CreativeWork by Michael Warr

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[michaelwarr-creativework]

From Thomas Robert Simpson (Founder & Director of AfroSolo):

I’m super excited about our next AfroSolo show this Mother’s Day weekend!

Hope In Our Hearts is a powerful collection of stories honoring the women who shaped us—our mothers, our guides, our foundation.

I’m proud to be sharing the stage with:

• Tony Dejon Cyprien, storyteller and performer (The Bus Ride)

• Michael Warr, poet and author (Black in San Francisco)

• Nikki Thomas, longtime 102.9 KBLX radio personality, making her Bay Area theater debut (Soul of the Bay)

Join us May 8–10 at Potrero Stage in San Francisco.

If you’re not in the Bay, you can still experience it via live stream.

Get on the list now and a link to tickets will be sent ASAP:

Would love to have you with us for this one.

[michaelwarr-creativework]

I will share 7 minutes of poetry as part of Jessica Presents Events poetry & music series, this Friday, April 3, at 7 PM, featuring poetry by Jessica Loos, Rene Vargas Zamora, Clara Hsu, Michael Warr, music by Will Rogers, plus sculpture and jewelry design drawings by Peter Macchiarini and Dan Macchiarini. It all happens at Macchiarini Creative Design (1544 Grant Ave.). Spread the word.

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Chun Yu and Michael Warr are featured online at the Alameda Island Poets reading series on Wednesday, February 4, 7-9 pm. We will share a few bilingual poems (English and Chinese) honoring Black History Month, and will be joined by youth poets Delilah Roller and Itzel Perez. The reading is hosted by Cathy Dana and Alameda Poet Laureate, Kimi Sugioka. Their "famously friendly" (online) open mic follows the featured reading. To sign up for the open mic, send an email to Cathy Dana at [email protected].

Join Zoom meeting for AIP reading:

Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting

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Meeting ID: 884 8489 3144

Passcode: poetry

[michaelwarr-creativework]

A few of my poetry projects have been awarded major grants from the San Francisco Arts Commission. I will share a couple of works in progress from at least one of those projects as part of my reading at the Potrero Hill Branch of the San Francisco Public Library next Tuesday, January 20, 4:30-5:30 pm. See https://bit.ly/49XCyxu for details.

From my project "Black in San Francisco," I will include a few family photographs that my parents shot using a Polaroid camera. In this project, I return to the location where my parents captured those images and create my own digital photograph. I will recite a few poems that I am writing in response to the original and contemporary photos.

This is the second reading in the Living Poets Society series, which was created and curated by San Francisco Poet Laureate Genevieve Lim. It is an intergenerational series, and I am joining Youth Poet Laureate Delilah Roller and Itzel Perez Alarcon. The event is cosponsored by Youth Speaks and 826 Valencia. Young, old, or in between, bring your poems for the open mic.

The copyrighted image in this post was taken by my father, Alcide Warr. We were at San Francisco's famous Playland, although it's hard to tell from the looks on our faces.

[michaelwarr-creativework]

Please spread the word...

[michaelwarr-creativework]

Power Lines 25th Anniversary Celebration

A 25th anniversary celebration with original contributors and editors of Power Lines: A Decade of Poetry from Chicago’s Guild Complex .

I will be in Chicago next week for two celebrations of the 25th Anniversary of Power Lines: A Decade of Poetry From Chicago's Guild Complex, an anthology released by Tia Chucha Press (https://www.tiachucha.org/) when it was still the publishing wing of the Guild Literary Complex. I served as the organization's Founding Executive Director from 1989 to 1999. We produced Power Lines to mark the Complex's first decade and my passing the torch. Please join us at both events. Here is the first:

Celebration I. Thursday, May 22, is co-sponsored by the Poetry Foundation & Poetry Magazine and the Guild Literary Complex. It happens at the Poetry Foundation and includes Power Lines' Editors: Julie Parson Nesbitt, Luis Javier Rodriguez, and me (https://michaelwarr-creativework.tumblr.com/). Andrea Change, poet and Executive Director of the Guild Literary Complex, will kick off the program with remarks and her poem in the anthology. The other featured poets are Ana Castillo, Angela Jackson, Reginald Gibbons, Haki Madhubuti, Simone Muench, Tyehimba Jess, Cin Salach, and Mark Turcotte.

[michaelwarr-creativework]

The first LitCrawl in Merced, CA, happens this Friday, May 9th, 2025. I will recite my poems with poets I've never shared the stage with  -- including Merced's first Poet Laureate Joyce Dale, California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick, and Patricia Ann Zamora. Yes, PAZ, the love of my life, who writes but does not make appearances. She grew up in Livingston, Merced County, and I grew up in San Francisco. We now live in both towns. Lots of firsts and connections this Friday.

Looking forward to hearing the entire lineup:  Angela Drew, Christina Lux, Mai-Linh Hong, Tanisha McClain, Orlando Taylor, Juan Luzuriaga, Marcy Poe Martinez, Vielka Solano, Shani Campbell, Necola Adams, Elizabeth McMunn-Tetangco, Sherre Vernon, and Robin Shepard. Thanks, Kim McMillon, for your curatorial powers. I may debut one of my in-progress SF/Valley poems.

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My poetry books can be ordered at: https://amzn.to/2YNTYb6

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Poetic tributes to Bob Kaufman kicked off days before his actual April 18 B-Day. Back in 2020, The Poetry Center, San Francisco State University, organized an epic digital celebration for Kaufman's 95th and the release of his Collected Poems. Thanks to the Poetry Center Digital Archives, we can relive the tribute. The nearly two-hour stellar line-up of poets and artists is worth watching in its entirety (my video/poem follows Kim Shuck's reading around 1:44:08). Here is the link: https://diva.sfsu.edu/collect.../poetrycenter/bundles/239355 (photo: A.D. Winans)

[michaelwarr-creativework]

This is a hub to some of my Lit Life. I don’t post all things poetry on all my profile because not all my friends are poetry addicts. For those who are I post poetry happenings periodically at Poetry, Etc. The Armageddon of Funk by Michael Warr. For links to my various projects, appearances, and consulting, see https://michaelwarr-creativework.tumblr.com/.  For updates on the struggle against unjust police killings: Of Poetry & Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin published by W.W. Norton and my serial poem "What Not To Do (an unfinished poem)" which resides at https://obsidianlit.org/project/michael-warr/. My websites include https://tracingmemory.feltzine.us/ (in porogfress) and for Chinese translations of my poems by poet/translator Chun Yu and our bilingual collaboration: https://twolanguagesonecommunity.com/.  To find all my books in one place see Amazon: https://amzn.to/2YNTYb6.  I barely pay attention to: Twitter: @warrzone, @ofpoetryprotest, anymore and post mostly appearances on Instagram: @warrzoneinstant,  and sometimes TikTok. Just starting to pay attention to Bluesky:  https://bsky.app/profile/michael-warr.bsky.social . Many tentacles -- get it?

[michaelwarr-creativework]

I hope to see you at the Mechanics' Institute this Thursday, April 17, 2024. It will be a unique night that includes bilingual poems and pairs a few poets who have never read together. Our books will be available. If you cannot make it, invite your poetry-addicted friends.

[michaelwarr-creativework]

What a surprise to look up from signing a book at the Red Hen Press table at AWP 2025 and see Jen Morea's bright smile with her new and first book, "The Hyacinth Letter," in her hands. It is a beautiful debut collection. Get your copy today. And no, I did not coordinate my red POET badge to match the red "Protest" on the cover of my book, "Of Poetry & Protest."

[michaelwarr-creativework]

Beyond Translation Panel @ AWP 2025

Our panel description: A community workshop for African American and Chinese writers. An exchange between two bilingual poets, one American and one Uruguayan-born, who translate and respond to one another’s poems with more poems. A collaboration between a French professor and a creative writer based on prison letters written by a female Resistance fighter. We describe our experiences, projects, and processes in creating our own new work and teaching others to create new work.

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Michael Warr Book Signing @ Red Hen Press Booth AWP 2025

I will be signing all my Tia Chucha Press titles and the anthology Of Poetry & Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin at the Red Hen Press booth #345 at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) conference on Saturday, March 29, 11 -12 pm at the Los Angeles Convention Center, West Hall. Level Two. Please urge your writer friends to stop by the booth.

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Two Languages / One Community @ AWP

Chun Yu and Michael Warr (me) have a few events at the 2025 AWP (Associated Writers & Writing Program) conference in Los Angeles this week. We caught a moment on the exhibit floor with globe-trotting poet sensation Matt Sedillo. Stop by the following appearances if you are at AWP. Feel free to share this post with your friends.

FRIDAY MARCH 28

-- Two Languages / One Community reading in Chinese and English at "Beyond Translation: Two Writers, Two Languages." with Mary Hawley, S.L. Wisenberg, Chun Yu, Michael Warr, 12:10 PM - 1:25 PM PDT, Room 407, Level Two, Los Angeles Convention Center, West Hall

-- Michael Warr appears with other poets at the Red Hen Press 30th Anniversary Party with The Good Life Review and Tia Chucha Press, 6 PM-9 PM, at Top of the Hub, 700 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 700, Los Angeles, CA

SATURDAY MARCH 29

-- Michael Warr signs books at the Red Hen Press booth #345, Los Angeles Convention Center, West Hall. Level Two

[michaelwarr-creativework]

Happy Lantern Festival and Happy First Full Moon! This Saturday please come to celebrate Chinese New Year and Black History Month with Two Languages / One Community and Clarion Performing Arts Center! It will also be the day of the Chinese New Year's Parade!

Time & Location

Feb 15, 2025, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Clarion Performing Arts Center, 2 Waverly Pl, San Francisco, CA 94108, USA

Open mic before and after the featured poets. Sign up at 1 pm.

[michaelwarr-creativework]

This Is More Than A Wall

Last Monday (9/11/24), on Indigenous Peoples' Day, a marathon poetry gathering in support of the Palestinian people happened at Bird & Beckett Books. The poets delivered passion, knowledge, emotion, and truth. The array of voices was moving and compelling. I encourage you to listen to them all. I recited my poem "This is More Than A Wall" in the fourth hour, which begins around 4:40:00 in this video stream. I preceded my poem by saying, "I am not against any people. I am against all genocide."

My poem "This is More Than a Wall" was written in response to the "Arab Liberation Mural" as part of "Wall + Response " -- a series featuring poets and visual artists responding to four murals, organized by the Clarion Alley Mural Project. The mural includes a translation of the iconic Tunisian poem “The Will to Live.” See the mural at https://bit.ly/4chU9Qk See the entire program at https://www.youtube.com/live/uzkY_eoOzqs