Fruitvale Poet Series
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Event Description
The Fruitvale Poet series aims to showcase the multifaceted literary talent that resides within our East Bay community of Fruitvale, Oakland. Each poet brings to the table a unique perspective from the streets of Fruitvale.
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Curator: Nomadic Press
Nomadic Press is a literary and arts non-profit organization that supports the works of emerging and established writers and artists. Through publications (including translations) and a burgeoning performance schedule, we aim to build community among artists across disciplines. We have workspaces in Brooklyn, NY, and Fruitvale, Oakland, CA.
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Event Readers
Rohan DaCosta
Rohan DaCosta is an art school dropout from Chicago, who has become an active member of the Oakland arts and literary community and is very grateful to have been so welcomed. He is a devoted artisan whose projects range from film, music, fiction writing, and clothing design. To see more of his work visit gracegodcollective.com.
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Takeema Hoffman
Takeema Hoffman was born in raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina. She relocated to the Bay area in 2010 and has been a Fruitvale resident since 2011. She received her MA in Visual and Critical Studies from California College of The Arts in May of 2015 and works with east Oakland youth at Lighthouse Community Charter School.
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Freddy Gutierrez
Freddy Gutierrez (MFA '15, Mills College), vato de aquellos, facilitates writing and performance arts spaces with men and youth who are policed, imprisoned, and marginalized by the prison-industrial complex. The bulk of his poetic creations have been performative in that the works have gone from the page to the stage and the street. Freddy has read and performed at cultural centers and universities throughout the Bay Area and Northern California, as well as to support many of the local social protests, rallies, and direct actions for campaigns concerned with immigrant rights, housing and tenant rights, indigenous rights, and against the criminalization of youths of color. He’s published poems with California Poet Laureate, Juan Felipe Herrera’s, "LoWriter of the Week," The Acentos Review, and POOR Magazine.
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Joshua Merchant
Joshua Merchant is a writer, activist and native of East Oakland. Combining a masterful eye for detail, startling vulnerability, and unflinching courage, Joshua explores queer issues, black identity and the complexities of their intersection. In 2011, he won the title of Youth Speaks champion and represented the Bay Area at Brave New Voices. Later that year, he became the Berkeley Slam’s youngest Individual World Poetry Slam representative. He represented for the Golden State Slam’s first venues in the 2012 National Poetry Slam. Joshua is currently preparing his debut book to be published by Youth Speaks’ First Word Press this year.
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Zephir O'Meara
Bay Area native living in Fruitvale for two years, Zephir O'Meara is a recovering stay-at-home dad and armchair revolutionary. He is unpublished, untested, and for all intents and purposes invisible.
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Joy Elán Sledge
Joy Elán Sledge is an author of two poetry books; Signs of Life: Past, Present, and Future and, Silence Is Not Always Golden: A Poetic Revolution. She is from Oakland and Berkeley, CA. She recently won third place in Oakland's Got Talent in June 2014 for her spoken word piece, I'm A Survivor.www.authorjoyelan.com
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