SAN FRANCISCO – In honor of National Poetry Month, San Francisco Public Library offers hands-on art and poetry workshops, open mics, a night of Filipino/a/x poets, an afternoon reading curated by San Francisco's Poet Laureate Tongo Eisen-Martin, along with many other poetry events, book displays and poetry reading lists. Come celebrate and cultivate your love of poetry this month at the Library.   

 

Performance: Echoes: Poets in Memoriam

National Poetry Month

Sunday, April 2, 2023

1:00 – 2:30 p.m.

San Francisco Poet Laureate emerita Kim Shuck facilitates a poetry reading honoring poets who have recently passed.

Audience: Adult

Location: Main Library, 100 Larkin Street

 

Workshop: Zine Making for National Poetry Month

Sunday, April 2, 2023

1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

Zines are small, self-published magazines. Build a poem and create zines that you can take home. All materials provided. For ages 8–13.

Location: Main Library, 100 Larkin Street

 

Workshop: Pollen - Poems for Planet Earth With Local Author E.K. Keith

Every Wednesday in April, April 5, 12, 19, 26

6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Celebrate Poetry Month by writing your own poem every Wednesday in April. This workshop + open mic led by E.K. Keith will engage participants in a garden variety writing workshop focused on our environment, followed by an open mic in the garden.

Audience: Adult

Location: Portola Branch, 380 Bacon St.

 

Book Club: World Literature, Cesaire's Notebook of a Return to the Native Land

Thursday, April 6, 2023

6:00 – 7:30 p.m.

We discuss the landmark book-length poem Notebook of a Return to the Native Land by Martinican author Aimé Césaire.

Audience: Adult

Location: Virtual Program

 

Performance: On the Page, Off the Page

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

6:00 – 7:45 p.m.

Listen and perform at our monthly poetry and music open mic session.

Audience: Adult

Location: Park Branch, 1833 Page St.

 

Kim Shuck's Poem Jam, This Wandering State

Thursday, April 13, 2023

6:00 – 7:15 p.m.

San Francisco Poet Laureate emerita Kim Shuck invites writers published in the new anthology, This Wandering State: Poems from Alta, to read at SFPL’s monthly poetry reading.

Audience: Adult

Location: Main Library, 100 Larkin Street

 

Workshop: Visual Poem

Saturday, April 15, 2023, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m., Ingleside Branch, 1298 Ocean Ave.

Saturday, April 29, 2023, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m., Excelsior Branch, 4400 Mission St.

Sunday, April 30, 2023, 1:00 – 2:30 p.m., North Beach Branch, 850 Columbus Ave.

Explore the intersections of language, image and identity in creating a visual translation of a poem recited by special guest poet Donté Clark. Clark's spoken-word performance will be our framework for embarking on a visual translation of his poetry.

Audience: Adult

 

Author: Judith Ayn Bernhard and Byron Spooner

Saturday, April 15, 2023

3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

The Presidio Poetry Series features readings by local poets, writers and musicians.

Audience: Adult

Location: Presidio Branch, 3150 Sacramento St.

 

Performance: Lee Herrick and Poets in the Basement

National Poetry Month

Sunday, April 16, 2023

1:00 – 2:30 p.m.

California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick and guests Ayodele Nzinga, Linda Noel, James Siegel, Kim Shuck and Tongo Eisen-Martin read works.

Audience: Adult

Location: Main Library, 100 Larkin Street

 

Author: Chen Chen in conversation with Sam Herschel Wein

Sunday, April 23, 2023

2:00 – 3:00 p.m.

Poets Chen Chen and Sam Herschel Wein discuss Chen’s most recent book, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency. 

Audience: Adult

Location: Virtual Program

 

Panel: Poetry Reading

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

6:30 – 7:30 p.m.

An evening of live poetry readings and performance, exploring contemporary American and traditional Chinese poetry. This program features local poets and guest speakers. 

Audience: Adult

Location: North Beach Branch, 850 Columbus Ave.

 

Poetry Reading: Local Poets

Wednesday, April 26, 2023

2:00 – 3:30 p.m.

Join us for a special poetry reading to celebrate the National Poetry Month. Meet and listen to San Francisco Bay Area poets, including the Revolutionary Poets Brigade and other poets, Dee Allen, Nahid  Aria, Mahnaz Badihian, Lisbit Bailey, Lucille Lang Day, Agneta Falk, Clara Hsu,  D.L. Lang (former Vallejo Poet Laureate), Karen Melander-Magoon, Barbara Paschke, Sally Love Saunders, Nina Serrano and Raymond Nat Turner.

Audience: Adult

Location: North Beach Branch, 850 Columbus Ave.

 

Film: Pandaemonium

Saturday, April 15, 2023

5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

A dramatization of the professional relationship and friendship between English Romantic poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) and William Wordsworth.

Audience: Adult

Location: Richmond/Senator Milton Marks, 351 9th Ave.

 

Performance: Filipino/a/x Futurisms & Tenuous Archaeologies

Thursday, April 27, 2023

6:00 – 7:30 p.m.

A reading and conversation on the shared aesthetics of innovative hybrid literature, and in celebration of the release of Because I Love You, I Become War by Eileen R. Tabios and Nature Felt but Never Apprehended by Angela Peñaredondo. The event will also feature Hari Alluri, MT Vallarta and Barbara Jane Reyes. Sponsored by the San Francisco Public Library, Paloma Press, and Philippine American Writers and Artists.

Audience: Adult

Location: Virtual Program

 

Performance: The West Revisits Harlem

Sunday, April 30, 2023

4:00 – 5:30 p.m.

Black poets gather to be protagonists of a modern renaissance. Featured readers include Tshaka Campbell, Donté Clark, Meilani Clay, Tongo Eisen-Martin, A'aron Heard, LadiRev and Landon Smith.

Audience: Adult

Location: Main Library, 100 Larkin Street

 

About San Francisco Public Library:

San Francisco Public Library is dedicated to free and equal access to information, knowledge, independent learning and the joys of reading for our diverse community. The library system is made up of 27 neighborhood branches, the San Francisco Main Library at Civic Center and four bookmobiles.