Abiodun Oyewole
Abiodun Oyewole is a poet, author, teacher, and a founding member of the American music and spoken-word group The Last Poets, which laid the groundwork for the emergence of hip-hop. He is the editor of Black Lives Have Always Mattered (2017), author of the Beauty of Being (2018) and the poetry collection, Branches of the Tree Of Life: The Collected Poems of Abiodun Oyewole 1969-2013 (2014), and is the co-author of On A Mission: Selected Poems And A History Of The Last Poets (1996).
www.abiodunoyewole.net
Photo: Chester Higgins Archives

Amanda Gorman
Amanda Gorman is the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, as well as an award-winning writer and cum laude graduate of Harvard University, where she studied Sociology. She has written for the New York Times and has three books recently released or forthcoming from Penguin Random House. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she began writing at only a few years of age. As a teenager, she took poetry workshops at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center and Write Girl, and subsequently was named the first-ever U.S. Youth Poet Laureate by Urban Word. She says of her time at Beyond Baroque: “I think back to scribbling in my journal in some small sweltering room at Beyond Baroque, where a young poet found the love of her life.”
https://www.theamandagorman.com
Photo: Courtesy of Sun Literary Arts

Amy Gerstler
Amy Gerstler has published thirteen books of poems. The most recent is Index of Women (Penguin Random House, 2021). Her previous books include Ghost Girl, Medicine, Crown of Weeds, which won a California Book Award, Nerve Storm, and Bitter Angel, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award. In 2010 she was guest editor of the annual anthology Best American Poetry. Her work has appeared in a variety of magazines and anthologies, including The New Yorker, Paris Review, American Poetry Review, Poetry, several volumes of Best American Poetry and The Norton Anthology of Postmodern American Poetry. Gerstler has also written fiction, nonfiction, and journalism and art criticism.

Amy Landecker
Amy started her career as a theatre actor in Chicago IL, where she worked with the Steppenwolf and Goodman theaters. After moving to New York, she worked at the Barrow St Theater and Second Stage. She won an ensemble Obie award for her performance in Tracy Letts' Bug, the same play that brought her to LA. While performing on stage in LA, she was tapped to play "Mrs. Samsky" in the Coen brothers' Oscar-nominated A Serious Man (2009), which was the beginning of an exciting on-camera career in movies and TV shows like Louie (2010), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000), Enough Said (2013), and her starring role as "Sarah Pfefferman" in the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning Amazon series, Transparent. Amy has also written pilots for FX and Amazon and is a top VO talent in animation and commercials.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0484541/?ref_=nmbio_bio_nm

Bradley Whitford
Bradley Whitford's credits in film, television, and theater include work with some of the most noted writers, directors and playwrights in the arts. A Juilliard-trained actor, his breakthrough role on NBC's acclaimed political drama, The West Wing (1999) made him a household name. Born in Madison, Wisconsin, to George Van Norman and Genevieve Smith Whitford, a poet and writer. Whitford's first professional performance was in the off-Broadway production of Curse of the Starving Class, with Kathy Bates. He also starred in the Broadway production of The West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin's A Few Good Men. Some of Whitford's most memorable performances include roles in such films as The Muse, Bicentennial Man, Scent of a Woman, A Perfect World, Philadelphia, The Client and many others. His recurring role a cross-dressing businessman during the first season of the Amazon series Transparent won him an Emmy and introduced him to his wife, series regular, Amy Landecker. He currently stars in The Handmaid’s Tale on FX.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0925966/

Carolyn Foronda
Carolyn served as Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2006-2008, and was appointed by then-governor Tim Kaine. She co-edited three anthologies and published seven books of poetry, including The Embrace: Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, winner of the 2014 Art in Literature: Mary Lynn Kotz Award. She has won a Virginia Cultural Laureate Award, a Phoebe first-place award, Master Poet (Arlington Arts Center), six Pushcart Prize nominations, among others. Her poems appear in numerous magazines and anthologies, including: Nimrod International Journal, Prairie Schooner, Mid-American Review, Best of Literary Journals, Anthology of Magazine Verse & Yearbook of American Poetry, Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust, Hispanic Culture Review. Her poems, along with those of other Virginia poets laureate, are featured in two art installations at the McLean Metro Station in Northern Virginia.
https://www.carolynforonda.com/
Photo: Janis Harless

E. Ethelbert Miller
Poet and literary activist E. Ethelbert Miller is on the board of the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive multi-issue think tank, and has served as director of the African American Studies Resource Center at Howard University since 1974. His collections of poetry include Andromeda (1974), The Land of Smiles and the Land of No Smiles (1974), Season of Hunger / Cry of Rain (1982), Where Are the Love Poems for Dictators? (1986), Whispers, Secrets and Promises (1998), and How We Sleep on the Nights We Don’t Make Love (2004). Miller is the editor of the anthologies Women Surviving Massacres and Men (1977); In Search of Color Everywhere (1994), which won the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award and was a Book of the Month Club selection; and Beyond the Frontier (2002). He is the author of the memoir Fathering Words: The Making of an African American Writer (2000).
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/e-ethelbert-miller
Photo: Hemphill Gallery by Max Hirshfeld

Jaki Shelton Green
Jaki Shelton Green is the first African American and third woman to be appointed as the North Carolina Poet Laureate. Governor Cooper stated that “Jaki Shelton Green brings a deep appreciation of our state’s diverse communities to her role as an ambassador of North Carolina literature…her appointment is a wonderful new chapter in our rich literary history.” Her collegiate and professional experiences include currently teaching Documentary Poetry at the Duke University Center for Documentary Studies, Visiting Professor for the Carlow University MFA Program Department of Cultural Resources for Brazil, North Carolina Turkish Association, Alhambra Cultural Center in Marrakech Morocco, NC Symphony, NC African American Cultural Heritage Commission. She is the owner of SistaWRITE and co-partner with Dream Yourself Awake and Vertikal Creative Ventures providing writing retreats and travel excursions for women writers in Sedona Arizona, Ocracoke North Carolina, Agadir Morocco, and Tullamore Ireland.
https://jakisheltongreen.com/
Photo: Sylvia Freedman

John Sinclair
John Sinclair is a poet, writer and political activist from Detroit, an innovative bard who sets his verse to music from the blues and jazz tradition, a dynamic performer and bandleader who has collaborated with scores of outstanding musicians, an acclaimed editor, a leading music journalist, award-winning radio broadcaster and record producer, and an iconoclastic educator and lecturer. Sinclair has released more than 25 CDs, and his recent books include It’s All Good—A John Sinclair Reader, Song of Praise: Homage to John Coltrane, Sun Ra Interviews & Essays (editor), a book of blues verse called Fattening Frogs For Snakes, and i mean you: a book for penny. Sinclair founded and directed the Detroit Artists Workshop, managed the MC-5, formed the White Panther Party, directed the Detroit Jazz Center, and produced Piano Night at Tipitina’s for the Professor Longhair Foundation and the “live” broadcast of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival for WWOZ-FM.
www.johnsinclair.us

The Linda Lindas
The Linda Lindas are a half-Latinx, half-Asian punk-power pop band comprised of two sisters, a cousin, and their close friend, ages 10-16 years old. Their covers of The Muffs and Bikini Kill are featured in the Amy Poehler film, Moxie, on Netflix. They first played together as part of Kristin Kontrol’s pickup band of inexperienced kids for Girlschool LA in January 2018; that summer, Bela asked Lucia, Eloise, and Mila to back her up on a few songs at a Hi-Hat gig, and the garage punk band was born. In Fall 2018, they started playing Save Music in Chinatown benefit matinees, where they’ve shared the stage with punk lifers and legends including The Dils, The Gears, Alley Cats, and Phranc. They’ve also played with Alice Bag, Best Coast and Money Mark, opened a sold-out record release show for Bleached, and were hand-picked by Riot Grrrl legends Bikini Kill to open up for them at one of their reunion shows at the Hollywood Palladium.
https://thelindalindas.wixsite.com/rock/
Photo: Zen Sekizawa

Louie Pérez
Louie Pérez is a founding member and the primary lyricist of the Grammy Award-winning and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-nominated band Los Lobos. A guitarist, percussionist and visual artist, he also co-wrote the songs for the Latin Playboys, the side project with Lobos bandmate and writing partner David Hidalgo. In 2018, Tia Chucha Press published Louie’s book Good Morning, Aztlán : The Words, Pictures and Songs of Louie Pérez. He wrote songs for Tony Kushner’s 1994 theatrical adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Szechwan at the La Jolla Playhouse. His prose work has been published in the Los Angeles Times Magazine and the New York arts journal BOMB. As a visual artist, Perez has shown his paintings and sculptures since 1975 in many prominent galleries and museums including, The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions), Plaza De La Raza-Los Angeles, El Museo Del Barrio-New York, San Antonio Museum of Art, and others.
http://bit.ly/GoodMorningAztlánTiaChucha
http://www.loslobos.org/site/
Photo by Peter Dervin

Luis J. Rodriguez
Luis J. Rodriguez served as LA Poet Laureate from 2014-2016. He is a novelist/memoirist/short story writer/children's book writer/essayist as well as a community & urban peace activist, mentor, healer, youth & arts advocate. He has 16 books in all genres, including the best-selling memoir, Always Running, La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. His latest memoir is the sequel, It Calls You Back: An Odyssey Through Love, Addiction, Revolutions, and Healing. His last poetry book is Borrowed Bones from Curbstone Books/Northwestern University Press. In 2020, Seven Stories Press released his first book of essays, From Our Land to Our Land: Essays, Journeys & Imaginings from a Native Xicanx Writer. Luis is founding editor of Tia Chucha Press, now in its 30th year, and co-founder/president of Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore in the San Fernando Valley. He has traveled across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, South America, Europe, and Japan to speak, do poetry readings, indigenous ceremonies, or reportage over the past 40 years.
https://www.luisjrodriguez.com
Photo by Arlene-Mejorado 

Lynne Thompson
Lynne was appointed LA Poet Laureate 2021 by LA Mayor Eric Garcetti. She is the author of Beg No Pardon, winner of the Perugia Press Prize and the Great Lakes Colleges Assn.’s New Writers Award, and the 2013 poetry selection Start With a Small Guitar, which poet David St. John called “a dazzling collection of love poems, wickedly wise and stitched with the darkest nuances of desire.” Her collection Fretwork was published in 2019. A recipient of the city’s 2015 Artist Fellowship, Thompson was also awarded the 2016 Stephen Dunn Poetry Prize and the 2017 Tucson Literary Award for poetry. Her poetry has appeared in the anthologies New Poets of the American West, Mischief, Caprice & Other Poetic Strategies and So Luminous the Wildflowers, as well as in journals such as Poetry, the Colorado Review and the New England Review. Lynne currently sits on the board of the Los Angeles Review of Books and Cave Canem, a literary nonprofit, and is chair of the Scripps College Board of Trustees.
https://www.lapl.org/poet-laureate
Photo: Courtesy of the Office of Mayor Garcetti, Los Angeles

Peter J. Harris
Peter J. Harris, is an award-winning poet and the author of Bless the Ashes (Tia Chucha Press), winner of the 2015 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award, and The Black Man of Happiness: In Pursuit of My 'Unalienable Right,' a book of personal essays, winner of a 2015 American Book Award. In 2021, FlowerSong Press will publish Harris’ Safe Arms: 20 Love & Erotic Poems (w/an Ooh Baby Baby moan), with a spanish translation by Francisco Letelier. Harris is the founding director of The Black Man of Happiness Project, a creative, intellectual and artistic exploration of Black men and joy. Harris writes the blog WREAKING HAPPINESS: A Joyful Living Journal: www.inspirationcrib.com. He is a member of the Anansi Writers Workshop at Leimert Park’s World Stage.

Peter’s performance is his poem Song Again © 2020 from the Love of LA series at The Music Center

Credits
Peter J. Harris - Poet
Artyom Manukyan - Composer/Cellist
Jesse Gilbert - Video Artist
Ed Barguiarena - Producer/Curator
Mesrop Sarkisyan, Ed Barguiarena - Audio Recording, Mixing, Mastering
https://blackmanofhappiness.com/peterjharris/

Ryka Aoki
Ryka is a poet, composer, and teacher and author of Seasonal Velocities, He Mele a Hilo (A Hilo Song), Why Dust Shall Never Settle Upon This Soul and The Great Space Adventure. Her next novel, Light from Uncommon Stars is forthcoming from Tor Books September 2021. Ryka’s work has appeared or been recognized in Vogue, Elle, Publisher’s Weekly, PopSugar, The Guardian, Buzzfeed, The San Francisco Bay Times, Huffington Post and many others. Her latest poetry was part of “Are you okay?” curated by Franny Choi at Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, and she was honored by the California State Senate for “extraordinary commitment to the visibility and well-being of Transgender people.” Aoki’s work appears in many queer and mainstream publications and anthologies, and she was honored to work with the American Association of Hiroshima Nagasaki A-Bomb Survivors. She as performed in venues including the Sundance Film Festival, the National Queer Arts Festival, Yale University, UC Berkeley, UCLA and more.
https://rykaryka.com

Simon Callow
Actor, writer, and director Simon Callow makes a special appearance on behalf of the Christopher Isherwood Foundation to read Isherwood’s essay “The Shore.” Simon trained as an actor at the Drama Centre in London. He joined the National Theatre in 1979, where he created the role of Mozart in Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus. His many one-man shows include Tuesdays at Tesco’s,The Mystery of Charles Dickens, Being Shakespeare, De Profundis, and Inside Wagner’s Head. He has appeared in many films including his one man version of A Christmas Carol, A Room with a View, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Shakespeare in Love, and Phantom of the Opera. He has numerous TV and director credits in the West End and on Broadway. He has written biographies of Oscar Wilde, Charles Laughton, Charles Dickens, Orson Welles, Richard Wagner, as well as three autobiographical books. Simon can be heard in the Harry Potter At Home series, created during the pandemic, along with lead Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe, original narrator Stephen Fry, and others.
http://simoncallow.com

The Christopher Isherwood Foundation
The writer Christopher Isherwood was born near Manchester in the north of England in 1904 and settled in Los Angeles in 1939. During the 1930s, he was recognized as “The Novelist” in the culture-changing Auden Generation and collaborated on four plays and a travel book with his lifelong friend W.H. Auden, the English poet. He became famous for his fiction set in Berlin, Mr. Norris Changes Trains (1935) and Goodbye to Berlin (1939), which was adapted as the stage play I Am a Camera (1951) and the musical Cabaret (1966). In California, Isherwood became a Hindu, earned his living as a screenwriter, and achieved controversial new fame in the vanguard of the Gay Liberation Movement. His slim masterpiece, A Single Man (1964), is set in Santa Monica Canyon, backdrop to a busy love life. His many other books include The Memorial (1932), Lions and Shadows (1938), Prater Violet (1945), and Christopher and His Kind (1976). From 1953 until his death in 1986, Isherwood lived with the Californian artist Don Bachardy, thirty years his junior. Some of their story is told in Isherwood’s Diaries and in their letters. Bachardy still lives and works at the house and studio they shared.
www.IsherwoodFoundation.org
www.DonBachardy.com
Photo of Chris Isherwood by Don Bachardy

Tyehimba Jess
Tyehimba Jess is a Pullitzer Prize poet and author, his book Olio awarded the prize for poetry prize in 2017. He received a Guggenheim fellowship in 2018, and is a Professor of English at College of Staten Island. Jess' fiction and poetry have appeared in many journals, as well as anthologies such as Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry, Beyond The Frontier: African American Poetry for the Twenty-First Century, Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art, Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, Power Lines: Ten Years of Poetry from Chicago's Guild Complex, and Slam: The Art of Performance Poetry. Jess also a veteran of the renowned Green Mill Poetry Slam Team, and won a 2000–2001 Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Poetry.
https://www.tyehimbajess.net
Photo by John Midgely

Wayne Kramer
Wayne Kramer is a guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and film and television composer. Wayne came into prominence as a teenager in 1964 as a co-founder of the Detroit rock group MC5 (Motor City 5), a group known for their powerful live performances and radical left-wing political stance. MC5 often played at Detroit's famous Grande Ballroom and was managed by John Sinclair, a radical writer and co-founder of the White Panther Party, until 1970. After the demise of MC5, a protracted battle with drug addiction landed Wayne in jail for two years, an experience which served as motivation to form Jail Guitar Doors (US) with musician Billy Brag (UK). In 1979 he joined Was (Not Was) and continues a deep friendship and working relationship with Don Was today. He spent the 80s in New York where he wrote, performed regularly at Tramps, among other NY clubs and recorded with numerous punk bands. Kramer and other surviving MC5 members reformed in 1991 in a memorial concert to raise money for the family of former lead singer Rob TynIer. Brother Wayne went on to a solo career and collaborations that included The Melvins and Pere Ubu. In 2001 he and wife /manager Margaret Saadi Kramer formed Muscle Tone Records, produced the MC5 documentary and Margaret launched a music publishing company; that same year Wayne’s autobiography was published, The Hard Stuff: Dope, Crime, The MC5 and My Life Of Impossibilities. He composes regularly for television and film.
https://jail-guitar-doors.myshopify.com/
"https://mc50th.com/
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/22/640319413/wayne-kramer-rock-legend-and-failed-outlaw-assembles-a-supergroup-in-the-rearvie
Photo: Jim Newberry

Host - Shonda Buchanan
Shonda Buchanan is an award-winning author and educator. She is the author of Black Indian, Equipoise: Poems from Goddess Country, and Who's Afraid of Black Indians? which was the winner of the 2020 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Memoir. She is the vice president of Beyond Baroque’s board of trustees for Beyond Baroque.
https://shondabuchanan.com/

Host – Pat Thomas
Pat Thomas is the curator of the Allen Ginsberg Estate Archives; the author of Listen Whitey-The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975, and Did It: Jerry Rubin Story; and the editor of My Week Beats Your Year: Encounters with Lou Reed, compiled by Michael Heath.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pat-thomas-liberates-alle_b_10096296

Beyond Baroque Board of Trustees

Credits