Poetry at The Bette
Alameda Island Poets
First Wednesday of the Month
Time: 7:00–9:00 pm
Every month, we have a featured guest reader(s) followed by our "famously friendly" open mic.
Hosts: Cathy Dana and Kimi Sugioka
Currently held on Zoom.
For the Zoom link, contact Cathy
March 4th:
Honoring Women's History Month
Upcoming event:
Alameda Island Poets Workshop
Second Thursday of the Month
Time: 7:00–9:00 pm
Every month, we have a featured guest leader
Hosts: Cathy Dana
Currently held on Zoom.
For the Zoom link, contact Cathy
Upcoming event:
For March ONLY
Wednesday, March 11:
TBA
Alameda Island Poets
First Wednesday of the Month, 7 - 9 pm
Upcoming event:
March 4th:
Honoring Women's History Month
Location:
For the Zoom link, contact Cathy
Featured Guest Readers:
Anna Christine Rodas
youth poet, Ariana Hernandez
About featured guest readers:
Sharon Coleman
Sharon Coleman is a fifth generation Northern Californian with a penchant for languages and their entangled word roots. She translates poetry from Yiddish, the language of her mother’s family and has studied the Portuguese of her father’s. She grew up tuned to seasons, growing cycles. She curates the reading series Lyrics & Dirges and co-directs the Berkeley Poetry Festival. Her books include Paris Blinks, micro-fiction and Half Circle, poetry chapbook. Her poetry has been translated into Portuguese. She teaches at Berkeley City College and U.C. Berkeley. She received the Maverick Award from the ruth weiss Foundation and a Luso-American Fellowship for the Disquiet Literary Conference in Lisbon. She also won the Eco-Haiku contest at Filoli and 2nd prize for the Naugatuck River Review narrative poetry contest
Anna Christine Rodas
Anna Christine Rodas is an itinerant teacher and educator from the San Francisco Bay Area. She holds a master’s degree in Community Development and worked in this field both here in the Bay Area and internationally. She also holds a PhD in Spanish and her academic research in Central American Literary Studies explores the social realities of war, violence, and trauma. Her poetry is an effort to bring the voices of these experiences to the page, especially those of women. She views the female body as a colonized space and the written word as a practice to reclaim sovereignty. Her most recent collection of poetry, Entre cenizas y palmas, was published with Nomadic Press in 2021.
Alameda Island Poets Workshop
Second Thursday of the Month, 7 - 9 pm
Upcoming event:
For March ONLY
Wednesday, March 11:
TBA
For the Zoom link, contact Cathy
Your Hosts
Connect with Alameda Island Poets
Cathy Dana
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Cathy Dana, President of Alameda Island Poet and Alameda Poet Laureate Emerita, is the co-host of Alameda Island Poets and hosts the alameda Island Poets Workshop. She also teaches creative writing at Alameda Community Learning Center, where she began the Mighty Pens teen poetry group, as well as the first poet laureate program. Her first published book of poetry, My Dad Believed in Love, was released in early 2016.
Kimi Sugioka
Kimi Sugioka is a poet, songwriter, and educator. She is the current Poet Laureate for the City of Alameda, a post that includes creating platforms for the presentation of a diverse variety of poets and spoken-word artists. Kimi also performs her own work frequently throughout the Bay Area. Born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and raised in Berkeley, California, Kimi has worked in public education for decades, and earned her BA from San Francisco State University and MFA from the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado.