The Southern California Poetry Festival returns to
Beyond Baroque on November 17, 18, and 19! 

November 17
The festival kicks off with a landmark event: the official renaming of Beyond Baroque’s theater after groundbreaking poet, L.A. literary icon, and Beyond Baroque alumna Wanda Coleman. In celebration of the new Wanda Coleman Theater, the evening will feature a ceremony and reception, performances by Terrance Hayes and Mimi Tempestt, and readings of Coleman’s poems by Pam Ward, Luis J. Rodriguez, Sesshu Foster, and Laurel Ann Bogen. This November would have been Wanda’s 77th birthday, and marks the 10th anniversary of her passing. Please join us in celebrating her legacy in the theater which she called home throughout her career as a poet. 

November 18
Saturday, November 18, features workshops with Mimi Tempestt and Marcello Castillo Hernandez; a showcase of Southern California poets curated by Huizache, World Stage Press, and Air/Light; and readings by queer and trans poets curated by Lambda Literary. Iranian American poets Frieda Afary and Majid Naficy will read poetry in translation celebrating Iran’s Woman Life Freedom movement in a program curated by PEN America. The day concludes with readings by Juan Felipe Herrera, Safia Elhillo, and Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, who will present wholly original, new works commissioned by Beyond Baroque for the festival. 

November 19
Sunday, November 19, features workshops by Amanda Ackerman and William Archila; readings curated by Graywolf Press, the Tuesday Night Project, and the Inlandia Institute; and a bilingual reading and conversation with three dynamic Latinx poets featured in Donde Somos Humanos/Somewhere We Are Human Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings, moderated by the anthology editor, Sonia Guiñasca. A reading and conversation curated by Diane Ward explores the influence of Language Poetry and other experimental poetics. The festival will conclude with a powerful set of readings by Sally Wen Mao, Muriel Leung, and others.   

About the Festival:
The annual, three-day celebration of the art of poetry was founded in 2016 by Sonia Greenfield and Donna Hilbert in partnership with the Poetry Foundation. Since 2018, Beyond Baroque has organized and curated the festival with the support of partner organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the Department of Cultural Affairs for the City of Los Angeles, and the Poetry Foundation. All programs and workshops are free.

Tickets, lineup and schedules, and more info here.