In Collaboration with Jennifer Hasegawa and David Pang of TeaRoots Magazine

Come listen to and meet local poets and then some speaking their minds about Barbie and her mission to the backdrop of Alt Musica and MC Michael Capozzola.

Poems from this Year's Readers

With the Greatest of Ease
Shosy G

Send in the Barbies
Elie Waltz

Dancing to the Beat
Reflection
Aqueila M. Lewis

All Poets for 2014

Eike Waltz

I enjoyed a twofold career as ballet dancer in my native Germany and as a US based international engineering designer and international electronics industry consultant. Between these careers, I studied fine art and industrial design at the Royal College of Art in London. In my sculpture of the last decade, I bring a designers edge to the balletic flow of the metal, resin, bronze and fiberglass. I am great admirer of Jean Cocteau met with him (so in a dream) when I was 20 years of age where he confronted me with the importance of “the line”, at the same time when I (then a ballet dancer at the Deutsche Oper Berlin) was told by a family member of Stefan Zweig (the writer) to pursue the meaning of “to say” (say it outside the box – say it differently-say it with passion). I received a MdesRCA (Master of design, Royal College of Art, London) and became a US citizen in 1997.

Nicole Stefanko-Fuentes

A wonderful poet - one of the greatest poetic voices I've encountered

Dennis J Bernstein

Investigative reporter and poet

Ginger Adair

Via Skype. This is a new venture for me; one which I am so excited to be a part of! While I love to write, poetry is not my usual art. My primary medium is multi-media sculpture.

This year’s theme “Barbie’s on a Mission” fit perfectly into the unexpected events of my life, during this past year. I am thrilled to have a venue to voice a tiny bit of my experience with breast cancer.

I realize my poem only skims the surface of my personal and on-going experience with breast cancer. I rely heavily on humor to get through each day. My treatment plan, as with most who have the disease, is long and literally changes or touches every single area of my life and the lives of those close to me. You are forced to reprioritize everything. You are exhausted and often depressed. You move forward without knowing whether your choices are the “right” ones. You sometimes feel very alone and often angry. If you’re lucky, you are surrounded by those who will and do love you, regardless of any of your physical attributes. You learn to love yourself in spite of, and despite of, what breast cancer robs you of. 

It is my hope that my Barbie’s Mission to Eradicate Breast Cancer will serve to encourage all women to get regular mammograms, at the very least. At it’s best, I hope all women and men will step-up and embrace those of us fighting the disease by supporting us in our many choices, helping us get through our individual treatments, and by donating funding to further research regarding a cure for breast cancer. 

Ginger is the mother of two young men, London & Maxximo; she is happily married to Richard Cox, a rocket scientist (and an artist in his own right); she is an attorney, born in Oklahoma, schooled in Colorado. She and Rick plan to move to the Northwest US, once she completes her breast cancer treatment.

Kristina Wong

Via youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozCcIVc5b5s

Kristina Wong is a solo performer, writer and cultural commentator named “One of the Seven Funniest Eco-Comedians” by Mother Nature Network. She’s created five solo shows and one ensemble play that have toured all over the world at places that include the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, Contact Theater in Manchester, UK, BGWMC in London, the Public Theater, REDCAT, Center Theater Group, La MaMa ETC,  the Comedy Central Stage among dozens of others.  Her most notable touring show– “Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” looked at the high rates of depression and suicide among Asian American women and toured to over 40 venues since 2006. It’s now a broadcast quality film that has been acquired for worldwide distribution by documentary juggernaut,Cinema Libre Studios. (More on the film at www.flyingwong.com).  She’s been a commentator for American Public Media’s Marketplace, PBS, Jezebel, xoJane, Playgirl Magazine and a guest on FXX’s “Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell,” Al Jazeera’s “The Stream” and Huffington Post Live. Her work has been awarded with grants from Creative Capital, The Map Fund, Center for Cultural Innovation, the Durfee Foundation, National Performance Network, four grants from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and a residency from the MacDowell Colony.  Kristina has been invited twice to give the graduation speech at UCLA.   Her new show “The Wong Street Journal” looks at global poverty and premieres in 2015.  She recently spent a month in Northern Uganda researching that show and recording “Mzungu Price” a rap album with local rappers. Her mail order bride website is www.bigbadchinesemama.com.

Jenny Bitner

Jenny Bitner's fiction has been published in Mississippi Review, The Sun, Fence and PANK. Her story “The Pamphleteer” was selected by Dave Eggers for The Best American Nonrequired Reading and incorporated into an opera by The Paul Bailey Ensemble. Her nonfiction has appeared in Utne Reader,To-Do List, The San Francisco Bay Guardian and Men’s Health. She organized Irrational Exuberance, a cross-genre performance series, and The Basement Reading Series. Pine Press published her poetry chapbook Mother. She has finished a novel, Here Is a Game We Can Play. She was a Hoyns Fellow in creative writing at the University of Virginia. Find links to her work at jennyart.com.

Sarah Anne Cox

Sarah Anne Cox is the author of Arrival (Krupsaya 2002) and Parcel (O Books 2006) Super Undone Blue is forthcoming from Dusie Press in 2015.   She is currently editing an anthology with Elizabeth Treadwell titled Manifesting the Female Epic. She lives in San Francisco where she teaches, windsurfs, snowboards, and cares for her two children.

Aqueila M. Lewis

7:30pm performance only.  

Bay Area Native and resident of Oakland, CA, Aqueila M. Lewis has been writing poetry since she was in high school. As a multi-talented artist, she is well-versed in composing, singing, modeling, poetry/spoken word, journalism (print and radio) and more. Aqueila is a graduate of Napa Valley College and UC Berkeley.  For ten years, Aqueila served as Entertainment Chair for the annual Empowering Women of Color Conference (EWOCC) at UC Berkeley. Aqueila’s work has been published in numerous magazines, newspapers, KPFA 94.1 FM Radio’s First Voice Media Apprenticeship Program and Full Circle Show, National Radio Project Making Contact Storytelling Fellowship, Sistah’s With Ink Voices anthology, Reflections: A Collaboration Between Painting And Literature and Til Death Do Us Part All Lady Warrior Zine. Aqueila is the Assistant Director and Co-Host of the Spoken Worlds Pavilion at the Los Angeles Black Book Expo (LABBX). She is currently creating children’s books focused on issues in relation to social justice and community. She has been a plus-model for the last four years, has experience in print modeling and on runway shows. She currently holds the title as Ms. Oakland Plus America 2014.

Noah Shusett

Lives upstairs, is currently at work, is in love and is also curious why J-Ha won’t meet him for coffee.