I AM ALIVE IN LOS ANGELES!!

Jul 03 2023

Here’s the link to get the 2nd edition of

#LetterstomyCity

“Mike Sonksen aka @MikethePoeTLA is an L.A. treasure. He’s the best kind of booster, someone who celebrates the good without erasing the bad, and who loves this place with his whole soul. You can see that love in Letters to My City, his joyful collection of poetry and essays.”

—- Steph Cha, Author of Your House Will Pay

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“Mike Sonksen is a walking encyclopedia of LA history, culture, poetry, community and the list goes on. Letters To My City is a brilliant homage to the greats, the hidden gems, the poetry and the complexities of Los Angeles - an essential part of the LA literary canon.”

——traci kato-kiriyama; author of Navigating With(out) Instruments

“The eye of poet and professor Mike Sonksen beholds and maps the rich totality of life in our beloved City of Angels - every form, color, and texture comprising the lush ecosystem of art and empowerment that’s flourished since he first participated with our community of writers decades ago. To engage his work - plain yet lush, intricate while always welcoming - is to behold the mirror-reflection of the best in all of us and what we, by divine nature, can contribute to a better world.” 

——Allan Aquino, poet and professor for the Department of Asian American Studies at Cal State, Northridge

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When atmospheric rivers hit California and damaged parts of the state earlier this year, many people were hearing about these destructive rainstorms for the first time. Not me, however. I learned about them way back in 1997 while studying under Mike Davis at UCLA. Weather was one of countless areas of knowledge Davis explored in his writing decades before the world caught up to him.

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No matter where I paint a mural, visual art is a universal language that needs no translation,” says Man One, a.k.a. Alejandro Poli Jr. Man One lives to transform public spaces into sacred ones with murals. He’s painted them all over the world, from the 72nd floor of the U.S. Bank Building in downtown Los Angeles to locations in the United Kingdom, Japan, and Mexico and, most recently, at the United States embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal, for two weeks in December, where he also taught workshops with local artists.

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What a beautiful song…

(Source: youtube.com)

Jul 02 2023

What a beautiful song…

(Source: youtube.com)

Mar 15 2023
Feb 24 2023
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Jan 30 2023
I’m late with this because the semester just started again but
my latest essay for @altajournal
was on Will Alexander. A true
purveyor of Sonic grammar
the poet goes intergalactic
like Trane on the saxophone.
His newest book on...

I’m late with this because the semester just started again but
my latest essay for @altajournal
was on Will Alexander. A true
purveyor of Sonic grammar
the poet goes intergalactic
like Trane on the saxophone.
His newest book on @citylightsbooks
“Divine Blue Light,” celebrates
John Coltrane. Terry Robinson
aka @hymnalpoetics & I interviewed
Will also for @dublab two weeks
ago. See the last frame here
to watch Will & Kamau Daaood
go back & forth with their
respective Coltrane poems last
week at Beyond Baroque.
#Letterstoourcity
#sonicgrammar #poetry
#LA #books #afrofuturism
#traveler #rocknroll #soul (at Beyond Baroque)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CoCmmakLODr/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Jan 27 2023
Cory BESSKEPP Cofer is an incredible poet & one of my best friends. We’ve
been doing poetry together since
2000. His new book debuts
Saturday night at the World Stage
in Leimert. I will be doing a short
set before Cory rocks.
Join us for the release...

Cory BESSKEPP Cofer is an incredible poet & one of my best friends. We’ve
been doing poetry together since
2000. His new book debuts
Saturday night at the World Stage
in Leimert. I will be doing a short
set before Cory rocks.

Join us for the release of Cory Besskepp Cofer’s Dreaming Under Polka-Dot Stars.

Book preorders available with ticket purchase.

Purchase virtual tickets to join via Zoom or join us in person at:

World Stage

4321 Degnan Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90008

•••

Guest Poets

Mike the Poet
+ others to be announced

Hosted by AKoldPiece

••••••••

About Dreaming Under Polka-Dot Stars:

“The poems in Dreaming Under Polka-Dot Stars are one part joyful trumpet song, one part elegy. They capture the problems and pleasures of childhood with precision, rendering each image within with the complexity we know we lived through. There’s gospel music in these pages, neon lights flickering through a day dream, and a glimpse of singing cousins. Homies come through too. Fathers serve us sausage and eggs on Sundays. And mothers call us home when it gets dark. Each poem cracks open. Here you’ll find uncles embracing stories before passing them down. Cory Cofer sets these very stories spinning into a history he has been called to carry on.”

—Michael Torres, author of An Incomplete List of Names (at The World Stage Art, Education & Performance Gallery)
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn8dtY_LzXk/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Jan 06 2023
I’m hosting a writing workshop
& open mic this Monday night
at the Cerritos Library. We will
be writing about California State
Parks & location. Come write
with us! #letterstoourcity
(at Cerritos Public...

I’m hosting a writing workshop
& open mic this Monday night
at the Cerritos Library. We will
be writing about California State
Parks & location. Come write
with us! #letterstoourcity
(at Cerritos Public Library)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CnFSo06PnvJ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Dec 17 2022
Congratulations to Alan Nakagawa
on the release of his new book from
@writlargeprojects.
A.I.R.HEAD: THE ANATOMY OF AN ARTIST IN RESIDENCE, (1ST BOOK) 2022
A.I.R.Head: the Anatomy of an Artist in Residence, 2022
Available at Writ Large Projects and...

Congratulations to Alan Nakagawa
on the release of his new book from
@writlargeprojects.

A.I.R.HEAD: THE ANATOMY OF AN ARTIST IN RESIDENCE, (1ST BOOK) 2022

A.I.R.Head: the Anatomy of an Artist in Residence, 2022

Available at Writ Large Projects and Amazon

Within a short amount of time, Alan Nakagawa found himself in the midst of several artist-in-residence opportunities. It started with the Getty Villa and then the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. Within a few years, Nakagawa had a half of dozen completed or in the mix. And then the emails started coming.

Alan and I had a coffee yesterday
on Washington @fence_coffee
which is right across the street
from Ray Charles longtime studio
at Westmoreland & Washington.
Alan grew up near Pico &
Crenshaw & he’s more Los Angeles
than the La Brea Tar Pits. I am already
70 pages into his book & he breaks
down the community arts in Los
ANGELES with the insight only a
true insider could give. He is
embedded in the most authentic
way. I first met Alan with Alessandra
Moctezuma & Mike Davis almost
two decades ago. He’s the one
on multiple levels. Follow him
@nakagawa2015 & pick up his
book. #Letterstoourcity
#oralhistory #collageensembleinc (at Ray Charles Enterprises)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CmR2GiXPQOz/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Nov 11 2022
Beat, Not Beat is a dynamite anthology.
I had a ball reading at the book
release party last night @storiesbooksandcafe
#Letterstoourcity
#books #LA
#poetry (at Stories BooksandCafe)
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck14AXkpiwz/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Beat, Not Beat is a dynamite anthology.
I had a ball reading at the book
release party last night @storiesbooksandcafe
#Letterstoourcity
#books #LA
#poetry (at Stories BooksandCafe)
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck14AXkpiwz/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

3 notes

Nov 08 2022
My prose poem for Mike Davis
in @altajournal Thanks to my
editor Blaise Z & Matt Haber.
#Letterstoourcity (at MacArthur Park)
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cks4lZWrMgq/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

My prose poem for Mike Davis
in @altajournal Thanks to my
editor Blaise Z & Matt Haber.
#Letterstoourcity (at MacArthur Park)
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cks4lZWrMgq/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

2 notes

Nov 07 2022
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