6:00 - 7:30
Friends of the San Francisco Public Library presents two revolutionary poets, Alejandro Murguía and Matt Sedillo.
Murguía is San Francisco’s sixth Poet Laureate. His most recent book Stray Poems (City Lights Books) published in English and Spanish, offers “the patois of contemporary America.” Sedillo’s latest collection City on the Second Floor (FlowerSong Press) delivers “compassionate calls to action.” Following the reading, Murguía and Sedillo are joined in conversation with host Michael Warr.
The Poets:
Alejandro Murguía is the author of This War Called Love, (winner of the American Book Award) and more recently Stray Poems both from City Lights Books. His short story “The Other Barrio” was made into a feature film, filmed in San Francisco's Mission District. Currently, he is a professor in Latina/Latino Studies at San Francisco State University. He is the sixth San Francisco Poet Laureate and the first Latino to hold the post. He is currently writing an epic poem on the history of California from Native American creation stories to 1876.
Matt Sedillo is described as the "best political poet in America" and "the poet laureate of the struggle" by academics, poets and journalists alike. Sedillo has appeared on CSPAN, and in the Los Angeles Times, Axios and the Associated Press. He has spoken at Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba, at conferences and forums such as the National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education, National Association of Chicana/Chicano Studies, The Left Forum and at more than a hundred universities and colleges, including the University of Cambridge.
The Host:
Michael Warr’s books include Of Poetry & Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin, The Armageddon of Funk and We Are All The Black Boy. He has received a Berkeley Poetry Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, San Francisco Library Laureates, Gwendolyn Brooks Significant Illinois Poets Award, NEA Fellowship, Black Caucus of the American Library Association and more. His poetry is translated into Chinese by poet Chun Yu for Two Languages / One Community. Warr is a board member of the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.