CreativeWork by Michael Warr

I will share 7 minutes of poetry as part of Jessica Presents Events poetry & music series, this Friday, April 3, at 7 PM, featuring poetry by Jessica Loos, Rene Vargas Zamora, Clara Hsu, Michael Warr, music by Will Rogers, plus sculpture and jewelry design drawings by Peter Macchiarini and Dan Macchiarini. It all happens at Macchiarini Creative Design (1544 Grant Ave.). Spread the word.

Passcode: poetry

The copyrighted image in this post was taken by my father, Alcide Warr. We were at San Francisco's famous Playland, although it's hard to tell from the looks on our faces.

Please spread the word...

Celebration I. Thursday, May 22, is co-sponsored by the Poetry Foundation & Poetry Magazine and the Guild Literary Complex. It happens at the Poetry Foundation and includes Power Lines' Editors: Julie Parson Nesbitt, Luis Javier Rodriguez, and me (https://michaelwarr-creativework.tumblr.com/). Andrea Change, poet and Executive Director of the Guild Literary Complex, will kick off the program with remarks and her poem in the anthology. The other featured poets are Ana Castillo, Angela Jackson, Reginald Gibbons, Haki Madhubuti, Simone Muench, Tyehimba Jess, Cin Salach, and Mark Turcotte.

Looking forward to hearing the entire lineup:  Angela Drew, Christina Lux, Mai-Linh Hong, Tanisha McClain, Orlando Taylor, Juan Luzuriaga, Marcy Poe Martinez, Vielka Solano, Shani Campbell, Necola Adams, Elizabeth McMunn-Tetangco, Sherre Vernon, and Robin Shepard. Thanks, Kim McMillon, for your curatorial powers. I may debut one of my in-progress SF/Valley poems.

Poetic tributes to Bob Kaufman kicked off days before his actual April 18 B-Day. Back in 2020, The Poetry Center, San Francisco State University, organized an epic digital celebration for Kaufman's 95th and the release of his Collected Poems. Thanks to the Poetry Center Digital Archives, we can relive the tribute. The nearly two-hour stellar line-up of poets and artists is worth watching in its entirety (my video/poem follows Kim Shuck's reading around 1:44:08). Here is the link: https://diva.sfsu.edu/collect.../poetrycenter/bundles/239355 (photo: A.D. Winans)

This is a hub to some of my Lit Life. I don’t post all things poetry on all my profile because not all my friends are poetry addicts. For those who are I post poetry happenings periodically at Poetry, Etc. The Armageddon of Funk by Michael Warr. For links to my various projects, appearances, and consulting, see https://michaelwarr-creativework.tumblr.com/.  For updates on the struggle against unjust police killings: Of Poetry & Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin published by W.W. Norton and my serial poem "What Not To Do (an unfinished poem)" which resides at https://obsidianlit.org/project/michael-warr/. My websites include https://tracingmemory.feltzine.us/ (in porogfress) and for Chinese translations of my poems by poet/translator Chun Yu and our bilingual collaboration: https://twolanguagesonecommunity.com/.  To find all my books in one place see Amazon: https://amzn.to/2YNTYb6.  I barely pay attention to: Twitter: @warrzone, @ofpoetryprotest, anymore and post mostly appearances on Instagram: @warrzoneinstant,  and sometimes TikTok. Just starting to pay attention to Bluesky:  https://bsky.app/profile/michael-warr.bsky.social . Many tentacles -- get it?

I hope to see you at the Mechanics' Institute this Thursday, April 17, 2024. It will be a unique night that includes bilingual poems and pairs a few poets who have never read together. Our books will be available. If you cannot make it, invite your poetry-addicted friends.

What a surprise to look up from signing a book at the Red Hen Press table at AWP 2025 and see Jen Morea's bright smile with her new and first book, "The Hyacinth Letter," in her hands. It is a beautiful debut collection. Get your copy today. And no, I did not coordinate my red POET badge to match the red "Protest" on the cover of my book, "Of Poetry & Protest."

Our panel description: A community workshop for African American and Chinese writers. An exchange between two bilingual poets, one American and one Uruguayan-born, who translate and respond to one another’s poems with more poems. A collaboration between a French professor and a creative writer based on prison letters written by a female Resistance fighter. We describe our experiences, projects, and processes in creating our own new work and teaching others to create new work.

I will be signing all my Tia Chucha Press titles and the anthology Of Poetry & Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin at the Red Hen Press booth #345 at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) conference on Saturday, March 29, 11 -12 pm at the Los Angeles Convention Center, West Hall. Level Two. Please urge your writer friends to stop by the booth.

-- Michael Warr signs books at the Red Hen Press booth #345, Los Angeles Convention Center, West Hall. Level Two

Open mic before and after the featured poets. Sign up at 1 pm.

My poem "This is More Than a Wall" was written in response to the "Arab Liberation Mural" as part of "Wall + Response " -- a series featuring poets and visual artists responding to four murals, organized by the Clarion Alley Mural Project. The mural includes a translation of the iconic Tunisian poem “The Will to Live.” See the mural at https://bit.ly/4chU9Qk See the entire program at https://www.youtube.com/live/uzkY_eoOzqs

I am now officially "Old School," which I am sure is only news to me. This Saturday night (10/19/24), I will join other artists and entertainers from my senior high school tribe as part of "The Fabulous 70's" celebration. I plan to use my 15 minutes of fame to share a few poems that trace where I have been and what I have been doing since graduating early from Woodrow Wilson High School (San Francisco, CA) in 1973. You are welcome to join us. I hear that there will be dancing. Thanks for the invitation Larry Chew.