"Colossus: Home": Sarah Kobrinsky, D.L. Lang, Juanita J. Martin, Kim Shuck, Kimi Sugioka

11 APRIL 2021 — sunday

Poetry Flash presents a virtual poetry reading by Sarah Kobrinsky, D.L. Lang, Juanita J. Martin, Kim Shuck, and Kimi Sugioka, current and former poet laureate contributors to Colossus: Home; the anthology addresses the Bay Area housing crisis, online via Zoom, free, 3:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: please click here; you will receive an email with a link to join the reading)

Please join us for a Poetry Flash virtual reading on Sunday, April 11, at 3:00 pm PDT! We are pleased to bring you a Colossus: Home anthology reading via Zoom. To register for this reading, please click on the link in the calendar listing above. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Thank you for continuing to support Poetry Flash and our reading series during these unprecedented times.

Colossus: Home, An Anthology of Lives In & Out of Place, edited by Sara Biel and Karla Brundage, presents poetry on the San Francisco Bay Area's housing crisis. These poets, all contributors to the anthology, are current or former Poet Laureates from across the Bay Area. You can purchase this exciting anthology at www.colossuspress.org/buy.

MORE ABOUT THE READERS
Sarah Kobrinsky's recent book is Nighttime on the Other Side of Everything. Jill McDonough says, "In Nighttime on the Other Side of Everything, Sarah Kobrinsky opens with a brief meditation on the imposter syndrome that also speaks to where all poems come from, anyway. Elsewhere we read 'I make. I tinker. I create. An instinct born/of my blueprints, deep within my DNA.' But these poems also come from us, from knowing what people say about kids looking like the milkman, pranks like TP-ing houses and tying shoelaces together, a recognizable rhythm of punchlines." Born in Canada, raised in North Dakota, seasoned in England, and tempered in California, she was the Poet Laureate of Emeryville, California, 2013-2015.
D.L. Lang is the former Poet Laureate of Vallejo, California, 2017-2019. She is the author of twelve poetry books, most recently Paradise Collectors: A Book of Jewish Poetry and Armor Against the Dawn: Poetry of Protest, and one spoken word album. She can be found behind a mic throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and at poetryebook.com.
Juanita J. Martin is Fairfield, California's first Poet Laureate, 2010-2012. Her poetry book is The Lighthouse Beckons. Her poems have appeared in Blue Collar Review, SoMa Literary Review, Rattlesnake Review, and others; her nonfiction writing has appeared in Sonoma Discoveries Magazine. She was a longtime member of Redwood Writers, and is a current member of Napa Valley Writers, Benicia Writers Salon, Ina Coolbrith Circle, and Benicia First Tuesday Poets. When she isn't writing or volunteering, she reads on Vallejo Ozcat radio's ARTbeat. For more see www.jmartinpoetwriter.com.
Kim Shuck is San Francisco's seventh Poet Laureate, 2017-2020. Deer Trails, published by City Lights Books, is her most recent book. She is an Ani Yun Wiya (Cherokee)/Polish-American poet, author, weaver, and beadwork artist who draws from Southeastern Native American culture and tradition as well as contemporary urban Indian life. She is a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. She earned an M.F.A. in Textiles from San Francisco State University. She is the winner of the Diane Decorah First Book Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas and the Mary Tallmountain Award for Freedom Voices. She also received the Academy of American Poets National Laureate Fellowship and the Northern California Book Reviewers Groundbreaker Award.
Kimi Sugioka's newest poetry book is Wile & Wing. She is the current Poet Laureate of Alameda, California, 2020-2023. Anne Waldman said, "Kimi Sugioka is a poet with a lot of guises: maternal, witchy, passionate, detached observer…She moves through the female cycle confidently, poised, strong in her observance and power." Born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and raised in Berkeley, Kimi Sugioka is a poet, songwriter, and educator who performs her work frequently throughout the Bay Area. She has worked in public education for decades. She earned her BA from San Francisco State University and MFA from the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado.