Black Freighter Press publishes revolutionary books. We are committed to the exploration of liberation, using art to transform consciousness. A platform for Black and Brown writers to honor ancestry and propel radical imagination. We aim to create a world where the collective determines cultural reality.
Hosted by Alie Jones and San Francisco Poet Laureate Tongo Eisen-Martin.
FREE, $5-10 suggested donation
Register now: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/169342639393
Browse Litquake’s bookstore here – https://bookshop.org/shop/litquake
Josiah Luis Alderete is a full-blooded Pocho, spanglish-speaking poeta who has been an active part of la Area Bahia’s spoken-word scene for over 20 years. He was a founding member of outspoken word group “The Molotov Mouths” and is the curator and host of the long running monthly Chicanx/Latinx reading series “Speaking Axolotl,” which happens the 3rd Thursday of every month in el Zoom mundo. Josiah’s book of poems Baby Axolotls y Old Pochos was released this April from Black Freighter Press.
Tongo Eisen-Martin (co-host) is a poet, movement worker, and educator. His latest curriculum on extrajudicial killing of Black people, We Charge Genocide Again, has been used as an educational and organizing tool throughout the country. His book Someone’s Dead Already was nominated for a California Book Award. His latest book, Heaven Is All Goodbyes, was published by the City Lights Pocket Poets series, was shortlisted for the Grins Poetry Prize and won a California Book Award and an American Book Award. He is San Francisco’s eighth Poet Laureate.
Alie Jones (co-host) is a self-care advocate, writer, and Creole mermaid, currently pursuing a Masters in Creative Writing and Literature at Mills College. She is the founder of Bodacious Bombshells, a wellness-focused art collective based in Oakland. Her work on Black Mental Health and self-care has been featured on Afropunk, xoNecole, and Medium.com. Alie is the host of the podcast called “Chit Chat with Aliecat.” She explores self-care practices and journeys of self-love in community.
Raina J. León, PhD is Black, Afro-Boricua, and from Philadelphia. She is a mother, daughter, sister, madrina, comadre, partner, poet, writer, and teacher educator. She believes in collective action and community work, the profound power of holding space for the telling of our stories, and the liberating practice of humanizing education. She is a member of the Carolina African American Writers Collective, Cave Canem, CantoMundo, Macondo, and Círculo de Poetas and Writers. She is the author of three collections of poetry, Canticle of Idols, Boogeyman Dawn, and sombra: dis(locate), and the chapbooks profeta without refuge and Areyto to Atabey: Essays on the Mother(ing) Self. Her poetry, nonfiction, fiction, and scholarly work has been published in well over 100 journals and anthologies. She is a member of the SF Writers Grotto and The Ruby in San Francisco. She also is a founding editor of The Acentos Review, an online quarterly, international journal devoted to the promotion and publication of Latinx arts. She educates our present and future agitators/educators as a full professor of education at Saint Mary’s College of California, only the third Black person (all Black women) and the first Afro-Latina to achieve that rank there.
Landon Smith (he/him) is a Bay Area professor, a poet, a painter, half Mende and half Balanta & Fulani, that feeling of falling that wakes you up in a dream, the amethyst stone on your desk, Angela Davis’ afro, Fanon’s pocket notebook, the 7-10 bowling split, your favorite pillow. Despite his institutional degrees, he really became a poet through the East Side Arts Alliance in Oakland. Landon thanks his older sister Alia for buying him his first journal, starting his ever-evolving relationship with words. You can often find him processing the world through poetry.
Norman Antonio Zelaya was born and raised in San Francisco. He has published stories in ZYZZYVA, NY Tyrant, 14 Hills, Cipactli, Apogee Journal, among others, and he was a 2015 Zoetrope: All-Story finalist. He is a founding member of Los Delicados, and has performed extensively throughout the US with them. Zelaya has appeared on stage, in film, and in the squared circle as luchador, Super Pulga. Currently, he lives and works in San Francisco’s Mission District as a special education teacher. Orlando & Other Stories is his first published book.