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READINGS • VISUAL ART • WRITING WORKSHOP

Featuring readings by Avotcja, C. K. Itamura, Tureeda Mikell, Shizue Seigel, Kimi Sugioka, and Janice Hom. Artwork by Adrian Arias, Salma Arastu, Lorraine Bonner, Mark Harris, Wanda Sabir, Josué Rojas, Twin Walls Mural Company. Followed by an interactive creative writing workshop with the audience.

Co-sponsored by  Eastwind Books of Berkeley and by UC Berkeley’s Public Service Center and the Asian American and Asian Diasporic Studies Department.

Uncommon Ground:
BIPOC Journeys to Creative Activism
Edited by Shizue Seigel

285 pages (including 114 pages of color artwork) • Pease Press $22.95

More about the book: www.writenowsf.com/uncommon-ground

Prose, poetry and visual art by 22 leading Bay Area writers and artists of color responding to these questions:
• What inspired you to pursue art, creative writing, and activism?
• What are your cultural, spiritual, and community values?
• What sustains your creative practice in turbulent times?

Avotcja, an award-winning poet with Puerto Rican roots, is a multi-instrumentalist and FM radio DJ airing weekly on KPFA and KPOO. She has featured at AfroSolo, San Francisco’s Carnival, Asian-American Jazz Festival, and more. She has been widely published in English and Spanish in the USA, Mexico, and Europe. www.avotcja.org

C. K. Itamura is a fourth-generation Japanese American whose conceptual, visual, performance, and community art is fused with cultural traditions of observation, contemplation, and expressive imagination. She is a recipient of the 2019 Discovered Award for Emerging Artists from Sonoma Creative and multiple Artist-in-Residencies. www.peachfarmstudio.net

Tureeda Mikell, author of Synchronicity: The Oracle of Sun Medicine, is a Berkeley native and foster care survivor. Deeply engaged with community, she volunteered at the Black Panther Clinic and later produced more than 70 classroom anthologies by at-risk students. A UC Bay Area Writing Project Fellow, she is currently Poet-in-Residence at the Museum of the African Diaspora. https://treeoflifefound.com/

Shizue Seigel, Japanese American poet, memoirist, and visual artist, has contributed poetry, prose, and art to many anthologies and journals Her seven books, including the Write Now! anthologies, have been supported by the California Arts Council, California State Library, San Francisco Arts Commission, Zellerbach Foundation and others. www.shizueseigel.com

Kimi Sugioka is the poet laureate of Alameda, California, whose work appears in numerous anthologies. A mother, educator, and poet with an MFA from Naropa University in Boulder, she has published two books of poetry; the newest of which is Wile & Wing, published by Manic D Press. Sugioka believes that creating community through art is a revolutionary act.

Janice Hom, born and raised in San Francisco, has been writing for a number of Bay Area publications, including the East West Journal, the San Francisco Journal, North Beach Now, and Asian Week. In addition, she has been a community volunteer for a number of non-profit organizations.