Photo by Lizzy Bentley
Poetry Center San José partners with Cinequest to present an extraordinary third year of Poets N Film night with support from Reed Magazine and Stabbydoll Media. The poet performers will bring on the stage poetry that challenges the heart and mind. Poets will dive into social and political warfare, skim the foamy cream of romance, and pluck the strings of a broken heart. The performances will involve dance, costume, projected visuals and live music with the unique sounds from the renowned local band Rebels Kamp. The eclectic performers include guest poet (California Poet Laureate) Dana Gioia, Kimy Martinez, Bill Cozzini, Robert Pesich, Venus Jones, SevenKelee Lucky 7 Boult, Claire Hawkins, Lane Berger, and (Santa Clara Poet Laureate) Mighty Mike McGee. The evening will continue with short poetry films by Blank Verse Films, David Perez with Content Magazine and Stabbydoll Media.
We are honored to have the internationally acclaimed and award-winning poet, Dana Gioia. Gioia just finished his tour of the fifty-eight counties in California not only bringing poetry to various communities but inspiring poetry out of the people of these communities. This former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts has a long history of securing funding and creating programs for the arts, artists, art educators and those in underserved communities. His most recent literary accomplishment is his publication of 99 Poems: New & Selected. Gioia will be introduced by the outstanding poet, professor, and Director of Creative Writing at San José State University, Alan Soldofsky.
Poetry Center San José is celebrating their 40th year nurturing and promoting diverse literary expression in the community as a means of exploring, defining and enriching the human experience. Immersed in the community they provide programming all over the city such as Live Lit Writers’ Open Mic at Caffe Frascati, Well-Red Reading Series at Works/San José, San José Poetry Slam at Cafe Stritch, and Third Thursdays at Willow Glen Public Library. Their workshops include VeteransWrite and Poets@Play. Poetry Center San José also publish an annual literary journal Caesura.
Bios of Performers:
Kimy Martinez (KMart) has her MFA degree in Poetry and Screenwriting at San Jose State University. She has been awarded multiple poetry/writing awards including the 2018 Virginia de Araujo Academy of American Poets Prize. Kimy converted one of her epic poems into a short screenplay and then created a short film. It played at 2016 Cinequest Film Festival. She has been published in Caesura 2018 Journal, REED Magazine 150th Issue and had served as their lead poetry editor in 2016-2017. She had been the art editor of the online e-zine, LitNImage. Kimy is the President and Co-Founder of Stabbydoll Media, an independent film company. She continues to write poetry and screenplays that deal with domestic disturbances, identity confusion, and being an outsider in conformed environment. kmartist.com stabbydoll.com
Bill Cozzini is a poet, editor, actor, and director. He studied Theater and graduated with a BA in English from SJSU. He’s on the board of Stabbydoll Media and Poetry Center San José. He is currently working as editor-in-chief of PCSJ’s literary journal Cæsura, and as a documentarian.
Robert Pesich is the editor and publisher of Swan Scythe Press (swanscythepress.com), president of Poetry Center San José (pcsj.org) and coordinator for The Well-RED Reading Series. Recently featured in Content Magazine his work has appeared in 7x7, The Bitter Oleander, Red Wheelbar- row, Sand Hill Review, Slipstream, and Arsenic Lobster among others. He has received poetry fellowships from Arts Council Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley Community Foundation and was thrice both a Djerassi Resident Artist Fellow and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Author of Burned Kilim (Dragonfly Press) his latest chapbook of poetry Model Organism is now available from Five Oaks Press. He works as a research associate for Palo Alto Veterans Institute for Re- search and for Stanford University, Dept. of Infectious Diseases.
Venus Jones is more than an author, actress, educator, and poet. She’s a social change agent waging peace through poetry. She writes and speaks about empowerment, diversity, and being true to yourself. As a writing coach and performer, she inspires individuals to rise to their highest potential. She has been compared to Maya Angelou and praised by Whoopi Goldberg and poet Nikki Gio- vanni. The Langston Hughes Family Museum even referred to Venus as, “Langston Hughes in the form of a black girl.” With an MFA in English and Creative Writing from Mills College, she’s a MALI Fellow and serves as a board member for Poetry Center San Jose. Visit venusjones.com.
Mighty Mike McGee is a funny stand-up poet from San José, California. He's performed his comedic storytelling and poetry in thousands of cities and towns for millions of ears throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe. McGee won all of the most coveted U.S. poetry slam titles and is one of the best known and liked people in the world of chatty writers. He was appointed Poet Laureate of Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley) for 2018 & 2019. He’s been featured on CBC, NPR and HBO multiple times and takes pride in making people laugh and cry from the stage.
SevanKelee Lucky 7 Boult is an established Bay Area poet and performance artist. Hailing from East Palo Alto, California, and writing since childhood, SevanKelee continuously redefines her poetry and performances. Her most recent artistic ventures involve the ukulele, spoken word, and video production. Her performances are said to be “amazing ... thought provoking ... and mesmerizing.” This multifaceted artist has graced such stages as Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, De Young Museum, and the Brava and Marsh Theaters in San Francisco, California. Her poem Cucumber has been seen on HBO Real Sex since 2000.
Claire Hawkins lives in San Francisco with too many sick and geriatric animals. She is current- ly compiling a book of illustrations that depict the uncomfortable side of the psyche.
Lane Berger is a writer, poet, and MFA graduate student at San José State University, where she also serves as the Marketing Director and Managing Editor of Reed Magazine. Lane has performed spoken word poetry at venues throughout Northern California, including the Davis collective, SickSpits, and LiveLit in San José. Lane’s writing has appeared in Inkblot and Reed.
Rebelskamp is a music group from San Jose, California with a unique sound that stems from improvisational musical creativity, incorporating elements of funk, psychedelic rock, and soul music into one brilliant and original cohesive blend. Rebelskamp has built an extensive legacy by performing at hundreds of live shows, in a variety of live venues, including festivals, art galleries, bars, nightclubs, and other live music events in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Rebelskamp has independently released three full-length studio albums, one of which was selected by Metro Magazine as one of the best albums of the Year. Jeremiah, Jesse, Justin Huelsenkamp, Phil Zigler, Juan Soria, Dan Gilardoni, and Kenny Bundy.
Mike Gioia- Blank Verse Films is a small film studio that adapts poems into short films. The "film studio" consists of a Toyota Camry crammed with film gear and a small editing suite in the corner of a garage. Blank Verse's mission is to further establish the genre of "poetry films" and bring quality poetry to a wider audience. They travel around greater California filming poets and places. You can find most of their films on their eponymous Youtube Channel. Mike Gioia founded Blank Verse Films in March 2018. Mike directs and edits most of the films with the help of a constantly revolving cast of friends and colleagues.
Stabbydoll Media is an independent film company that produces short, poetry, and full-feature dramatic films that change peoples’ lives. Its films have been featured at Cinequest and in inde- pendent showings in San José. Stabbydoll Media is currently producing a teleplay, The Executive Spa, a series about the people involved with a different sort of Silicon Valley start-up, a massage parlor. www.stabbydoll.com
David Perez served as the 2014-2016 Santa Clara County Poet Laureate and has produced video profiles for Content Magazine since 2017. He is a repeat guest on the NPR storytelling series, Snap Judgment and a recipient of the Arts Council Silicon Valley Fellowship for Literary Art. He is the author of "Love in a Time of Robot Apocalypse" from Write Bloody Publishing. David has taught creative writing at San Jose State University and literature at Ohlone College. He lives in San Jose, California.
Alan Soldofsky is the author of the poetry colleciton, In the Buddha Factory, from Truman State University Press. He is also co-editor with poet David Koehn of Compendium: A Collection of Thoughts on Prosody by Donald Justice. In addition he has published three chapbooks of poems: Kenora Station, Staying Home, and most recently a chapbook that includes a selection of poems by his son, the poet Adam Soldofsky, Holding Adam / My Father's Books. He has published po- ems widely in magazines and academic journals including: The Antioch Review, The Crab Or- chard Review, The Georgia Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Greensboro Review, Grand Street, The Michigan Quarterly Review, The Nation, The North American Review, and Poetry East. His poems have three times been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He has also contributed essays on modern and contemporary poets to a variety of journals. His articles, essays, inter- views, and book reviews have appeared widely in periodicals including Chelsea, Narrative, Po- etry Flash, Quarry West, and The Writer's Chronicle. He is a professor of English and Creative Writing at San Jose State University where he directs the MFA Program in Creative Writing.
Invasive Species: Alicia Parke and Kimy Martinez with special guest, Venus Jones
in·va·sive inˈvāsiv/ adjective
adjective: invasive 1 (especially of plants or a disease) tending to spread prolifically and undesirably or
harmfully. 2 (especially of an action or sensation) tending to intrude on a person's thoughts or
privacy i.e, "The sound of this poem is invasive!"
We hope to create change by making our audience uncomfortable. We hope to create an experi- ence that has a long lasting effect and becomes a pivotal point to ones change in the way of thinking and viewing life.
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