by Portia Choi | Dec 14, 2016 | Featured Poet, Pictures
The Open Mic for December 2016 featured Yaritza I. Castro. Castro has been an active member of the poetry community and has performed at the Open Mic several times. She read from her first poetry book “Unfinished Poems for a Lover.” To read more on Castro...
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 30, 2016 | Featured Poet, Pictures
Story by Portia Choi Photos by Martin Chang Yaritza I. Castro is another poet who found a place to express her writing at First Friday Open Mic at Dagny’s Coffee. She started attending First Friday Open Mic at Dagny’s Coffee in summer 2015. Castro found out about the...
by Portia Choi | Oct 27, 2016 | Featured Poet, Pictures
Mateo Lara performs his poems regularly at the First Friday Open Mic at Dagny’s for over a year. He has recently published his first collection of poetry, “Keta-Miha and Other Poems.” Mateo will be the featured poet at the next Open Mic on November 4. He is a Cal...
by Portia Choi | Oct 6, 2016 | Featured Poet, Pictures
by Martin Chang Guitarist and vocalist Tomo and drummer Glenn Mattews have built a bond based on the sharing of Blues and Rock and Roll. Through this connection they create words and music that flows out of them with a unique flavor, Tomo likes to call it “just...
by Portia Choi | Oct 4, 2016 | Featured Poet, Pictures
By Martin Chang Greg Stanley has been in touch with his creative side for most of his life. He paints, writes poetry, and gets a different feeling from both types of artistic expression. Stanley grew up in Gaithersburg, Maryland until he was around 30. Then, in 1989,...
by Portia Choi | Sep 29, 2016 | Events, Featured Poet, Pictures
By Martin Chang Like many others in America, Kate Durbin found herself fascinated by the world of Reality television. As a poet, Durbin began to watch with a closer eye. From the way that the camera moves from Kardashian to Kardashian, to the carefully manicured...
by Portia Choi | Sep 17, 2016 | Featured Poet
By Martin Chang For most of her twenty-three years, Jessica Nelson has used poetry to help her escape from the pain of a damaged life. After reading poetry for eight years, she began performing her own poetry and discovered poetry’s second of many gifts: Finality....
by Portia Choi | Sep 8, 2016 | Featured Poet
Lenora McClellan has been given the gift of writing from an early age. She describes herself as “an author poet, playwright, and a women of God.” She reads from her book “By God’s Grace” published in 2013. She said about the poetry in...
by Portia Choi | Aug 10, 2015 | Featured Poet, Interviews
In this text interview we discussed with Don Thompson his favorite moments as a writer and his advice to other writers. Then we discuss his Historical Narrative poem Local Color. Portia Choi: Don, what were your most interesting moments as a poet? Don...
