program: california poetry out loud | 2015 state finals

2006 Ken Huffman

Sacramento County

2007

Karen Hong Sonoma County

2008

Roshawnda Bettencourt Placer County

2009 Spencer Klaven

Santa Barbara County

2010 Morgan Brown

Monterey County

2011

Robert Marchand Monterey County

2012

Corbin Gomez El Dorado County

2013

Arwa Arwan Monterey County

2014

Shayna Maci Warner Marin County

March 15

Sheraton Grand Hotel, Sacramento

1:00 Check-in at registration table at the Sheraton Grand Hotel

2:00 Tofanelli Room: County Champions’ welcome, warm-ups,

information session

4:00 Magnolia Ballroom: Welcome and Presentation of

Certificates

4:30 California Poetry Out Loud Competition Round One

6:45 Hero Award Presentation

7:00 Banquet for County Champions and special guests

March 16

Sheraton Grand Hotel, Sacramento

7:15 Falor Room: County Champions’ warm-ups

7:30 Champions escorted to the Capitol

Assembly Committee Room 4202, State Capitol

8:00 California Poetry Out Loud Competition Round Two

10:30 Intermission (approximate)

Address: Dana Gioia, former Chairman of the National

Endowment for the Arts and founder of Poetry Out Loud

Group Photo

11:15 California Poetry Out Loud Competition Round Three

12:15 Presentation of Awards

Welcome to the 10th Annual California Poetry Out

Loud Recitation Contest!

California Poetry Out Loud is the largest Poetry Out Loud competition in the nation, and 2015 is our largest contest yet. Forty California counties participated in Poetry Out Loud this year. One of the county champions here today will be chosen to represent California in the national finals and be flown to Washington D.C. next month, courtesy of the National Endowment for the Arts, to compete against winners from all the other states and U.S. territories. It’s an exciting and tense couple of days for us here at the California Arts Council—our favorite two days of the year! We couldn’t be prouder of the exceptional young people we honor today in Sacramento.

The students whose competition you are about to witness are all outstanding. At this level, the judges have the toughest job in the room.

We are grateful to the generous friends who enable us to enrich the experience of the state finalists who have worked so diligently to excel. This year, California Arts Council Member Christopher Coppola, California Poets in the Schools, California Arts Council Chair Donn K. Harris, and California Arts Council Vice Chair Susan Steinhauser have donated additional funds for travel, hotel rooms, a celebratory dinner, awards, and a priceless opportunity for the county champions to get to know each other. It is these sponsors who help us transform the state finals into the celebratory event the finalists deserve. And we are delighted to welcome, as our special guest this year, the legendary Dana Gioia, who founded Poetry Out Loud when he served as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.

The California Arts Council is pleased to partner with the National Endowment for the Arts in producing California Poetry Out Loud. We greatly appreciate the dedication and hard work of the local arts councils, district offices of education, high school teachers, California Poets in the Schools, parents, and—most of all—the tens of thousands of participating students. We thank our sponsors, our expert panel of judges, all those who made Poetry Out Loud possible, and California Arts Council staff members, who have enthusiastically gone “above and beyond” to make #POL15 special.

Welcome to this extraordinary event.

Craig Watson Director California Arts Council

I am delighted to speak at the tenth annual California Poetry Out Loud finals.

Of all the fine programs we helped create or expand during my years in Washington, D.C. as Chairman of the National

Endowment for the Arts, Poetry Out Loud is the one closest to my heart. It has been a pleasure and privilege to witness the transformative power of poetry on the young men and women who compete. I've been moved, dazzled, impressed, and humbled by the power and presence they bring to their recitations.

DANA GIOIA

Dana Gioia is an internationally acclaimed poet and critic.

He is the author of four collections of poetry, including

Interrogations at Noon (2001), which won the American

Book Award, and Pity the Beautiful (2012). He has also

published three collections of criticism, most notably Can

Poetry Matter? (1992), which was a finalist for the National

Book Critics Award.

A best-selling literary anthologist, Gioia has edited or co-

edited over two dozen collections of poetry, fiction, and

drama. He has also written two opera libretti and has

collaborated with composers in genres ranging from classical

to jazz and rock.

For six years (2003-2009) Gioia served as Chairman of the

National Endowment for the Arts where he gained strong

bipartisan support for the previously imperiled agency and helped launch the largest literary programs in federal

history, including The Big Read, Poetry Out Loud, and

Shakespeare in American Communities. He was twice

unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

During the NEA years Gioia also led the U.S. cultural

delegation to UNESCO. For two years he directed the arts

and culture programs for the Aspen Institute in Washington,

D.C. and Colorado. In 2011 Gioia became the Judge Widney

Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of

Southern California. He has been awarded eleven honorary

doctorates and many awards, including the Laetare Medal

from Notre Dame, the Presidential Civilian Medal, and the

Aiken-Taylor Award in Modern American Poetry. He divides

his time between Los Angeles and Sonoma County,

California.

Alameda County champion

California Poetry Out Loud 2015

Contra Costa County champion

"[poetry is] No punctuation, no narrative required, just an idea, unadulterated and expressed beautifully.”

“Poems are the antidote for a world that doesn't rhyme."

Arielle Herman

School: Monte Vista High School

Teacher: Brendan Nelson

Poem 1: Prayer by Jorie Graham (25 lines)

Poem 2: Experience by Edith Wharton (Pre-20c)

Poem 3: The Children of the Poor by Gwendolyn Brooks

School: Berkeley High School

Teacher: Madalyn Theodore

Poem 1: Ecology by Jack Collom (25 lines)

Poem 2: [My prime of youth is but a frost of cares] by Chidiock Tichbourne (Pre-20c/25 lines)

Poem 3: Meditation at Lagunitas by Robert Hass

Avi Simon


Butte County champion

El Dorado County champion

Benjamin Brazzel

Ashley Patteson

"Poetry has always been a remarkable outlet for my imaginations and feelings, and has gotten me through a lot of life issues."

“All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immova-ble, those that are movable, and those that move.” The arts are the continuation of this quote by Benjamin Franklin that involve man’s creative nature in combination with the mind, body, and soul. Poetry Out Loud has been such a positive experience in helping me truly bring out the creative aspect of myself and thus allow me to explore my reflective and contemplative side.”

School: Gridley High School

Teacher: Cindy Scott

Poem 1: To Helen by Edgar Allan Poe (Pre-20c/25 lines)

Poem 2: It was not Death, for I stood up, (355) by Emily Dickinson (Pre-20c)

Poem 3: Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight by Vachel Lindsay

School: Oak Ridge High School

Teacher: Mark Coovelis

Poem 1: El Olvido by Judith Ortiz Cofer (25 lines)

Poem 2: Novel by Arthur Rimbaud (Pre-20c)

Poem 3: Flies Buzzing by Mark Turcotte


Fresno County champion

Inyo County champion

Shyann Padilla

"For me, poetry is a way to express myself in an effective, different and

more creative way."

"Writing is more than just expressing thoughts. It is a way of connect-ing to others across history and different background. Poetry is like a photograph in words, and brings us together through Poetry out Loud."

Lara Tadios

School: San Joaquin Memorial

Teacher: Lisa Cameron

Poem 1: When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be by John Keats (Pre-20c/25 lines)

Poem 2: I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth

Poem 3: The Star by Ann Taylor, Jane

Taylor

School: Owens Valley High School

Teacher: Jessica Libbee

Poem 1: Actaeon by A. E. Stallings (25 lines)

Poem 2: I Am Offering this Poem by Jim-my Santiago Baca

Poem 3: There's Been a Death, in the Opposite House by Emily Dickinson (Pre-

20c)


Humboldt County champion

Kings County champion

"Every new poem I learn is now an exciting challenge as I connect to the emotions captured within the words on the page. I love to perform poetry because it has helped me express my emotions in a way I never thought I could."

"For me, poetry is a means of self expression, a way to put down and articulate feelings. Poetry and the arts are so fantastic because each work is unique and resonates with every individual differently."

Myah Daniels

School: Eureka High School

Teacher: Mauro Staiano and Nanette Voss

Poem 1: A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky by Lewis Carroll (Pre-20c/25 lines)

Poem 2: Apollo by Elizabeth Alexander

Poem 3: The Truly Great by Stephen Spender (25 lines)

Mellissa Raylene Carpentieri

School: Hanford West High School

Teacher: Elizabeth Kamerin

Poem 1: We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence

Dunbar

Poem 2: The Charge of the Light Brigade by

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Pre-20c)

Poem 3: Abandoned Farmhouse by Ted

Kooser (25 lines)


Lake County champion

Los Angeles County champion

Jenny Landeta

"Performing arts, including poetry, have given me a fun opportunity to express myself."

"Poetry allows me to understand the feelings and experiences of others; to me, poetry is empathy."

School: Lower Lake High School

Teacher: Gina Dickson

Poem 1: Ode by Arthur O'Shaughnessy (Pre-20c)

Poem 2: Under Stars by Tess Gallagher (25 lines)

Poem 3: What You Have to Get Over by Dick Allen

Aaron Rubanowitz

School: Granada Hills High School

Teacher: Karl Cyr

Poem 1: In Memoriam: Martin Luther King, Jr. by June Jordan

Poem 2: Queen's Cemetery, Setting Sun by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Poem 3: Early Affection by George Moses Horton (Pre-20c/25 lines)


Lassen County champion

Madera County champion

Michaela Hammond

"The way words work to influence our emotions, and work in harmony to create a beautiful portrayal of all that happens within our minds, is truly amazing. Potery Out Loud has allowed me to explore such a place, and further grasp onto this realization."

Christine McPhetridge

School: Lassen High School

Teacher: Tom Ready

Poem 1: The American Soldier by Philip Freneau (Pre-20c/25 lines)

Poem 2: The Maid's Lament by Walter Savage Landor (Pre-20c)

Poem 3: The Ocean by Nathaniel Haw-thorne (Pre-20c/25 lines)

"Programs like Poetry Out Loud keep the presence of the Arts alive for those who need creative outlets to thrive and live their everyday life with purpose."

School: Liberty High School

Teacher: Rebecca Harp-Sligh

Poem 1: Piano by D. H. Lawrence (25 lines)

Poem 2: The moon now rises to her absolute rule by Henry David Thoreau (Pre-20c/ 25 lines)

Poem 3: Insomnia by Dana Gioia (25

lines)

Modoc County champion


Marin County champion

"I’m really excited to participate in the Poetry Out Loud competition. This process has helped me better understand the depth, meaning, and beauty of poetry in general. While I’ve studied theater at my school, I’ve learned that reciting poetry is different from performing monologues. In poetry, my primary focus is the literature itself, and I have to capture the language and rhythm as it was intended by the author, as well as share my own interpretation."

School: Novato High / Marin School of the Arts

Teacher: Kathryn Korff

Poem 1: Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes by William Shakespeare (Pre-20c/25 lines)

Poem 2: A History Without Suffering by E. A. Markham

Poem 3: The Hospital Window by James L. Dickey

"You are a walking metaphor for death and decay. Everything you are and were is already crumbling into the earth." - David Jones from "Love and Space Dust"

Cambria Elise Weaver

Annalise Schulman

School: Tulelake High School

Teacher: Rick Fakhre

Poem 1: The Conqueror Worm by Edgar Allan Poe (Pre-20c)

Poem 2: Bright Copper Kettles by Vijay Seshadri (25 lines)

Poem 3: Author's Prayer by Ilya Kaminsky (25 lines)


Mendocino County champion

Mono County champion

Katherine Wilson

Quincy Boyle

"I'm really looking forward to this experience not just for the competition but also for the chance to meet fellow poets. It's rare that such high class teenage writers and reciters are able to gather in one place for the sole purpose of enjoying poetry and it's something I greatly look forward to."

"Poetry Out Loud is a lovely artistic venue that allows students to read, learn, understand, and express complex ideas and thoughts in a way that conveys raw emotion directly to an audience -- it allows everyone, from all kinds of backgrounds, races, genders, ages, and beliefs to be vulnerable and real."

School: Ukiah High School

Teacher: Michael Riedell

Poem 1: The Cities Inside Us by Alberto Rios

Poem 2: Nude Descending a Staircase by X.J. Kennedy (25 lines)

Poem 3: The Paradox by Paul Laurence Dunbar (Pre-20c)

School: Mammoth Academy High School

Teacher: Shira Dubrovner

Poem 1: The Sun Rising by John Donne (Pre-20c)

Poem 2: Monet Refuses the Operation by Lisel Mueller

Poem 3: Broken Promises by David Kirby (25 lines)


Monterey County champion

Nevada County champion

Falyn Lazarus

"If art and poetry have taught me anything, it's that there is no such thing as a note-worthy conformist."

Sharmaine Sun

"I am perpetually consumed by Poetry Out Loud because I believe in the power of the spoken word. It’s exhilarating to know that one can create subtle nuances with inflections of tone and pacing of breath to give meaning to every word."

School: Santa Catalina School

Teacher: Simon Hunt

Poem 1: Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats (Pre-20c)

Poem 2: Virtuosi by Lisel Mueller

Poem 3: A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown by Walt Whitman (Pre-20c/25 lines)

School: Nevada Union High School

Teacher: Alicia Lacoste

Poem 1: For the young who want to by Marge Piercy

Poem 2: In the Desert by Stephen Crane (Pre-20c/ 25 lines)

Poem 3: One Hundred Love Sonnets:XVII by Pablo Neruda (25 lines)


Orange County champion

Napa County champion

"Theatre has impacted my life in many positive ways. It introduced me to the world of poetry, it taught me poise and public speaking skills, and it instilled me with a sense of confidence. From my past three years in the competition, I learned the powerful impact of language and poetry."

Lesley Aguirre

Delia Bisconer

School: Justin-Siena High School

Teacher: Laura Kelly-Weakley

Poem 1: Romance by Claude McKay (25 lines)

Poem 2: Revenge by Letitia Elizabeth Landon (Pre-20c)

Poem 3: Adam's Curse by William Butler Yeats

"It's human connection. It's reaching across time, through space, and breathing through and with someone else. It's amazing."

School: Western High School

Teacher: Brandon Leighton

Poem 1: Requests For Toy Piano by Tony Hoagland

Poem 2: Father by Edgar Albert Guest

Poem 3: I Find no Peace by Thomas Wy-att (Pre-20c/25 lines)


Placer County champion

Sacramento County champion

"A lot of people feel insignificant and are afraid to speak, but Poetry Out Loud has proven that if you are given the opportunity and are brave enough to take it, people will listen."

Sarah Farrel

Ithalia Price

"Poetry Out Loud is an outlet for me to utilize different works of art for creative expression, being comfortable and confident in my own skin."

School: Placer High School

Teacher: Brittany Haydon

Poem 1: Wife's Disaster Manual by Deborah Paredez (25 lines)

Poem 2: The Universe as Primal Scream by Tracy K. Smith

Poem 3: Early Affection by George Moses Horton (Pre-20c/25 lines)

School: Pleasant Grove High School

Teacher: Russell Young

Poem 1: The Applicant by Sylvia Plath

Poem 2: On Monsieur’s Departure by Queen Elizabeth I (Pre-20c/ 25 lines)

Poem 3: Onions by William Matthews


Riverside County champion

San Bernardino County champion

Christopher Rivas

"I am truly honored and blessed to be a part of this wonderful program, and look forward to making new friends and hearing lots of great poetry."

"Having the opportunity to be involved in California Poetry Out Loud and compete with many other talented students has been an exciting experience. It is an honor to present poems of our history legends who wrote such inspiring words in their time. Being able to continue to remember their message by reciting with admiration has been my pleasure."

Kristinely Afable

School: Xavier College Preparatory High School

Teacher: Lori Davis

Poem 1: Constantly Risking Absurdity (#15) by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Poem 2: Love (III) by George Herbert (Pre-20c/ 25 lines)

Poem 3: Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with

fortune and men's eyes by William Shakespeare (Pre-20c/25 lines)

School: Center For Learning and Unlimited Educational Success

Teacher: Sierra Pannabecker

Poem 1: I, Too by Langston Hughes (25 lines)

Poem 2: Dirge in Woods by George Meredith (Pre-20c/ 25 lines)

Poem 3: The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee

by N. Scott Momaday (25 lines)


San Diego County champion

San Luis Obispo County champion

"The competition aside, Poetry Out Loud is amazing in what it does for us students; we get to be exposed to new poetry and new ideas, and hear our old favorites recited in new ways. It's both challenging and eye opening."

"Poetry Out Loud has allowed me the wonderful opportunity to see, feel and experience beautiful masterpieces painted, not with paint, but with words intricately placed allowing the author to tell his/her story by a baring of the soul."

Shelby Becker

Ethan McSwain

School: Valley Center High School

Teacher: Crystal Rienick

Poem 1: Xenophobia by Rae Armantrout

Poem 2: Up-Hill by Christina Rossetti (Pre-20c/ 25 lines)

Poem 3: The Empty Dance Shoes by Cornelius Eady

School: San Luis Obispo High School

Teacher: James Bruce

Poem 1: They Feed They Lion by Philip Levine

Poem 2: Novel by Arthur Rimbaud (Pre-20c)

Poem 3: Under the Vulture-Tree by David Bottoms (25 lines)


San Francisco County champion

Santa Barbara County champion

Aldrin Allen Ysip

"You take a room full of strangers, give them poetry, and by the end of the day they will be best friends. That is what the arts are about."

"The Arts allow you to have the freedom to express your thinking through words, a brush, movement or even an instrument. There are infinite pieces of art that you can connect to. There is bigger meaning to the simple words on a piece of paper or the figures on a canvas and finding those little secrets sends you in awe and makes the work of art ten times more worthwhile."

Yael Vainberg

School: Lowell High School

Teacher: Susan Terence

Poem 1: The Author to Her Book by Anne Bradstreet (Pre-20c/25 lines)

Poem 2: Ode for the American Dead in Asia by Thomas McGrath

Poem 3: Strange Meeting by Wilfred Owen

School: Pioneer Valley High School

Teacher: Ben Rothstein

Poem 1: A Display of Mackerel by Mark Doty

Poem 2: The Seekers of Lice by Arthur Rimbaud (Pre-20c/ 25 lines)

Poem 3: Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats (Pre-20c)


Santa Clara County champion

Siskiyou County champion

Trey Bradford

"Viewing the world through poetry gives me the ability to learn more about the life I live. This window through words gives me the opportunity to challenge myself in a meaningful and creative way that unfolds a story in a marvelous expression."

“Poetry Out Loud is one of the few programs that emphasizes the most powerful tool humans have, the power of the spoken word."

Joshua Bjurman

School: Live Oak Academy

Teacher: Holly Coty

Poem 1: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney (25 lines)

Poem 2: Requests for Toy Piano by Tony Hoagland

Poem 3: The Man with the Hoe by Edwin Markham (Pre-20c)

School: Etna High School

Teacher: Lynn Karpinski

Poem 1: Cartoon Physics, part 1 by Nick Flynn

Poem 2: The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Pre-20c/ 25 lines)

Poem 3: The Listeners by Walter de La

Mare


Santa Cruz County champion

Solano County champion

Virginia Ontiveros

"Spoken word poetry is an art I’ve longed to explore. Poetry Out Loud has provided me with an opportunity to do so."

"To me, poetry is an outlet to express your ideas or experiences to others as you wished you could express yourself every time you spoke. To transfer emotion from poet to paper to reader."

Mirelle Sandoval

School: Aptos High School

Teacher: Kerri Barrick

Poem 1: The Applicant by Sylvia Plath

Poem 2: A Noiseless Patient Spider by Walt Whitman (Pre-20c/25 lines)


School: Dixon High School

Teacher: Jed Miller


Poem 2: American Smooth by Rita Dove

Poem 3: Echo by Christina Rossetti (Pre-20c/25 lines)


Sonoma County champion

Sutter County champion

Alexandra Gonzalez

"Poetry Out Loud allows me to connect with my inner self and feel inspired by the freedom and strength that poetry portrays."

School: Roseland University Prep

Teacher: Chelsea Johnson

Poem 1: The Layers by Stanley Kunitz

Poem 2: At the New Year by Kenneth Patchen

Poem 3: A Birthday by Christina Rossetti (Pre-20c/25 lines)

Karina Topete

"The arts are a way of expressing how you feel with or without words."

School: River Valley High School

Teacher: Nicole van Brocklin

Poem 1: Eating Poetry by Mark Strand (25 lines)

Poem 2: Before the Birth of One of Her Children by Anne Bradstreet (Pre-20c)

Poem 3: Speak by Phillip B. Williams


Stanislaus County champion

Tehama County champion

"Poetry Out Loud has introduced me to the realization that poetry has hundreds of different interpretations that only the person reading can discover, and how beautiful and comforting that realization can be."

Hasna El-Nounou

School: John H. Pitman High School

Teacher: Cole Humphres

Poem 1: Happiness by Jane Kenyon

Poem 2: A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown by Walt Whitman (Pre-20c/ 25 lines)

Poem 3: Happiness by Paisley Rekdal

Madeline Flynn

"The arts are a way of expressing how you feel with or without words."

School: Mercy High School

Teacher: Helen Arbini

Poem 1: The Darker Sooner by Catherine Wing (25 lines)

Poem 2: Immortal Sails by Alfred Noyes (25 lines)

Poem 3: She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron (George Gordon) (Pre-20c/25 lines)


Tuolumne County champion

Yolo County champion

Levi Lowe

Alfonso Casares

"As a Poet whose meter measures advances, the Awaiting World is my canvas, and its color will come in Stanzas."

"My favorite part of Poetry Out Loud is being able to step into the shoes of a different character, really study and become it, and be able to execute it in a way that others see a whole different person reading the poem."

School: Sonora Union High School

Teacher: Maggie Hodson

Poem 1: A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown by Walt Whitman (Pre-20c/25 lines)

Poem 2: The Nail by C. K. Williams (25 lines)

Poem 3: The Blues Don’t Change by Al

Young (25 lines)

School: Esparto High School

Teacher: Sophia Hoang

Poem 1: Abandoned Farmhouse by Ted Kooser (25 lines)

Poem 2: And Soul by Eavan Boland

Poem 3: A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky by Lewis Carroll (Pre-20c)


Ventura County champion

Yuba County champion

Jessie Sulka

Charlie Diamond

“Poetry Out Loud is not a competition, it is a moment in which the writer can be heard, where both the reciter and audience experi-ence the gift that the author has created. I see Poetry Out Loud is an abstract art gallery were we can visualize the writer’s master-piece through the voice of another individual, it is far from the definition of what a competition implies.”

"The arts are a fun way to relieve stress, and express yourself. Whether it’s singing, dancing, acting, poetry, painting, or writing, the arts tend to bring out the best in everyone."

School: High School at Moorpark College

Teacher: Jacqueline Powell

Poem 1: For Love by Robert Creely

Poem 2: For the young who want to by Marge Piercy

Poem 3: Life in a Love by Robert Browning (Pre-20c/25 lines)

School: Marysville Charter Academy of the Arts

Teacher: Ruth Atkins

Poem 1: It was not Death, for I stood up, (355) by Emily Dickinson (Pre-20c)

Poem 2: El Olvido by Judith Ortiz Cofer (25 lines)

Poem 3: Advice to a Prophet by Richard

Wilbur


Judges

Her first love is poetry, but

Lewis also writes fiction, essays, and children’s literature, pub-lished in numerous journals and anthologies. Since 1995, Lewis has been creating curriculum with California Poets in the

Schools and bringing hands-on imaginative workshops to K-12 students, often as a CAC Artists-in-Schools awardee. She was born in San Jose, grew up in Southern California and earned an MFA from Antioch - Los Angeles. Now living in Mendocino Coun-ty, Lewis is the Executive Director of the Mendocino Coast Writ-ers Conference.

published her first poem

in the Palo Alto Times when she was in the fifth grade. She completed her Master of Liberal Arts at Stanford University in 2012, with a thesis on the domestic poetry of Eavan Boland. Jennifer has been a poet/teacher with California Poets in the Schools since 2001 and joined their Board of Directors in March 2013. Her poems have been published in multiple local journals, including Caesura and The DQM Review. In October 2013, Jen-

nifer became the second Poet Laureate of the City of Cupertino. You can follow her Poem-A-Day project “A Lane of Yellow” on Tumblr (http://laneofyellow.tumblr.com/) and other Cupertino Poet Laureate news at http://cupertinopoetlaureate.org.

, award-winning Chicano poet and educa-

tor, is the author of 13 volumes of poetry, including,

Ce•Uno•One: Poems for the New Sun (Swan Scythe Press 2010), From the Other Side of Night: Selected and New Poems (University of Arizona Press 2002), Snake Poems: An Aztec In-

vocation (Chronicle Books 1992), and Sonnets to Madness and Other Misfortunes (Creative Arts Book Company 2001). His most recent books are Canto hondo / Deep Song (University of Arizona Press 2015) and Borderless Butterflies / Mariposas sin

fronteras (Poetic Matrix Press 2014). He has published six books for children available through Lee & Low Books, including Animal Poems of the Iguazú (2008) and Poems to Dream Together (2005). He teaches at the University of California, Davis, where he directs the Spanish for Native Speakers Program. He is the creator of the Facebook page POETS RESPONDING TO SB 1070.

http://laneofyellow.tumblr.com/

http://cupertinopoetlaureate.org


Judges

is a recently-reappointed Council Mem-

ber of the California Arts Council, where he has served since 2013. Coppola has been head of the film program at the San Francisco Art Institute since 2013. He has been owner and exec-

utive producer for his companies Plaster City Productions Inc.

and Christopher Coppola Enterprises since 1994,and has been a Directors Guild of America film and television director since 1987. Coppola is president of Project Accessible Hollywood (PAH), a non-profit organization he founded in 2006 to bring digital technology education to underserved communities.

has been the Executive and Artistic Director of

the Oakland School for the Arts since 2007. Earlier, Harris served as the Principal of the San Francisco School of the Arts, where he created a sister school, The Academy of Arts and Sci-ences, offering the arts to students without prior experience. Harris received his BA and MA in Theatre Arts from CSULA, and

holds teaching credentials in English and Special Education. Governor Jerry Brown appointed Mr. Harris to the California Arts Council in January 2014. He also serves as the Vice President of the National Arts Schools Network and is on the board of the Engineers Alliance for the Arts. On January 28, 2015, Mr. Harris was voted in as the 20th Chairman of the California Arts Council.

has been published in English, Spanish &

Spanglish in the USA, Mexico & Europe. She’s an award-winning poet & multi-instrumentalist. She’s a popular Bay Area DJ, radio personality and leader of the group “Avotcja & Modúpue” (The

Bay Area Blues Society’s Jazz Group of the Year in 2005 & 2010). She received two Lifetime Achievement Awards in 2014. Avotcja teaches Creative Writing, Drama & Music & is a proud member of DAMO (Disability Advocates Of Minorities Org.), PEN Oakland, a former member of California Poets In The Schools, IWWG & is an ASCAP recording artist. Her latest Book is With

Every Step I Take (Taurean Horn Press 2013 available at Small Press Distribution &/or Amazon).


Judges

is a native San Francisco poet, playwright and per-

former. A noted jazz poet, she has performed at numerous jazz festivals and venues in the country and has been featured at the SF Jazz Poetry Festival and World Poetry Festivals in Caracas,

Venezuela and Sarajevo, Bosnia-Hercegovina. Her poetry and vocals can be heard on Asian Improv Arts recordings with Fran-cis Wong, Devotee and Child of Peace; and on Jon Jang’s, Immi-grant Suite. She is the author of the award-winning play, Paper Angels, a prison drama about Chinese immigrants held on Angel Island. The play has been produced throughout the U.S. and received a San Francisco Fringe Festival Award in 2010. Lim has

written three poetry books, Child of War, Winter Place, and Pa-per Gods and Rebels and is co-author of Island: Poetry and His-tory of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, a recipient of the American Book Award.

is program director for arts and the Crea-

tive Work Fund at the Walter and Elise Haas Fund in San Fran-cisco. Prior to her foundation work, Phillips was executive direc-tor of Intersection for the Arts (1986-94), which had a long-running literary reading series, and director of the Poetry Center and American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University (1983-86). She teaches Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. She also is the author of three small press books of

poetry from Kelsey Street Press and Hanging Loose Press, is co-editor of the Grantmakers in the Arts Reader, and is the former poetry review editor for The Hungry Mind Review. Her book re-views have appeared in Hungry Mind Review, Montemora, Poet-ry Flash, Ruminator Review, The San Jose Mercury News, The

Washington Post, and other publications. With Stan Hutton, she

co-authored The Nonprofit Kit for Dummies (fourth edition pub-lished in 2013).

Musicians Seth Dorran (banquet)

Doug Pauly

Photographer Jay R. Hart


Judges

was born in Manila in 1968. He is an award-winning

writer/performer and an internationally recognized trailblazer in connecting arts with social justice, public health, and community development. Tan has published three volumes of poetry, edited

three fiction anthologies, and his various poems, plays, essays,

and short fiction on race, power and identity have appeared in numerous academic and commercial venues. Since 2004, Tan has served as the Director of Community Engagement at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, where his work in the field of arts leadership has been recognized globally. Prior, he worked in Public Health for 16+ years, co-founding LA’s Asian Pacific AIDS

Intervention Team Health Center.

is California’s 2014 Poetry Out Loud

Champion, and she is honored to be back in Sacramento on the other side of the microphone. She currently studies World Arts and Cultures/Film as a first year at UCLA, where she is a mem-

ber of the Shakespeare Company at UCLA as well as a media columnist for OutWrite Newsmagazine. She most recently per-

formed in the Shakespeare Company’s Henry IV part I and An-tony and Cleopatra, and UCLA Residential Life’s The Vagina Monologues. She’d like to thank the inspiring community of po-etry aficionados and reciters who sustain poetry and turn Poetry Out Loud into a celebration, not just a competition.

Widely translated, Young’s many books include poet-

ry, fiction, essays, anthologies, and musical memoirs. From 2005 through 2008 he served as California’s poet laureate. Oth-

er honors include NEA, Fulbright, and Guggenheim Fellowships,

The Richard Wright Award for Literary Excellence and, most re-cently, the 2011 Thomas Wolfe Award. On the first Friday of each month in 2012 he presented an original poem at KQED Radio’s The California Report Magazine. As its Visiting Scholar, Young currently teaches imaginative writing and creativity at

California College of the Arts, San Francisco. Offline Love, a new poem collection, sits almost press-ready. Detailed information about this versatile Berkeley-based author and his work may be found at www.AlYoung.org.

program: california poetry out loud | 2015 state finals

Documents