Poetry and the Senses Flash Reading Series for Poetry Month
The spring semester of Engaging the Senses Foundation’s ongoing Poetry and the Senses partnership with U.C. Berkeley’s Arts and Research Center (ARC) is in full swing! 2022’s poetry ventures, just like those during the 2020 and 2021 seasons of the project, have focused brilliantly — in the words of Julia Bryan-Wilson, ARC’s Director – on poetry as a vital resource during a time unduly challenged by crisis, including a world-wide pandemic, massive wildfires, and intense political unrest.
Continued gratitude goes out to Julia, to fall 2021 semester Acting Director of Arts Research Center and ongoing Board Member Chiyuma Elliott, and to Associate Director of ARC Laurie Macfee, who facilitates the Poetry and the Senses initiative. Gratitude as well to the spring 2022 semester’s Poetry and the Senses Fellows, who began their tenure in the fall of 2021 and continue their investigation of the theme of coexistence, which “has a spatial component, and implies the sharing of space or cohabitation within overlapping territories; it also has a temporal dimension, suggesting simultaneous presence with others in the same moment in time.”
In addition to ARC’s larger monthly readings, the primary Poetry and the Senses project for April, which has been designated National Poetry Month in the U.S., is a daily series of Flash readings from a multiplicity of exciting poets
ARC piloted the Flash Reading Series in 2021 featuring two dozen Bay Area poets reading one of their poems in relation to the 2020-2021’s Poetry and the Senses theme of “emerge/ncy”. Over time, the series has turned into a growing online archive of Bay Area poets. During fall 2021/spring 2022, the project has been able to add 30 more writers reading one of their poems related to the current theme of “coexistence.”
Poetry and the Senses Featured poets for April 2022 National Poetry Month include:
Dodie Bellamy, Maxe Crandell, Eric Falci, Ra Malika Imhotep, Mason J, Fiza Jihan, Nathalie Khankan, Ava Koohbor, Angie Sijun Lou, Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta, tanea lunsford lynx, Zouhair Mussa, Shivani Narang, Lucie Pereira, Katie Peterson, Janice Lobo Sapigao, Darius Simpson, Maya Sisneros, Aimee Suzara, Lehua M. Taitano, & Nellie Wong
They join 32 other amazing readings by Bay Area poets:
Kim Addonizio, Katherine Agyemaa Agard, Bahaar Ahsan, Ari Banias, William Brewer, MK Chavez, Jennifer Cheng, Lindsay Choi, Sophia Dahlin, Jennifer Foerster, C.S. Giscombe, Caroline Goodwin, Amanda Gunn, Brenda Hillman, Jane Hirshfield, Leena Joshi, Dana Koster, Raina Leon, Randall Mann, Thea Matthews, Florencia Milito, Geoffrey G. O’Brien, Brittany Perham, D.A. Powell, Barbara Reyes, Rachel Richardson, Atsuro Riley, sam sax, Kim Shuck, Kevin Simmonds, Juliana Spahr, & D’mani Thomas.
The short recorded readings are carried here, where you can also find and listen to the 2021 Flash series, as well as sign up for ARC’s newsletter so you can be sent the spring 2022 readings every Friday in April.
Please enjoy this treasure trove of new and established poets whose voices add so much to our public and private discourse!
