Event Descriptions
1:00-1:45pm
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Landscape of Resistance |
“Artivist” writers on post-colonial resistance, resilience, healing, & possibility. Featuring writing by Demitra Borrero, Tina Curiel, & A.D. Hoyt. Location: Tioga Sequoia Brewing Co. |
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The (Un)tethered Body |
Poetry by Angela Chaidez Vincent, Elizabeth McMunn-Tetangco, Shabnam Piryaei, & Sherre Vernon. Location: Sensory Lab by Asip |
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Creating Merced |
Merced writers explore this city, this farmland, & what it means to call this place home. Ruben Dozal, Joyce Dale, Jessica Gillis, & Marcy Poe. Location: Second-Time Around Books |
2:00-2:45pm
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Land Ho!/Tierra a la Vista |
Experience the diverse telling of stories of ancestral roots from the heart of California’s Central Valley. From the sun-drenched tierras to the carved-out valley water ways, we share tales of resistance, resilience, and hope which have shaped our rich valley community today. Wanna hear about social hierarchy? Got a hankering to hear about the human body dead or alive? Wanna explore stories of migration? Or maybe you want to figure out how they all connect? Join us for a dash of poetry, a sprinkle of prose and a heaping amount of history - even if some of it is fiction. Featuring Dawn Trook, Juan Luzariaga, Ileisha Sanders, & Michelle Morgante. Location: Sensory Lab by Asip |
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Central Valley Lyrics |
We will share original creative work inspired by the Central Valley, in particular, and the ways in which this agricultural vein through which the 99 traverses is a destination as much as a vision glimpsed while traveling. Featuring Chuck Brown, Byron Webb, Paul Gibbons & Susan Varnot. Location: Hif-Fi Wine |
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Entanglements |
This reading explores how our lives are entangled: like a system of intertwined roots, how our memories are interlaced, and how our futures will be interwoven. The Central Valley of California is one place - one node - that connects us all at this moment in time. "Entanglements" is also this year's UC Humanities Research Institute theme, an umbrella topic connecting all UC humanities centers in a California-wide conversation, which we invite you to join. The reading will include poetry and may also include other genres such as memoir or non-fiction. Featuring Christina Lux, Shiraz Noorani, & David Toh Kusi. Location: Second-Time Around Books |
3:00-3:45pm
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State of Misadventure |
Even with a slippery speculator’s economy, disappearing wilderness and farmlands, and a high rate of serial killers per capita, California remains a promised land. That promised land, however, is full of the potential for misadventures of all kinds. From reimagining and re-constellating fractured families and histories to reconciling the irreconcilable, the state offers a lifetime of potential adventures and misadventures. Featuring Christa Fraser, Rebeca Antoine, Paula DeBoard, & Helen Sandoval Location: Tioga Sequoia Brewing Co. |
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American Zeitgeist |
At this reading, Samantha Tetangco, Randi Beck, and Evaristo Rivera will perform poetry that paints small moments brushed by their identities and experiences of living in the world today. Location: Sensory Lab by Asip |
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From the Real to the Imagined |
Fiction that explores the imagined and the real. Featuring writing by Michael Biddiso, Hannah Williamson, Derek S. Merrill, & Cecilia Madueña-Young. Location: Hi-Fi Wine |
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The Healing House Collective |
The Healing House Collective is an art residency currently being facilitated by Shabnam Piryaei, writer, professor, and creative, in collaboration with 7GEN ArtHouse in Livingston, CA which I founded. We are exploring how we embody our healing process through multidisciplinary art and creative writing. The residency comprises women (gender fluid) from the Central Valley. Our proposal would include the voices of women who will share their poetry, stories, and writing that are unfolding as part of the Healing House Art Residency. I am putting my name as the lead on the application, but all members of the residency will invited to contribute a range of up to 7 people. We will stay in the 45-minute time frame. Featuring Patricia Zamora, Cueponca Sandoval, Shabnam Piryaei, & others from the Healing House Art Residency. Location: Second-Time Around Books |
4:00-4:45pm
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Say it LOUDER!: The Loud Mouth Poetry Jam Slam Team |
Representing Visalia and the Central Valley, The Loud Mouth Slam Team brings together our community's top Slam Poets to compete in various Regional and National Level Slams throughout the year. A collective of writers from all different backgrounds to show the world that #VisaliaHasPoets. Featuring Michael Jasso, Kwamise Fletcher, Grace Wiseman, & Tomi Simmons Location: Tioga Sequoia Brewing Co. |
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Storying Music as Ethnic Studies Literacy in California's Central Valley |
We will read selections from our book about the transformative experiences of playing communal music, son jarocho fandango, toward collective liberation. Once outlawed, culturally appropriated for tourism, and at other times it became nearly extinct, son jarocho fandango is originally an agricultural genre of music born during the African diaspora of Veracruz, Mexico. Blossoming throughout various parts of California, son jarocho fandango comes to the Central Valley to inspire rhythms of collective voices about relational accountability to Native Land, Black and Indigenous radical joy and reverence to the natural world. Featuring Julissa Ruiz Ramirez, Cueponcaxochitl Moreno Sandoval, Gregorio Rocha-Tabera, & Jennifer Campos Lopez. Location: Hif-Fi Wine |
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California Landscapes |
California as backdrop & metaphor: poetry & fiction by Katelynn Bishop, Tom Meyers, Salvatore Salerno, & Rachel Wohlander. Location: Second-Time Around Books |
5:00-6:45pm
Break to enjoy dinner at your favorite Downtown Merced restaurant.
7:00-8:30pm
Special thanks to Bookish, our favorite Central Valley Independent Bookstore, for partnering with us and offering an opportunity for attendees to purchase Dorothy Allison's books and some of your favorite writing and Central Valley swag!
