Jessica M. Wilson – Los Angeles Poet Society 100 TPC 2016

 

 

Our Participants! The People will rise UP!

ORGANIZER: Jessica Wilson Cardenas

CONTACT: losangelespoetsociety@gmail.com

ORGANIZATION: Los Angeles Poet Society presents 100TPC- Los Angeles, CA

Watch us on USTREAM: ustream.tv/channel/the-poet-s-soapbox

Welcome to the 6th year of the 100 Thousand Poets for Change Movement! This world festival shows the people of the world that we mean to heal and sustain our communities with positivity and nourishment. We plant, sow, and water the seeds of change. We use our art as a means of communicating and reaching our communities, so they can join us and we can move forward together, in peace.

This year the Los Angeles Poet Society hosts 2 events celebrating CHANGE!

Friday, September 23, at Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural and Bookstore in SYLMAR, CA (San Fernando Valley)

Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore, 13197 Gladstone Ave. Unit A. Sylmar, CA 91342

The show will start at 8pm

100 Thousand Poets for Change presents the Poets of the Coiled Serpent Anthology and a People’s OPEN MIC!

Hosted by Jeffery Martin & Jessica M. Wilson Cardenas

Watch us on USTREAM: ustream.tv/channel/the-poet-s-soapbox

 

Saturday, September 24, at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center in VENICE, CA (the West Side of LA)

Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, 681 Venice Blvd. Venice CA.

10am: Black Mask March against police brutality

Watch us on USTREAM: ustream.tv/channel/the-poet-s-soapbox

GATHER at Venice Blvd. and Lincoln Blvd. We will march over to Beyond Baroque/ Abbott Kinney.

Join your community as we march up Venice Blvd. donning the masks of those who are victims of Police Brutality and unjust killing. Stop the murdering police NOW!

JUSTICE FOR ANDY LOPEZ! JUSTICE FOR TAMIR RICE! JUSTICE FOR FREDDIE GRAY! JUSTICE FOR KELLY THOMAS! JUSTICE FOR SANDRA BLAND! JUSTICE FOR ALL!

BLACK LIVES MATTER! ALL LIVES MATTER!

Showtime: 11am-8pm

Join us in a world gathering – a celebration of change!
The Los Angeles Poet Society is honored to host amazing Angels of Change in our communities! Celebrating 6 years of 100TPC together! Additional events will be held after 3pm at Beyond Baroque.

ISSUES WE WILL ADDRESS at this gathering:

• Homelessness
• Mass Incarceration
• Youth Empowerment
• Black Lives Matter
• Justice for All!
• Save our Water, stand with STANDING ROCK in North Dakota
• Indigenous Rights
• Body Image 
• Stop Police Brutality
• Senior Advocacy and Creative Aging
• Women’s Freedom
• Help Heal Mother Earth and BECOME HER CARETAKERS!
• End the patriarchy
• Immigrant Rights
• Equal rights for all!

Watch us on USTREAM: ustream.tv/channel/the-poet-s-soapbox

Featuring:

Aztlan Underground (MUSIC)

Open Mic for the People! Come up to your mic and tell us what you advocate for.

Poetry from Pogo Saito, Juan A. Cardenas, Jessica M. Wilson, Radomir V. Luza, Norman Molesko, LynneBronstein, Ava Bird, Mark Evans

Community Poet Tree – What will you change? You tell us — write a poem and hang it on our tree.

Las Lunas Locas: Alexandra M. and Amanda Wang

Nalgona Pride Positivity – Gloria Lucas, Founder 

Tote4Friendz – April S. Hernandez, Founder

Persistence of Sound, spinning live by DJ Gary Alvarez and www.RadioSombra.com

Aurora – Jennifer Thompson accompanied by Drake McGilbery

Poesia Festival

10am, 11am-12pm, 1pm-3pm: Hosted by Los Angeles Poet Society 
(EVENTS BREAKDOWN)

10am: Black Mask March led by Jessica M. Wilson and the people! (gather at Venice and Lincoln)

11am: Welcome to the 6th 100 Thousand Poets for Change World Festival.
Let’s talk about what just happened at the Black Mask March.
A view of the global 100 Thousand Poets for Change World Movement!

11:10am: Poet & Flutist/Vocalist Juan Cardenas  – advocate for Immigrants Rights, Heal Mother Earth

11:25am: Poet and Actress/Singer Pogo Saito – advocate for Women’s Equality, End the patriarchy

11:40am: Poet Norman Molesko, LA’s “Young Oldie” Poet – advocate for Senior Advocacy and Creative Aging

11:55am: Tote4Friendz introduction from Founder, April S. Hernandez – advocate to end homelessness and help humanity.

NOON -1 hosted by Jennifer Thompson

12pm: Aurora featuring Spoken Word Poet Jennifer Thompson with Drake – advocates for positivity and empowerment.

1-3pm hosted by Jessica M. Wilson

1:10pm: Aztlan Underground – musical performance – advocates for Indigenous Rights, Immigrant Rights, Restoring Mother Earth, Justice for All!

1:55pm: Poet Carmen Vega – advocate for human rights

2:05pm: Jessica M. Wilson – advocate for human rights, end homelessness, stop mass incarceration, youth empowerment, Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, Indigenous Rights, Women’s Rights, Stop the patriarchy, Help Heal Mother Earth – be a caretaker, Save our Water – Stand with Standing Rock, Stop police brutality.

2:10pm: People’s open mic with Poet Radomir V. Luza

2:15pm: People’s open mic with Poet Lynne Bronstein

2:20pm: People’s open mic with Poet Mark Evans

2:25pm: Las Lunas Locas introduction from the Lunas, and reading from Poets Amanda Wang and Alexandra Marie – advocates for Human Rights, Healing Mother Earth, All Lives Matter

2:35pm:  Nalgona Positivity Pride, introduction from Founder Gloria Lucas – advocate for Decolonizing the Body, Positive body image, eating disorders, end the patriarchy

2:40pm: Food Not Bombs – introduction from team – advocates for Humanity, ending homelessness, self care, healing our planet, ending hunger

2:45pm: Persistence of Sound, introduction from DJ Gary Alvarez – advocate of Human Rights, decolonizing, human consciousness, Indigenous Rights

2:50pm: Venice Community Unity Coalition, introduction from team – advocates for Human Rights, ending Gentrification, Helping stop homelessness, justice for all

2:55pm: Los Angeles Poet Society, thanks from Founder Jessica M. Wilson – advocates for HUMAN RIGHTS. All lives matter! Veterans rights, senior advocacy and creative aging, Youth Empowerment, Stop police brutality.

2:57pm: Let’s take a look at our POET TREE — what are some things people will change.

3pm – 6pm hosted by ANTONIETA VILLAMIL

Poesia Festival – a Multilingual Event

6pm – 8pm programming hosted by Beyond Baroque

100 Thousand Poets for Change is a FREE EVENT. Donations, however, are always welcome. We appreciate your kindness to keep us moving forward on our mission to unify community through poetry!

Vendors, Food, Orgs and Non-Profits, Community, Change and Unity, healing with Peace and Understanding.

 

FOOD FROM:
Food Not Bombs – grab a vegetarian free meal made from love and community heart.

 

VISIT OUR PARTNER TABLES:

Tote4Friendz – holding a TOTE BAG, WATER BOTTLE, HYGIENE PRODUCTS DRIVE as this event. Meet Founder, April S. Hernandez

Nalgona Positivity Pride – meet NPP Founder, Gloria Lucas, purchase some awesome positive body image merchandise. 

Las Lunas Locas – will be typing poems on demand. Meet the Lunas and ask about joining the group.

Los Angeles Poet Society – sign up to join your creative community. LAPS will also be having a Book Sale.

Persistence of Sound – Live DJ Gary Alvarez spinning from www.radiosombra.org
Meet Gary and learn more about his show — many social justice issues. Enjoy the tunes while you eat.

Check out the POET TREE! The LA Poet Society asks, what do you want to change. 
Write your answer poems and hang it on the TREE!

This event will be archived by Stanford University and stands in solidarity with the world movement of 100 Thousand Poets for Change!

www.100tpc.org
www.lapoetsociety.org
www.radiosombra.org
www.beyondbaroque.org
www.totez4friends.com
http://jenniferthompsonar.wix.com/poet
www.jessicamwilson.com

 

Watch us on USTREAM: ustream.tv/channel/the-poet-s-soapbox

100 Thousand Poets for Change – Participants Bios

Aztlan Underground
Aztlan Underground is an evolution of consciousness intertwined with ancient, pre-Colombian thoughts, feelings, and sounds. An attempt to search for the other, the unknown, Aztlan Underground gives birth to a visceral sound that challenges listeners.

Food Not Bombs
Along with Food Not Bombs chapters all over the world, we get together once a week to cook and serve a filling, fresh, vegan meal for anyone who wants to eat with us. We cook from 3 – 6 p.m. at 1069 Sanborn Avenue, near Sunset Junction in Silverlake. We begin serving at Pershing Square at 6:30 p.m. every Sunday. www.foodnotbombs.net.

Tote4Friendz
Advocate4humanity! Collect totes and goods for the homeless around Los Angeles, and Orange County California.
Twitter@tote4friendzz
IG Tote4friendz

Tote4friendz is a charity that was created in December 2015 after our founder April S. Hernandez had lost all her possessions four years ago. She found herself suicidal, homeless, and a Victim of Domestic Abuse. She thanks spirituality, positive thinking and her two beautiful daughters for saving her life. Once she gained control of her own life. She wanted to pay it forward. Her calling was in wanting to be the person she wished she had during those negative times. To give that hope that if she can do it, anyone can! Be your own Hero! Here at Tote4friendz we treat everyone as Friendz. We believe in giving respect to all human beings. We love seeing friendz and different communities come together for our homeless friendz!  https://www.facebook.com/Tote4friendz

Nalgona Positivity Pride
Xican@-Brown*-Indigenous body positive site that focuses on eating disorder awareness and decolonizing the body.
Why did it start?
NPP started in response to the pervasiveness of hetero-normative white supremacist ideals in love your body campaigns.

Who runs NPP?
A chubby warrior, DIY punx educator, and eating disorder survivor.

What does it mean?
“Nalgona” means big butt in Spanish. It is used as an empowering term to reclaim our bodies. Big butt or small butt, NPP is about loving all bodies.

Goals?
An end to feminist waves. We want lasting colorful queer-friendly tsunamis!!
Decolonize body love!

*Brown refers to the mixed descendants of the indigenous from (what is known today as) the Americas

http://www.nalgonapositivitypride.com

Radio Sombra/ Persistence of Sound with DJ Gary Alvarez
Streaming the sonic spectrum on radiosombra.org
Spun and hosted by Gary Alvarez.
Spinning live every Wednesday 5:30-7:30pm PST from Espacio 1839 in Boyle Heights, Califas.
Featuring the guest DJ segment PATCHED IN.
Archived on Mixcloud. https://www.mixcloud.com/gary-alvarez2/

Los Angeles Poet Society
The LAPS mission is to create a bridge, fusing the communities of Los Angeles and Southern California Poets, poetry organizations, Writer groups, booksellers, publishers, literary enthusiasts and supporters into a unified social and literary network. http://www.lapoetsociety.org/
The focal point of LAPS is to network and publicize the events and achievements of its members. LAPS also organizes and promotes events, pulling from within its own community, to create and sustain Los Angeles’ literary anchor.

Venice Community Unity Coalition
Venice is being over-developed at an alarming rate, changing the unique character and culture of this historic city. The VCUC group is dedicated to protecting and conserving our Venice Beach community from over-development and the onslaught of gentrification, by sharing and caring about our community, with a focus on planning and development according to the Venice Specific Plan, the Coastal Act (1976) and the Mello Act. https://www.facebook.com/groups/2VCUC/

Las Lunas Locas
A safe space for a community of self-identifying womyn to write, right and rite. https://www.facebook.com/groups/428899703914865/

Juan A. Cárdenas
He’s a Spanish Vocalist… a Spanish Language Poet, Intoxicating Flutist, purifying soul…

Juan has been a Musician for more than a decade; his major influences go from Jimi Hendrix, Robert Johnson, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Otis Redding, The Doors, and Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Federico Garcia Lorca and more. Get ready for fusion of Beat Poetry and psychedelic Music!

Juan is also the Vice President for the Los Angeles Poet Society, supporting a NEW Spanish segment,La Sociedad de Poetas de Los Angeles!  Juan is a bilingual Poet Teacher with California Poets in the Schools!

Jessica M. Wilson
Jessica M. Wilson Cárdenas is a Xicana and identified Navajo, (Diné), Poet born in East Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Jessica is a 3rd generation Beatnik… a Beat Poet from the lines of Jack Spicer to Paul Vangelisti, and the heartbeat of the visual Muse and Master Poet, Maurya Simon. She completed her BA in Creative Writing and Art History from UC Riverside in Riverside, CA, and obtained her Master of Fine Arts from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, CA.

In 2009 she founded the Los Angeles Poet Society and began a string of literary events and open mics such as: Writers’ Row: The DTLA Artwalk’s Showcase of the Written Art, SoapBox Poets Open Mic, Salon @ NoHo, Gallery 19, LAPS Presents on Full Spectrum, and Writer Wednesday. She teaches poetry with California Poets in the Schools, the oldest non-profit dedicated to the empowerment of our youth in CA.

Her books of poetry include: What Breathes, Raw Kit, Marie Morrison, and most recently, Serious Longing, published by Swan World Press in Paris, France. Jessica is an International Poet!

Carmen Vega:
Carmen Vega is a Puertorrican born poet, performer, and playwright raised in New York, and residing in Los Angeles, where she’s an active participant in the local poetry scene. She is a writer who derives pleasure in pulling pedestrian glimpses of life, and shares them in verse amenable to the many rather than the few. Her individual works are published in the Southern Anthology of Fiction, the Onyx Spoken Word Anthology, and zines, She is an artist in residence for Theatre of Hearts Youth First, teaching poetry to high school students. Her CD,La Poeta con Rock is a collaboration with the LA rock group: Barnacle (and is distributed via CD Baby.com). And, her chap book is entitled:Reflections From The Well .
lapoetaconrock@yahoo.com

Pogo Saito:
A core member of We Tell Stories, Pogo has been with the company for ten years. She has been working in children’s theatre for the over fifteen years as a performer, choreographer, dance instructor and workshop artist. Prior to her work in Los Angeles, Pogo worked with the Seattle Repertory theatre Youth Outreach Program, Seattle Group Theatre, Seattle Public Theatre and Seattle Children’s Museum.

Norman Molesko
Normie is a a poet, a psychologist and an elder. He was presented with a SPIRIT OF LIFE AWARD by the Los Angeles Poet Society. The Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, and Councilmember, Mitchell Englander, presented Normie with a City of Los Angeles scroll, thanking Normie for his dedication to creativity and being a driving force within Los Angeles.

Normie is called “An Ambassador For Seniors”. He is the founder and partner of the “Senior Advocacy Through Poetry Program” with the Los Angeles Poet Society. 

Mark Evans
Mark is a Poet around town – accomplished and persistent on his mission.

Lynne Bronstein
Lynne Bronstein is a writer, journalist, and poet who lives in Santa Monica, California. She grew up in New York City and has always maintained a New York state of mind despite her West Coast residency. A would-be movie star at age ten, a would-be rock star at seventeen, she played open mic nights at coffee houses while attending Fordham University where she majored in literature. She broke into print at age nineteen with a review of the movie “Fantasia” in the New York arts paper “Changes.” After moving to L.A., she wrote for numerous local newspapers, gave poetry readings, worked at a public access TV station and at a music web site, and successfully campaigned to get the city of Santa Monica to install a street light at a difficult intersection. She never gives up and her motto, like that slogan on the old American Navy flag, could be “Don’t tread on me.”

Radomir V. Luza
Radomir is the author of 25 books of poetry, including the emotionally charged collection, New York Nadir. He is the current Poet Laureate of North Hollywood, CA. His latest book of poetry is Eros of Angels, published in 2016. Radomir hosts, alongside friend and Poet, Mary A. Mann, UNBUCKLED: NoHo Poetry every 1st Saturday, 3:45-5:45pm at TU Studios in North Hollywood.

Antonieta Villiamil
ANTONIETA VILLAMIL is an international award winning bilingual poet with over 11 published books that brings a cross-cultural experience, performing her poetry in a reading and singing dynamic fusion.  She focuses her writing on the forgotten ones and honors them with a persistence that compels us to hear their voices. She directs the poetry review and salon “Poesía Féstival” at the literary center Beyond Baroque that brings poetry to the under-served community of native Spanish speakers in Los Angeles. Her latest book “Arcana de los Dominios Imaginantes”, published by AVEditor in 2015, won The International Latino Book Award 2016.

The Cervantes Institute of New York and Literacy Now awarded the “14 International Latino Book Award 2012” for her book “Soluna En Bosque: Conjuros Para Invocar El Amor”, the “International Poetry Award Gastón Baquero” in Spain with “Acantilados Del Sueño”.

Recent anthologies: “The Border Crossed Us: An Anthology to End Apartheid”, edited by Mark Lipman, “Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising From The Cultural Quakes and Shifts of Los Angeles”, introduction by Los Angeles Poet Laureate Luis J. Rodriguez, “Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond” edited by Suzanne Lummis. Villamil appears in the documentary Voices in Wartime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sxkI9Ix5as.

Jennifer Thompson
Jennifer Thompson is a prolific spoken word artist, performer and poet. Her unique poetry style and presentation incorporates various musical instruments as well as vocal accompaniments. Her powerful message is positive and uplifting. She has written a mini book of poetry entitled “The Definition of Love.” She teaches poetry to the youth for California Poets in the Schools (CPITS) a San Francisco based non-profit organization. She is also a poet for 100 Thousands Poets for Change (100TPC) a global movement for activism and social change.

She was a special invited guest at the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles for the Doo Wop Hall of Fame Awards where some of the greatest artists in the world were inducted. Artists who attended were Lettermen, Mary Wilson of the Supremes, The Angels, Claudette Robinson of the Miracles, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis of the Fifth Dimensions. She also performed for The City of Fontana and The City of Pasadena. She performed in the World Peace Choir directed by John “Sly” Wilson with Sheila E. , John Reznik of the Goo Goo Dolls, Brian McKnight, Ray Charles Jr. , and many other national and international artists. She has performed at the San Diego Repertory Theatre, Humphrey’s by the Bay, Elevated, R-Sot, La Louisianne, San Diego State University, UC Berkeley, San Diego Mesa College, and Berkeley Community Media Television. Throughout the years she has appeared at numerous coffeehouses, galleries, churches and lounges throughout California.

Her recorded songs have been aired on KPFA Radio in Berkeley, radio stations in San Diego and featured on Kill Radio by Los Angeles Poets Society. She wrote and produced a musical spoken word album released independently in 2004. In 2007 she produced episodes of her own television show called “Speak the Word” which showcased live spoken word performances with musical accompaniment, along with interviews of various artists and performers. Currently she is working on another musical spoken word album with her manager and producer John “Sly” Wilson from the 70’s R&B group “Sly, Slick and the Wicked” which is to be released soon.

 

Aurora

 

 

Watch us on USTREAM: ustream.tv/channel/the-poet-s-soapbox