Words minus music equals?
It’s about poetry.
One of those events, put on by the Sacramento Poetry Center and featuring Asian-American poets Al Robles and Nellie Wong, is coming up this Monday, Aug. 26 at the Sacramento Ballet, 1631 K St. at 7:30 p.m.; admission is $5 or $4 if you are a member of SPC.
Robles, a Filipino-American, grew up in San Francisco’s Fillmore District. He co-founder of the Kearny Street Asian American Writers’ Workshop in that city, and has written a new book entitled Rappin with Ten Thousand Caribou in the Dark.
Wong, a Chinese-American, also lives in San Francisco. She has published three volumes of poetry: Dreams in Harrison Railroad Park, The Death of Long Steam Lady and Stolen Moments, with a fourth, Broad Shoulders, awaiting publication. She is also featured with Mitsuye Yamada in Mitsuye & Nellie, Asian American Poets, a documentary film by Allie Light and Irving Saraf.
While this paper has weekly sections for film, theater, dining and music, and we periodically cover art, we don’t do as well with poets. We don’t have a dedicated section for poets, and so whenever events of import come up, they usually make it into the calendar listings.
Occasionally we run features about poets, and occasionally we get feedback from poetry enthusiasts that what we do is not enough. We’ve gotten a few of these communiqués in the past week, which point to either the kind of organized assaults usually seen from politically motivated readers, or from a few poetry fans who would like to see more poetry coverage in these pages. Not being conspiracy theorists, we’ll suspect the latter.
More poet-related events this week. Thursday, Aug. 22: Poetry Unplugged featuring Gilberto Rodriguez, open mike, 8 p.m. at Luna’s Café, 1414 16th St. Friday, Aug. 23: Jewel of the Valley Poetry Series presents Molly Fisk, open mike, 7 p.m. at Tillie’s Coffee, Tea & Etc., 21 West Pine St. in Lodi. Tuesday, Aug. 27: SPC Poetry Workshop, 7:30 p.m. at Hart Senior Center, 915 27th St. Also Tuesday: Ted Finn, open mike, 7:30 p.m. at Juliana’s Kitchen, 1401 G St. Wednesday, Aug. 28: Poetry at Jamaica House, open mike, 9 p.m., 1704 Broadway. Also: Wordsmiths present Arturo Mantecon and Christina Hayes, open mike, 7 p.m., South Natomas Library, 2901 Truxel Rd.