Beyond Baroque to host festival November 18-20
In partnership with the Poetry Foundation, Venice’s Beyond Baroque celebrates will celebrate Southern California poetry with a free, three-day festival later this month.
The Southern California Poetry Festival will take place from November 18-20 at Beyond Baroque, located at 681 Venice Boulevard. The event is described as “an annual celebration of the art of poetry and the diversity of voices within Southern California.” Founded in 2016 by Sonia Greenfield and Donna Hilbert in partnership with the Poetry Foundation, the festival moved permanently to Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center in 2018. Beyond Baroque now organizes and curates the festival with the Poetry Foundation’s support.
The event will kick off on Friday November 18 is a p.m. opening reception. Then at 8 p.m. there will be an 8 p.m. reading and discussion celebrating one of Los Angeles’ most iconic poets, Sesshu Foster. Foster will read alongside poets Amy Uyematsu and Angel Dominguez, and writer Carribean Fragoza. This will be followed by a discussion focused on Foster’s work, its poetics of place, and its grounding in Foster’s East Los Angeles community will follow, moderated by Kaya Press Managing Editor Neelanjana Banerjee.
Saturday features a full lineup of workshops, panels readings. These include an 11 a.m. workshop with Errant Press: “Other zines and so” and a 6:30 p.m. reading by Pulitzer Prize finalist Mai Der Vang, National Poetry Series winner Jos Charles and acclaimed poet Kazim Ali.
Sunday also features a packed itinerary and will close with a 6:30 p.m. reading by the poet laureate of Los Angeles, Lynne Thompson, and the poet laureate of San Francisco, Tongo Eisen-Martin. The will be joined by three of the most dynamic poets in Los Angeles: Shonda Buchanan, bridgette bianca, and Conney Williams.
The entire festival is free but attendees are strongly encouraged to register ahead of time at http://beyondbaroque.org/scpf2022.html.
