen with something
in her handwriting
–My father Eli’s thimble he used as a tailor
–One of my grandfather Wulf’s Hebrew Prayer Books
–Something my grandmother Rachel has sewn
–A short piece played on the piano by my
sister Ruth
–The smell of the beach of Riis Park on a
hot summer’s day
–A worn pair of my dance shoes
–The tights I started to knit and stopped at the
calf of the second leg and then forgot
how to knit altogether
–Photos of the local people who went to see
the last performance of Beach Blanket Babylon
closing after forty-five years including Nancy Pelosi, Diane Feinstein
and Dick Blum
–Some of the DNA from elephants, lions,
giraffes, feral cats
–Some bit of giant Redwoods and Sequoias
–The wisps of laughter, puzzlements,
revelations
of my now gone family and friends
(Add all of yours)
Whoosh them all together
in a beautiful canyon someplace in
New Mexico
where they will create
a whirling–like a soft tornado
up to the horizon
and out to cover the world
And surely this will save the
human species in 2020.
Helen Dannenberg writes with the Older Writers Lab. She takes various arts-related classes and featured her assemblages in Open Studios 2019. She participates with San Francisco Recreation and Parks Cosmic Elders and has been a dancer and choreographer, and worked as an Activity Director and Social Services Coordinator in skilled nursing facilities.
A San Francisco based artist, Teresa Beatty has spent the last few years honing her skills in printmaking and drawing. Her interests span from scientific illustration to art therapy. In pursuit of bettering her craft she’s traveled across the globe. She uses art as a tool for healing, expression and connection.
The absence of
Desire is sometimes
Called peace.
See flowers.
Smell them.
See birds.
Hear them.
Imagine their absence.
Who can deny life’s desire for more life?
The absence of desire is sometimes called peace,
But perhaps only by those too weary
To witness spring.
Jason Szdlik‘s poem This Morning can also be found on the Forum Blog.
Accessible Word Version_ Shy_Kayla_Wilton
Shy by Kayla Wilton
I received my English degree with a Spanish minor from CSU Stanislaus in Spring 2019, and I will complete my creative writing certificate at CCSF in Spring 2020. Writing is my passion, but I also dabble in drawing, painting, photography, and performance. My work has appeared in Penumbra Literary Magazine.
It’s Not A Saltshaker by Travis Yallup
Travis Yallup is a contemporary realist who lives and works in San Francisco. He has studied art at various colleges and universities over the past eleven years and has developed a preference for drawing and painting in a variety of mediums. His focus usually comes from life, photos, and collages and he often draws an inspiration from influences such as Andrew Wyeth and Vija Celmins.
light from overhead fixtures
reflects off of your hallowed surface
like distant low beams
cutting through fog
cold and unyielding
though supple in places,
your smooth skin covers familiar topography
in reds and oranges so fine
hiding the vulnerable flesh within
nightshade sepal
that you wear as a crown
does it remind you of the flower
which commenced your only season?
your scent is strongest
at the point where you jettisoned the connection
to the vine of your birth
leaving behind countless brothers and sisters
to find your destiny before my eyes
thank you.
Written By: Steven Louis Ray
Steven Louis Ray is a multidisciplinary artist working in traditional film and darkroom processes, in addition to writing and recording experimental music and writing poetry. He’s currently slogging his way to a creative writing certificate and studying printmaking at City College of San Francisco. More of his photography can be viewed at stevenlouisray.com
Art Title: The Little People in our Plants
Artist: Bianca Joy Catolos
Bianca Joy Catolos is a graphic designer based in the Bay Area with a passion for drawing and illustration. She illustrates to document memories, stories, and assets of life in a quirky, abstract and colorful way to share and commentate how she sees people and world. Bianca is a digital artist with a traditional background in painting and often mixes the two to create endless worlds and scenes to fuel the imagination.
We were shooting marbles with our older brother
Arnulfo kneeling on a patch of dirt
Front of a mud brown apartment building
Clink as one marble collides into another
He won a ruby glass Cleary
Shiny marbles, shiny joy in our eyes
As he was 27 and playing with us kids
My little brother Herbie and me
Written By: Rocio Ramirez
Rocio Ramirez is a Counselor who works with families. She has a Masters in Counseling Psychology and a Certificate in Expressive arts therapies. She has been a Presenter for IVAT, Center for the Prevention of Abuse and Trauma, in La Jolla. She has recently presented on the use of Sandplay therapy and Collage with Domestic violence survivors. She is currently writing a book on sandplay therapy and art therapy with disenfranchised populations. She is always happiest when she is next to the sea.
Art Title: Canid I
Artist: Teresa Beatty
San Francisco based artist, Teresa Beatty, has spent the last few years honing her skills in printmaking and drawing. Her interests span from scientific illustration to art therapy. In pursuit of bettering her craft she’s traveled across the globe. She uses art as a tool for healing, expression and connection.
Tense, blurry sight.
Status? Stagnant water
without the contemplation.
A deep-rooted
spinal itch,
trails like a trickle,
not cool,
not sweet,
up to my neck and down
to my tailbone.
Let me breathe myself
into the night air that drifts
and clings to my nose tip
ears, eyebrows, lips,
chest.
I want to melt
into the sticky pavement
because it sounds cool
and might smell like
woodsmoke,
carried on the rain.
But I am filled with string,
muffled and amassed like
cobwebs and candyfloss.
Tense-eyed, blurry sight and heated cheeks from stagnant
studying, still water but without the contemplation but instead a deep-
rooted spinal itch trailing like a trickle, not cool, not sweet, up to
my neck and down
to my tailbone.
Let me breathe
breathe myself into the night air that drifts so sweetly across, clings ever-so
slightly to my nose tip, ears, dry lips,
tongue, chest. And let me forget all the rest, that mass of muffled string filling
me so unproductively. Yes I know it’s me but how can I help myself when
I want to melt into the sticky pavement because it sounds cool and
might smell like woodsmoke floating on the rain. Bathe me in the white light that’s dulled
by the misted streets, let it seep into my pores and line my lungs so they fill.
I am filled with string, taught, but with too much of it, strung energy
with nowhere to project to.
Written By: Helen Halliwell
Originally from England, Helen is currently studying English Literature in the Bay Area, and hopes to one day move back to the UK to continue studying and pursue teaching. When not reading or writing, she tries to keep a keen eye out for things in people or nature to inspire her poetry, stories, and sketches.
Art Title: Canid IV
Artist: Teresa Beatty
San Francisco based artist, Teresa Beatty, has spent the last few years honing her skills in printmaking and drawing. Her interests span from scientific illustration to art therapy. In pursuit of bettering her craft she’s traveled across the globe. She uses art as a tool for healing, expression and connection.
