by Portia Choi | Mar 13, 2017 | Events, Featured Poet, Interviews, Pictures, Poems
Shanna O’Brien was the featured performer at the Open Mic on March 3. The Open Mic is held at Dagny Coffee, downtown Bakersfield, every First Friday at 6:00 pm. O’Brien has performed since 1980. A few of the places were the Mandarin Hotel in Singapore and MGM...
by Portia Choi | Mar 2, 2017 | Events, Featured Poet, Interviews, Poems
Night of Poetry at Levan Center, Bakersfield College The “movers and shakers” of poetry were together to read poems of nationally acclaimed poets at the Levan Center on February 16, 2017. Each of the presenting local poets read a poem by another nationally known poet...
by Portia Choi | Feb 12, 2017 | Events
Don Thompson, the first Poet Laureate of Kern County, is hosting an event on February 16, 2017 at the Norman Levan Center for the Humanities on the Bakersfield College campus. Thompson stated that the “San Joaquin Valley is known for agriculture, oil, and...
by Portia Choi | Jan 20, 2017 | Events, Pictures
Story by Portia Choi with Contributions by Martin Chang There was a first time event in poetry for Kern County on January 18, 2017. It was the Poetry Out Loud competition in which high school students recited famous poems by memory. The event took place at the...
by Portia Choi | Jan 11, 2017 | Events, Pictures
by Portia Choi The day was dawning when I arrived at Dagny’s Coffee at 6:55 am. The front door was locked, and there were workers inside with dim lights. When the main lights went on and the door was unlocked, several cars parked and several men got into Dagny’s. ...
by Portia Choi | Dec 28, 2016 | Events
Story by Portia Choi The First Friday Open Mic on January 6, 2017 will feature The Bakersfield Fan Forum. The event will start at 6:00 pm at Dagny’s Coffee located at 1600 20th Street (Corner of 20th and Eye St) Bakersfield, CA 93301. The...
by Portia Choi | Dec 7, 2016 | Events, Featured Poet, Pictures
By Portia Choi, with contributions by Martin Chang Photos by Martin Chang On December 1, 2016 the California Poet Laureate, Dana Gioia, was the presenter at the December Room of the Walter Stiern Library at California State University, Bakersfield. He was...
by Portia Choi | Nov 23, 2016 | Events, Pictures
Story by Portia Choi Photos by Greg D. Cook Don Thompson, the Kern County’s first-ever Poet Laureate, spoke at the Writers of Kern (WOK) meeting on November 19, 2016. Thompson has written about Kern County for over 50 years in his poems. He was born in Bakersfield,...
by Portia Choi | Nov 17, 2016 | Events, Pictures
story by Portia Choi November 7, 2016 was the opening of The Bakersfield Fan Forum at the Todd Madigan Gallery at California State University Bakersfield. It is being presented by The Poetic Research Bureau through the visiting artist, Joseph Mosconi. The...
by Portia Choi | Nov 10, 2016 | Events, Pictures
Story by Portia Choi There was extraordinary excitement at the First Friday Open Mic on November 4. There was a standing-room only crowd. That wasn’t all. There have been other evenings with persons where persons stood to listen to poets perform their word...
