Our Mission
Our mission is to showcase local poets, inform the community of poetry events, and share information on poets and their poetry.
Staff
Portia Choi, Founder, Director, Creative Direction
Portia Choi promotes poetry in Kern County. She has written poetry for 35 years. Portia, with other community poets, has organized National Poetry Month – Kern County in April since 2010. She facilitates the First Friday Poetry Open Mic.
Carla Joy Martin, Co-Host Open Mics, Interviewer
Carla is a poet, piano instructor and artist. She co-hosts First Friday Open Mics with Portia Choi and interviews the participants for KernPoetry.com. She is Critique Group Chair for Writers of Kern. Carla received her MA in English Literature from Stanford. She has published poems in Rabid Oak, Reaching for the Sky, Writing Fields, Writing Sound, Writing Flora, Writing Fauna. Carla published her first poetry chapbook, Kaleidoscope of Love, in 2020, which is available on Amazon.
Christopher Nielsen, Website Design, Social Media
Christopher Nielsen is a writer, photographer and web designer. Back roads provide inspiration out in nature for photography and writing. His works have appeared in Barren Magazine, Kern Poetry, Mojave Heart Review, Poetry Super Highway, Rabid Oak, Rue Scribe, Song of the San Joaquin, The Blue Mountain Review, The Opiate Magazine, West Texas Literary Review. Working a book of original photos and poems.
Christopher does website design, graphics and social media for Kern Poetry.
Martin Chang, Webmaster, Editorial Director, Adviser
Martin Chang has several years experience creating websites. He was the Editor-in-Chief of The Renegade Rip in 2013. He also has an B.A. degree in Journalism and Public Relations from Chico State. He is interested in poetry in all its forms. In particular, the lyrics in popular music. His favorite lyricist is Bob Dylan. His favorite music groups are Nirvana, Tegan and Sara, and The Ramones.
