May 2013
19 posts
Tongue & Groove on Sunday May 19, 2013 →
I will be one
of the featured writers at
Tongue & Groove at the HoteL Café
early Sunday evening..
Here’s more info:
Sunday May 19th
6:00-7:30 pm
“Tongue & Groove”
The Hotel...
Arroyo Culture: In the Shadow of the San Gabriels... →
This week L.A. Letters covers the picturesque communities of Altadena, Pasadena and the Arroyo Seco.
Nestled below Mt. Wilson, in the shadow of the San Gabriel Mountains, Altadena, Pasadena and the Arroyo Seco are the birthplace of Southern California arts and crafts culture.
Sycamores in the chaparral and orange groves defined the early years over a century ago.
The thriving literary and...
Asian American Literary Pioneers | LA Letters |... →
May 11, 2013
This week in LA Letters..
May is Asian American History Month. As a recent U.S. Census report revealed, Asian Americans are the largest group immigrating to America in the last decade.
It goes without saying that Los Angeles and Southern California is central to this, like it is with the Latino population.
L.A. Letters celebrates all histories every month but nonetheless this week...
Mike The Poet LA - Mixed Reality Cabaret →
It’s been such a whirlwind of activity lately
that I haven’t had time to reflect or keep track
of all the different events.
April & National Poetry Month
were nonstop..
Here’s a short video clip
from the LA Times Festival
of Books back on April 21, 2013.
Big Thanks to filmmaker/mixed media impresario
Glenn Zucman
for his Mixed Reality Caberet..
4 tags
Wanda Coleman Awarded as Annual Jean Burden Poet...
I’m delighted to share the news
with you that Wanda Coleman,
who is often referred to as
“the unofficial Poet Laureate of Los Angeles,”
will be honored as
the 2013 Jean Burden Reader at CSULA.
The event will take place at 6:30 p.m.
in the Golden Eagle Ballroom on Thursday, May 9.
Doors will open at 5:45. The event is free of charge,
open to the public, refreshments...
4 tags
The San Gabriel River & the 562 | LA Letters |... →
This week in LA Letters..
The San Gabriel River watershed is a 60-mile waterway beginning high up in the San Gabriel Mountains that eventually empties into the Pacific Ocean near the Los Angeles and Orange County border.
This week L.A. Letters explores the landscape, built environment, and cultural history of the San Gabriel River, with special attention focused on the southern half of the...
Learn at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los... →
This Saturday at noon I will be leading a walking
tour for Craft & Folk Art Museum,
see the link for more,
Learn, grow, and bring out
your inner artist
at CAFAM in Los Angeles!
April 2013
18 posts
2 tags
Poem in Process...
We convene in the echoes of those
who came before,
we have a moment.
The proliferation of writings outside the academy
is contributing quickly
to the creation of new genres.
Literacy today is undergoing
a tectonic shift.
What do our references mean?
How visual is the text?
Close up, Flashback, Frame cut, segue,
the screen is the language of the vernacular.
Students negotiate the...
Mike Sonksen - Los Angeles →
Link with
Two different pieces
by two stellar writers,
One in 2013
by Shana Nys Dambrot
& a 2007 piece
by Ernest Hardy..
1 tag
We're Not Done: April 2013 →
This week in LA Letters.
Grand Avenue Park
Cypress Park Library
Get Lit players
Sights & Sounds of DJ Dusk.
GARDEN CITIES
goldmercury:
Garden city movement is a method of urban planning that was initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the UK. Garden cities are self-contained communities surrounded by “greenbelts” & areas of residence, industry and agriculture. Are they coming back?
Now more than ever we need the Garden City……
Small Presses: Poetic Communities Coast to Coast |... →
For local book denizens, April is far from the cruelest month — it is National Poetry Month, and the megalithic Los Angeles Times Festival of Books takes over the USC campus on the weekend of April 20 and 21.
In spite of the ever-changing climate of the publishing industry and new tablet technology, there’s been a rise in boutique small press publishers across the country concerned...
Open Mics Over the Years
The first open mic I ever hosted was in 1999. I’d started performing poetry a few years before at UCLA and all around backyards and basement art parties in the late 90s. The first open mic I performed at regularly was called the House of Green at the Westwood Brewing Company, hosted by Ordell Cordova from 1997 to 2000. Phillip Martin & I started there during the last days of college.
...
BlueBird Reading at Avenue 50
I am featuring here on 4/14/2013…
APRIL 14th (2nd Sunday of the month) Hollywood Institute of Poetics is pretty darn excited… to present: … the BLUEBIRD READING series Featuring: Neil Aitken Iris De Anda Abel Salas Mike the Poet Hosted by: Jessica Ceballos with OPEN MIC after the feature. SIGN UP begins at 1:45! FREE! light refreshments and edible delights will...
Tonight at Beyond Baroque 8PM
In celebration of National Poetry Month, Los Angeles poets
read their own work poetry and work by departed
Los Angeles luminaries.
Reading will be co-founder of The World Stage
in Leimert Park, Kamau Daaood,
Los Angeles’ first poet laureate, Eloise Klein Healy,
Los Angeles Poetry Festival founder, Suzanne Lummis,
KCET blogger, Mike Sonksen,
Cahuenga Press co-founders, Harry...
L.A. Letters Celebrates Poetry Pioneers and... →
This week in LA Letters…
Following last week’s list of poetry venues for National Poetry Month, this week L.A. Letters salutes publishers of poetry and an important anthology.
There’s no shortage of slick poetry books, whether it be published by a small press like L.A.’s Les Figues, a major house like Penguin, or a university press like Wesleyan. I am always on the...
L.A. Letters Guide for National Poetry Month 2013... →
My essay loaded with as many poetry venues as i could squeeze into one piece…
Thousands of poets across America are writing a poem a day this month because April is National Poetry Month. This week L.A. Letters covers even more poetry venues, from the inner city to the Inland Empire, Orange County, San Gabriel Valley, Long Beach and everywhere within reach. Those missed will be covered in...
LAtest Archive: 60 Weeks of #LA Letters →
#LA Letters
Here’s an archive
of 60 weeks
from my KCET column
on the link..
Poem about LAst Sunday
An elaborate set of hurdles
Police cars blocked Vine Sunday
there was a hostage situation
and I had to lead a tour
a doubledecker bus
the driver was Marvin
we’ve done countless tours together
and its always easy money
Recipients of the Third Annual Beyond Baroque... →
The Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
will honor two Los Angeles
poetry icons at its 3rd Annual Awards Dinner
on Sunday, July 14.
March 2013
21 posts
Travelogue Through a Week of Local Music | LA... →
This week in LA Letters:
“New York is Now” was one of Ornette Coleman’s biggest albums on Blue Note Records back in 1968. Forty five years later, Los Angeles is now. Week after week, L.A. Letters celebrates the poets, artists and musicians spread across California making magic happen at a moment’s notice. This week L.A. Letters highlights two evenings of live music and a...
Marcus Gray: Hip-Hop Chocolate From Underground... →
Jeremy Rosenberg interviewed MArcus Gray
of LAnd of Sunshine..
This is an excerpt from Marcus:
I left Boston and left that path behind of becoming a holy man of sorts.
But once I got involved in the underground community here in L.A., I found myself jumping onstage doing poetry with Mike The Poet, who I met at the Poetry Lounge. I met him and Phil Harmonic and the whole Poets of the Round...
Article on Grand Park BookFest →
Shana Nys Dambrot writes
a great short piece
on the Grand Park BookFest:
Downtown L.A.’s relatively new green space at Grand Park has a slogan, “the park for everyone,” which seems fitting to cover events from farmers markets to free concerts to yoga classes.
Of course, there’s nothing better to do on a park bench than read a book, and with the current proliferation of...
1 tag
My poem about the LAST Bookstore
I have been hosting readings at the LAST Bookstore since 2010
when they were on Main. The poem below is my tribute to my
second home. My monthly reading is there on March 24th at 5PM.
LAST BOOKSTORE
Last Bookstore on Spring Street
Addresses the need for community
Space, a place to exchange
Traditional papyrus & the interpersonal imperative
Books & Records, their physical...
Iconic Women in Literary L.A. | LA Letters | Land... →
This week in #LA Letters..
I saw an announcement from Los Angeles Magazine this week about an upcoming issue on the quintessential L.A. Woman. Readers were asked to email nominees and potential choices.
Over the last few weeks I have listed a few dozen L.A. women writers and musicians in this column. This week L.A. Letters discusses Iconic L.A. Women.
1 tag
Pasadena Weekly article about my monthly Last... →
Mike Sonksen has covered a lot of ground since the late nights when he and his UCLA college buddies recorded spirited rhymes in defiance of disgruntled neighbors. Over the ensuing two decades, he has emerged as a fresh-voiced, articulate advocate for LA’s poetry and arts community, as noteworthy for his engaging positivity as for his deep knowledge of LA history.
Click link for more..
Three Generations of Women Thinkers: Seneca Falls... →
This week in #LA Letters..
The modern women’s movement emerged from the abolitionists in the mid-19th Century. Courageous figures like Maria Stewart, Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, the Grimke Sisters, Sojourner Truth, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton campaigned against slavery and for women’s suffrage. The persuasive influence of these pioneering women took Antebellum America by storm...
Write-Up on Grand Park's Book Fest →
Chiwan Choi describes the Book Fest in Grand Park:
It’s been almost two weeks now since we took part in Los Angeles’s first Grand Park Downtown BookFest. Of course, I was going to write all about it last week, all high on the success of the event and all, but instead I ended up getting sick (like everyone else) and was too curled up on the floor moaning in pain to write anything. Thank sweet baby...
Archive of LA Letters: LAnd of Sunshine →
58 Weeks
of #LA #Letters..
Music and poetry
have been the ultimate
mediums for expressing
the wide range
of human emotions
since the dawn of man.
A poem is a part of an ecology
— it uses and maybe gives.
Equal parts live music and poetry,
there are even weeks where dance,
live art and theater make their way
into the performance schedule.
Thursday the 24th in Cypress Park
I am guest hosting at the Cypress Park Branch
Public Library on Thursday March 24th.
The following information is from their site:
Join us at our next Open Mic as we welcome our friend, L.A. Poet, Journalist & Historian, Mike Sonksen A.K.A. “Mike The Poet” to our branch. Known to many in the City of Angels as “Mike The Poet”, Mike Sonksen combines history and...
Updated info for March 24th at the LAst...
Here’s the updated info for March 24th..
LAnguage w/ Mike the PoeT unites the underground with the academic.. Three generations on the same stage all the ancestors on the same page…. … A calvacade of skilled word artists will be presenting… Vickie Vertiz & Zoe Ruiz will be featuring along with Kenji Liu, Armond Kinard, Michael C. Ford, Joe Gardner &...
