EDGAR-ARTURO CAMACHO-GONZALEZ

About the Poet:

Edgar-Arturo Camacho-González (resident of Napa) is a Queer Xicano actor, activist, and poet, originarío de Jalisco, México. Edgar is the lead protagonist of Sin Visa, an independent film released in 2015. Edgar-Arturo also made a cameo appearance in the forthcoming film Brusing for Besos, produced by AdeRisa Productions. He has appeared in theater productions through the Napa Valley Conservatory Theater as well as through IndiStage Theater. Edgar-Arturo is grateful to have Guillermina González and Francisco Camacho as parents. He writes as a form of expression and activism toward deconstructing the inevitability of social tensions. Edgar-Arturo has utilized his ability to touch others through art and the support of his siblings Francisco, Alvaro, Alex, and Claudia to engage his communities. Edgar-Arturo studied Sociology at CSU, Sacramento and has guest lectured at several colleges and universities nationwide. His poetry appears in the forthcoming anthology, Joto: An Anthology of Queer Xicano & Chicano Poetry, and Queer in Aztlán: Chicano Male Recollections of Consciousness and Coming Out. He is currently working on a full-length collection of poetry.

About His Poetry:

Edgar-Arturo enjoys poetry because he is not bound by the rules of language that have in the past held him prisoner.

Forms and/or Tendencies in Edgar-Arturo's work:

Experience

Lyrical

Conceptual

Real

Visual

Performance

Prose

A Sample Poem:

I Want To Borrow Your Wings

I want to borrow your wings for the day

 

Take them for a spin in the dark of the night

 

Over the lights and into the sky

 

Collecting stars as I fly in my mason jar.

 

 

 

I want to fly for the first time.

 

 

 

Flap my wings as I did before I lost them

 

Before they were taken from me.

 

 

 

I want to remember.

 

What it was like to flap my wings.

 

To hope that one day they would be strong enough to take me high.

 

Fly high, into the sky where I can escape the

 

Homophobic

 

Heteronormative

 

Patriarchal

 

White supremacist

 

Structures that cast a shadow over my world.

 

 

 

I want to bring you back stars

 

That you can use to light your night.

 

Use them to paint glitter on the canvas

 

Of your heart.

 

Place them on your wings as ornaments

 

That celebrate your existence and strength.

 

 

 

I want to borrow your wings for the night.

 

For inspiration.

 

Because when my wings grow back

 

 

 

They will be bold.

 

 

 

My wings will take me into the depths of the universe

 

Where I can pick stars bigger than the sun

 

To bring light back to my world

 

 

 

Dismantle the shadows casted over my face.

 

 

 

Because when I return from my voyage

 

I will be me.

 

Without limits.

 

 

 

When I return

 

I will lend my wings to you.

Social Media:

Facebook: Edgar-Arturo, Artist

GARY SILVA

About the Poet:
Gary Silva (resident of Napa) was born in the East Bay and has lived in California most of his life.  He completed his M.A. in literature and poetry writing at CSU, Fresno, and his M.F.A. in poetry writing at U.C., Irvine.  He taught at Napa Valley College since 1990 and retired in 2008.  He was also Poet Laureate of Napa County from 2008-2010.  Gary Silva has had a lifelong passion for poetry and has published poems in dozens of literary magazines across the United States as well as  in four chapbooks:  The Back-up Café, Photograph of a Nude, Ceramics, and Elemental Tanka.

About His Poetry: 
Gary Silva's poetry is influenced by modern and contemporary American and Spanish poetry, including William Carlos Williams, Galway Kinnell, Sharon Olds, and Pablo Neruda, to name a few. He has also been influenced by Chinese and Japanese poetry, including the haiku of Basho, Issa, and others.  He likes to use "concreteness" in whatever ways he can, including imagery and narrative, and, of course, likes to get his "meaning" across through metaphor and simile, which when handled properly produces a deeper meaning beyond what abstractions can produce.



Poetry Forms and/or Tendencies in the Poet’s Work: 
Gary Silva writes in several styles, including free verse longer poems, and even some sonnets.  Recently, he has written a chapbook of five lined tanka (though he has written those now and then throughout his writing career). He has enjoyed writing "persona" or "dramatic monologue" poems (such as "My Last Duchess" by Browning, a poem to aspire to!) More recently, he has been writing a series of "Meditations," longer poems beginning with a "real" situation and trying to move into a slightly more abstract (or metaphorical) of the problem presented.  These are still in the creation/revision process.



Sample Poems: 
Five poems from the "Nuts" section of his chapbook, Elemental Tanka.

Cashew

Crooked like a finger
or the shepard's hook calling
seekers of insight,
buttery and mild wisdoms,
suavely gives us what we need.



Walnut

Outer husk is green,
then the shell rough and pointed
sharply to poke holes
in foolish fingers.  The meat
brain shaped, acrid taste of truth.



Almond

Like an arrowhead,
tapered, aerodynamic,
brittle as porcelain
the white flesh is efficient
in holding us to our prescience.



Sunflower Seeds

They are soaked in salt
as if they were from the sea.
We chew shell and all
thinking we can co-mingle
with the yellow light of blooms.



Hazelnut

Round in forefinger
and thumb, like a small marble,
for the child within
us, but its bite is like soil,
between earth and sky, ourSelves.




Poetry Chapbooks:
The Back-up Café
Photograph of a Nude
Ceramics
Elemental Tanka



Links to Some Poems and Poetry Events Online: 

YouTube performances of collaborations with composer Mazdak Khamda:

"Tomato": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiDsrpkYR74
"Honeydew": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abxcjcCJEkw
"Apple": www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJmemg_kWXY
"The Dark and the Light": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIfYBXh9iU0
Reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9WRXy68TtQ

Healdsburg Literary Guild Tanka Reading, April 20, 2014:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1LvF2vl7yU

EILEEN R. TABIOS

About the Poet:

Eileen R. Tabios (resident of Saint Helena) loves books, and has released more than 20 print, five electronic and one CD poetry collections; an art essay collection; a “collected novels” book; a poetry essay/interview anthology; a short story collection; and two experimental biographies. Her most recent books is THE CONNOISSEUR OF ALLEYS (Marsh Hawk Press, New York, 2016); she also has released two "Selected Poems" projects focused on form: THE THORN ROSARY focuses on the prose poem and INVENT(ST)ORY focuses on the list or catalog poem.  She has also exhibited visual art and visual poetry in the United States and Asia. She has crafted an award-winning body of work that is unique for melding ekphrasis with transcolonialism. Her poems have been translated into Spanish, Italian, Tagalog, Japanese, Portuguese, Polish, Greek, computer-generated hybrid languages, Paintings, Video, Drawings, Visual Poetry, Mixed Media Collages, Kali Martial Arts, Music, Modern Dance and Sculpture.  She also has edited, co-edited or conceptualized ten anthologies of poetry, fiction and essays in addition to serving as editor or guest editor for various literary journals.  She maintains a biblioliphic blog, “Eileen Verbs Books“; edits Galatea Resurrects, a popular poetry review; steers the literary and arts publisher Meritage Press; and frequently curates thematic online poetry projects including LinkedIn Poetry Recommendations (a recommended list of contemporary poetry books).  

Website: http://eileenrtabios.com

(Eileen with puppy Athena)

About Her Poetry:
Eileen feels "the best person is the best poet"--a concept discussed in an interview about her poetry by John Bloomberg-Rissman published in ARDUITY.


Poetry Forms and/or Tendencies in Eileen's Work:
Lyric
Prose Poem
Free Verse
Couplets
Ekphrasis
Hay(na)ku
Haybun
Experimental
Conceptual Poetry
Poetry Generator
Visual Poetry
Asemics
Collaborations
Multi-Genre


A Sample Poem
To Come



Books and Other Publications

INVENT(ST)ORY: Selected Catalog Poems & New 1996-2015 (Dos Madres Press, Loveland, OH, 2015)
I FORGOT LIGHT BURNS (Moria Books, Chicago, 2015)
SUN STIGMATA (Sculpture Poems) (Marsh Hawk Press, New York, 2014)

A List of Her Other Poetry Books is available HERE.



Links to Some Poems Online
A convenient summary of her poems published online is available at http://eileenrtabios.com/with-the-community/selected-poems-online/

Some Electronic Chapbooks are also available as follows:
DUENDE IN THE ALLEYS

44 RESURRECTIONS

THE SINGER And Others: Flamenco Hay(na)ku

There, Where the Pages Would End

Enheduanna in the 21st Century




Social Media
Facebook: As "Eileen Tabios" (and not "Eileen R. Tabios" which was set up by FB robots)

Blog: Eileen Verbs Books

GLYNDA VELASCO

About the Poet:
I [Glynda Velasco] [live in] Napa, California, USA. I have been a community activist and arts activist in my hometown of Vallejo, California. I helped spearhead the movement to have poets against the Liquified Natural Gas plant that Bechtel and Shell proposed to build on Mare Island just a mile or so away from Vallejo. With a weekly open mic producer we had a poetry marathon against the LNG gas plant and then we published an anthology of poetry against LNG. With the rallying support of the residents of Vallejo and people in the Bay Area, Bechtel and Shell left, and our public space on Mare Island is no longer endangered of being marred. Because there was a dearth of resources for spoken word artists and performance poets that were north of San Francisco Bay Area, I founded and directed the first performance poetry arts organization in Vallejo and Solano County. I always gravitated to community building through grassroots causes and/or arts. I have been involved in community and/or local access TV, and I was the associate producer for a live TV show that showcased emerging artists in comedy, spoken word, and music. That same production crew also live streamed open mics and poetry slams. See More HERE. Recently, I became an advocate for Poetry for Personal Power.

Website: http://backyardflaneur.tumblr.com

Poetics: 
I firmly believe that when people come together for a cause in a positive and creative way it is healing and builds community. Personally, I am interested in the social change aspect. I have a strong interest in social justice, progressive mental health, and food access and food parity. We live in a world with different issues and causes now in the forefront, and I believe that all this collective consciousness is creating a malaise. The problems are manmade. We can undo these problems with more mindfulness to nature and other inhabitants beginning with our neighbors and our own neighborhoods. See More HERE.

Poetry Forms and/or Tendencies in the Poet’s Work:
Spoken Word
Hay(na)ku
Visual Poetry

A Sample Poem: 

“through the eye / of a / storm”

amidst

nature’s fury

resilient people rise

from

the muck

lotus blooms again

—from VERSES TYPHOON YOLANDA (Meritage Press, 2014) 

Books and Other Publications: 
VERSES TYPHOON YOLANDA, anthology (Meritage Press, 2014)

Links to Some Poems Online: 
Tanka Memories of CSU, Chico

Hay(na)ku Drawing (scroll down)

Social Media: 
Facebook: Glynda Velasco

KATHLEEN PATTERSON

To Come

EVENTS INVOLVING NAPA POETS

Future:
Eileen Tabios to read for LIT CRAWL in San Francisco, Oct. 19, 2015. Info HERE.


Recent Past:
Eileen Tabios: Book Launch, Poets House, New York City, May 15, 2015.  Info HERE.

Jeremy Benson, Kathleen Patterson, Eileen Tabios, Glynda Velasco: Judges for Teen Poetry Slam at Napa Library.  Coverage by Napa Valley Register HERE.

Jeremy Benson, Jeremy Cantor, Kathleen Patterson, Gary Silva, Eileen Tabios, Beclee Wilson: National Poetry Month Reading at Napa Bookmine, April 19, 2015.