Afrofuturism: SF Poet Laureate Monthly Poem Jam

Submitted by the Event Organizer

San Francisco Poet Laureate Kim Shuck and special guests open the door to an evening of Afrofuturistic poetry. Poets include Ishmael Reed, Staajabu, devorah major, Tureeda Mikell, Avotcja and Dr. Glenn Parris for a special celebration of African American literature.

Ishmael Reed is the winner of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship (genius award), the renowned L.A. Times Robert Kirsch Lifetime Achievement Award and the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Award. He is the author of more than thirty titles including the acclaimed novel Mumbo Jumbo, as well as non-fiction, plays and poetry.

Staajabu is a poet, activist and member of Straight Out Scribes. Mother to Dr. V.S. Chochezi, she and her daughter are the Straight Out Scribes poetry duo. Born in Philadelphia and raised in Camden, New Jersey, Staajabu is a writer, poet, editor, producer, health advocate, prison rights activist, environmental activist, graphic artist and U.S. Air Force veteran who currently resides in Sacramento.

devorah major is a poet, novelist and short story writer, who served as San Francisco’s Third Poet Laureate (2002-2006). She was born and raised in California. Her novels An Open Weave and Brown Glass Windows have been called both science fiction and magic realism. She has published science fiction short stories in magazines and anthologies, including Stories for Chip and So Long Been Dreaming. A Willow Press Editor’s Choice awardee, her seventh book of poetry, califia’s daughter, was published by Aquarius Books/Willow Press in July 2020.

Tureeda Mikell, a.k.a. Toreadah, is a Story Medicine Woman, Poet Instructor, Chi Gong Energy Therapist, award-winning internationally published poet, educator and director of Tree of Life Foundation HLP. Tureeda Mikell has published more than seventy at-risk student anthologies in four San Francisco Bay Area counties, was Eth-Noh-Tec NU Wa International Storytelling Delegate in Beijing in 2018 and served as a delegate for the National and International Writing Project, Writing for the Urban Child in Denver. Tureeda Mikell’s Synchronicity: The Oracle of Sun Medicine was published by Nomadic Press in 2020.

Avotcja is an award-winning poet and multi-instrumentalist who publishes in both English and Spanish in the United States, Mexico and Europe. A popular Bay Area DJ and radio personality, Avotcja leads the group “Avotcja & Modúpue” (The Bay Area Blues Society’s “Jazz Group of The Year” in 2005 & 2010) and facilitates Oakland’s longest running multilingual poetry series.

Dr. Glenn Parris is the author of cross-genre books in medical mystery, Afrofuturism, science fiction, fantasy and historical fiction. His story “The Tooth Fairies: Quest for Tear Haven” appeared in Outland Entertainment’s new faerie stories anthology, Where the Veil is Thin. The author’s Afrofuturist novel Dragon’s Heir is being republished by Outland Entertainment in 2021.

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