The Southern California Poetry Festival is an annual celebration of the art of poetry and the diversity of voices within Southern California. All programs and workshops are free.

The festival kicks off with a landmark event: the official renaming of Beyond Baroque’s theater after groundbreaking poet, L.A. literary icon, and Beyond Baroque alumna Wanda Coleman. In celebration of the new Wanda Coleman Theater, the evening will feature a ceremony and reception, performances by Terrance Hayes and Mimi Tempestt, and readings of Coleman’s poems by Pam Ward, Luis J. Rodriguez, Sesshu Foster, and Laurel Ann Bogen. This November would have been Wanda’s 77th birthday, and marks the 10th anniversary of her passing. Please join us in celebrating her legacy in the theater which she called home throughout her career as a poet.

On Saturday, November 18, we’ll feature generative workshops on the craft of poetry and present emerging voices of the SoCal Literary scene curated by Huizache, World Stage Press, Lambda Literary, Air/Light and more. Iranian-American poets Frieda Afary, Majid Naficy, and Sheida Mohamadi, in partnership with PEN America, will read poetry in translation from Iran celebrating the Woman Life Freedom Movement. Poets Juan Felipe Herrera, Safia Elhillo, & Marcelo Hernandez Castillo will read new work commissioned by Beyond Baroque as part of the NEW Series.

Sunday, November 19, features workshops by Amanda Ackerman and William Archila; readings curated by Graywolf Press, the Tuesday Night Project, and the Inlandia Institute; and a bilingual reading and conversation with three dynamic Latinx poets featured in Donde Somos Humanos/Somewhere We Are Human Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings, moderated by the anthology editor, Sonia Guiñasca. A reading and conversation curated by Diane Ward explores the influence of Language Poetry and other experimental poetics. The festival will conclude with a powerful set of readings by Sally Wen Mao, Muriel Leung, and others.

About the Festival
The Southern California Poetry Festival was founded in 2016 by Sonia Greenfield and Donna Hilbert in partnership with the Poetry Foundation. The festival moved permanently to Los Angeles’ historic home for poetry, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, in 2018. Beyond Baroque now organizes and curates the festival with the support of several partner organizations. The 2023 festival is funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles.

Friday, November 17, 2023

7:00 pm - Wicked Ceremony: Celebrating Wanda, Inaugurating The Wanda Coleman Theater
The 2023 Southern California Poetry Festival opens with a reading and discussion celebrating one of Los Angeles' most iconic poets, Wanda Coleman, and marks the official renaming of Beyond Baroque’s theater after Coleman. The evening will feature tribute readings from L.A. authors Sesshu Foster, Luis J. Rodriguez, Laurel Ann Bogen, and Pam Ward. Acclaimed authors Mimi Tempestt and Terrance Hayes will read from their collections inspired by Wanda’s poetics followed by a book signing. The night concludes with a reception in the poets' garden and DJ Set by F. Douglas Brown.

11:00 am - 1:00 pm – Workshop with Mimi Tempestt : Writing with the Noise
Utilizing meditation, music, and improvisation to enhance your writing practices. A jazz habit. An emcee’s tool. A poetic practice. This is a writing intensive dedicated to holding the noise of the mind. Through embracing our intellectual freak flags, this workshop allows us to gain access to methods that capture the frenetic whisperings which are natural to our consciousness. We’ll attempt to remove the blockages from our path to paint freely on the page. Talking with all the characters our soul inhabits; a free-fall into Wonderland. This is the absorption of chaos on canvas. This is an eclipse of spirit. This is an attempt to break reality and exist solely through phantasmagoria. THIS ISN’T REAL. This is a structured mind experiment on how to channel your mess into mode and medium. We’ll build from contemporary Jazz artist, Kamasi Washington’s The Epic, to explore the ideas of free-range, bigness, alternative use of voice(s), and rhythmic over standings. This is an exclusive workshop. Shy/Polite writers aren’t invited. Those wishing to develop their attitudes on the page, pissing on persona (punks, mavericks and radicals alike) ARE HAPPILY WELCOMED.

11:00 am - 1:00 pm – A Workshop with Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
A generative poetry workshop with Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, author of Children of the Land: a Memoir; Cenzontle, and Dulce. He is a founding member of the Undocupoets, which eliminated citizenship requirements from all major poetry book prizes in the U.S, and was recognized with the Barnes and Noble Writers for Writers award.

1:00 pm - 3:00 pm – SoCal Lit Showcase: Huizache, World Stage Press, Air/Light
A showcase of independent presses, organizations, and literary journals publishing and supporting poetry in Southern California.

Huizache
Elda María Roman
Manuel Paul López
Mirlanda Robles

World Stage Press
Pam Ward
Benin Lemus
Ron L. Dowell

Air / Light
Marci Vogel
Michelle Bitting
Andrew Navarro

3:30 - 4:30 pm: Queer & Trans Poetics
Poets féi hernandez, Jennifer Espinoza, Chekwube Danladi, & Charles Jensen read from their newest collections, celebrating queer & trans voices in SoCal. Presented in partnership with Lambda Literary, the largest arts organization dedicated to amplifying LGBTQIA+ poets across the U.S.

5:00 - 6:30 pm: Iranian Poetry in Translation of the Woman Life Freedom Movement
In partnership with PEN America, Translation Committee co-chair Frieda Afary reads poetry in translation with Sheida Mohamadi, Majid Naficy, and other poets involved in the Woman Life Freedom Movement of Iran.

7:00 - 8:00 pm: NEW Series: Juan Felipe Herrera, Safia Elhillo, & Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
Former U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera is joined by Safia Elhilo & Marcelo Hernandez Castillo for the NEW series, presenting commissioned works by Beyond Baroque on the theme The Human Touch.

11:00 am - 1:00 pm – Let Your Words Be Plants: Plant Poetics & Ecotones: A Workshop with Amanda Ackerman

“The medium becomes subject and the subject becomes medium...”
“To act and be acted upon are formally indistinguishable…”
- Emanuele Coccia, The Life of Plants: A Metaphysics of Mixture

What poetics emerge when we can affirm that we are not single selves? What poetic forms emerge, decompose, and recompose, when we can affirm that knowledge is not a single-subject point of view, but instead emergent and composite: formed from entanglements of organismic becoming and mutualism? In this workshop, we will hone practices for engaging plant intelligence and communication, foregrounding that everything is already communicating in embodied, creaturely ways. Everything is transmissible, as life translates itself. We will gather in the Beyond Baroque garden to work directly with the plants and flowers. We will also work with herbs and plant essences that can facilitate greater opening into interrelated language practices and awareness.

11:00 am - 1:00 pm – Sonic Boom; the Pleasure of Writing Sound in Poetry: A Workshop with William Archila
In this workshop we will attempt to write a poem conscious of its sounds. We will look at John Berryman’s The Dream Songs for their musical notes of the language and follow them with other poet selections on how they manipulate sounds. We will then write our own noise and make it sound for meaning and pleasure. Participants will be encouraged to share their new creations.

1:00 pm - 2:15 pm – Donde Somos Humanos / Somewhere we are Human
Una lectura de poesía bilingüe celebrando las voces de poetas indocumentades, immigrantes, y Latines / A bilingual poetry reading celebrating the voices of undocumented, immigrant, and Latinx poets. Featuring Alexa Vasquez, Sól Casique, Francisco Aviles Pino, & Sonia Guiñasca.

2:30 - 4:30 pm: Southern California Literary Showcase: Tuesday Night Project, Graywolf Press, Inlandia Institute
A showcase of independent presses, organizations, and literary journals publishing and supporting poetry in Southern California.

Graywolf Press
Dana Gioia
Katie Ford

Tuesday Night Project
Faith Santilla
Taz Ahmed
Naiya Choi Kim

Inlandia Institute
Cati Porter
Alexandra Martinez
Angelica Maria Barraza Tran

5:00 - 6:30 pm: After Language: A Reading & Discussion
A reading & conversation exploring Language Poetry, its influence, and other adjacent avant-garde poetics. Featuring Will Alexander, Michael Davidson, Danny Snelson, Diane Ward, and others.

7:00 - 8:00 pm: Sally Wen Mao, Muriel Leung, F. Douglas Brown, Truong Tran & Rachelle Cruz
The 2023 Southern California Poetry Festival closes with a powerhouse lineup featuring poets from Los Angeles and across the U.S.
Sally Wen Mao, Muriel Leung, F. Douglas Brown, Truong Tran & Rachelle Cruz.