Oakland Poet: Vanessa Huang
Blog entry by Oscar Bermeo.
Last updated at Mon, 7 Jun at 6:34pm.

Vanessa Huang is a poet, writer, filmmaker, cellist, and community organizer whose practice feeds the resilience and embodiment of people, campaigns, and movement building from the margins. Vanessa's work draws on a history of collaboration across the anti-prison, gender liberation, immigrant rights, and anti-violence movements.

Read the whole story...

Oakland Poet: Meg Day
Blog entry by Oscar Bermeo.
Last updated at Wed, 2 Jun at 11:53pm.

Meg Day is a nationally awarded spoken word artist, published poet and badass arts educator who hails from San Diego but is currently writing and performing throughout Oakland, and teaching young poets to hold their own at the mic with Youth Speaks in San Francisco. She currently runs weekly poetry and performance workshops at ARISE High School in the Fruitvale and teaches 10th grade language arts in East Oakland on the weekends and during the summer through Upward Bound.

Read the whole story...

Oakland Poet: Darlene C Alvarez
Article by Kwan Booth.
Last updated at Tue, 23 Mar at 2:05pm.

 Darlene C Alvarez moved to Oakland from San Francisco over twenty years ago and lived all around Oakland before  making her home in the Lake Merritt area with her husband and two daughters. 

Read the whole story...

Oakland Poet: James Cagney
Article by Kwan Booth.
Last updated at Wed, 10 Mar at 8:11am.

While at first it might be easy to confuse this poet's name with his famous cinema counterpart, but after reading James Cagney's work, the distinct passion of his subject matter and rhythm of his cadences

Read the whole story...

Be my valentine: Love poems from Oakland writers
Article by Kwan Booth.
Last updated at Sun, 14 Feb at 10:28am.

If there's anytime of year where poets get their due it's undoubtedly the Valentine's season. For years we've turned to our wordsmiths to help articulate the tricky feelings and emotion coursing through us when we meet that special someone. So to kick off your Valentine's Day weekend we asked some of our Oakland Local writers, many who are also talented poets, to submit poems that explore poems that explore love from several angles. 

Read the whole story...

Oakland Poet: Barbara Jane Reyes investigates the city through poetry
Article by Kwan Booth.
Last updated at Fri, 5 Feb at 10:14pm.

Barbara Jane Reyes has spent the last 10 years in Oakland slowly uncovering the city's mysteries. As I continue making my home in this city," she says "poetry helps me slowly feed my growing roots here.

Read the whole story...

Oscar Bermeo poetry spin rich tales of urban living.

Article by Kwan Booth.
Last updated at Mon, 25 Jan at 11:30am.

Born in Ecuador and raised in the Bronx, Oakland poet Oscar Bermeo has been spending a fair amount of time discovery his new city and being inspired by The Town's rich narrative.

“Oakland is full of stories" he says. "Everywhere I turn there are people sharing out their lives in rich descriptive language that is just waiting to get documented. Sometimes, they share it out with me and when I tell them I’m a writer they are more than happy to let me have creative license with their life stories."

Read the whole story...

Kenji Liu explores place, history through poetry
Article by Kwan Booth.
Last updated at Mon, 18 Jan at 5:19pm.

Oakland poet Kenji Liu is a 1.5 generation Japanese-born Taiwanese American expatriate of New Jersey suburbia. His writing arises from his work as an activist, educator and cultural worker.

"When I first moved to California and landed in Oakland," he says, "it took about eight years to start feeling at home here," he said.

Read the whole story...