Welcome to the Poetry Center and American Poetry Archives

Upcoming Events

The Black Aesthetic, Lance Yamamoto photo, The East Bay Express

The Black Aesthetic, in performance and in conversation

Thursday, April 26 - 7:00 pm
The Poetry Center, HUM 512, SF State University
Paul Flores-James Kass

James Kass and Paul S. Flores: a reading & performance celebrating 21 years by two founders of Youth Speaks

Thursday, May 3 - 7:00 pm
The Poetry Center, HUM 512, SF State University

Recent Events

Words and Music Double Bill, Steve Dalachinsky ||| Cosmic Diaspora: Jake Marmer, John Schott, Joshua Horowitz

NoViolet Bulawayo, Gina Berriault Award for Fiction, reading

Tom Raworth (1938–2017): A Celebration of His Life and Work

David Henderson, reading and in conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Solmaz Sharif, a reading and reception

Jackie Wang, Carceral Capitalism, with Lily Hoang, A Bestiary, a reading and book party

Lily Hoang and Jackie Wang, reading and in conversation

Julian Talamantez Brolaski and Garrett Caples, reading and in conversation

Dale Smith, on Robert Duncan and Charles Olson, and reading his own poetry

Lewis Jordan Trio, for Langston Hughes on his Birthday

VIDEO + AUDIO David Hobbs, The George Oppen Memorial Lecture, "Oppen and His Early Others"

CANCELLED Steven Seidenberg and Jared Stanley

VIDEO + AUDIO Jerome Rothenberg, Reading and in Conversation

David Meltzer Memorial Tribute

VIDEO + AUDIO alex cruse and Kevin CK Lo, in Performance and in Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Trace Peterson and Max Wolf Valerio, Reading and in Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO William Rowe and Helen Dimos, Reading and in Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Dennis Cooper and Eileen Myles, reading at McRoskey Mattress Co.

CANCELLED May-lee Chai and Junse Kim

VIDEO + AUDIO Tongo Eisen-Martin with Marshall Trammell, in Performance

VIDEO + AUDIO Mazza Writer in Residence Tongo Eisen-Martin, in Performance and Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Camille T. Dungy and Javier Zamora, Reading and in Conversation

The New Talkies: Live Film Narrations at ATA

VIDEO + AUDIO Douglas Kearney and Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta, in Performance and Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Martha Ronk and Paul Vangelisti, Reading and in Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Nellie Wong and Genny Lim, Reading and in Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO David Brazil, Sara Larsen, Rebecca Eland, Andrew Schelling, Reading and in Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Orlando White and Patrick James Dunagan, Poetry Center Book Award Reading

VIDEO + AUDIO Janice Lowe plays Leaving Cle, Poetry and Groove, with Yohann Potico and Kevin Carnes

VIDEO + AUDIO Ariel Goldberg and Simone White, Giant Night: The Poetry Project at 50, a Reading and Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Poetry Center Chapbook Exchange, a Reading and Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Margaret Randall, Only the Road ⁄ Solo el Camino: Eight Decades of Cuban Poetry

VIDEO + AUDIO David Boyce, Hafez Modirzadeh, and Marshall R. Trammell: Arcana Boil at Bird & Beckett

VIDEO + AUDIO Asya Abdrahman, Faith Adiele, Tonya M. Foster: Navigating Space for Women

VIDEO + AUDIO Layli Long Soldier and Truong Tran, Reading and in Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Hank Lazer and Andrew Maxwell, Reading and in Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Oki Sogumi and Wendy Trevino, Reading and in Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Benjamin Hollander, a Memorial Tribute

VIDEO + AUDIO Charles Alexander and Susan Thackrey, Reading and in Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Frances Richard, The George Oppen Memorial Lecture: "The Mind's Own Place and Feminine Technologies: George Oppen and Possibilities of the Political"

VIDEO + AUDIO Working With Others: Convivial Research (Revisited)

VIDEO + AUDIO Barbara Jane Reyes and Oscar Bermeo + Video Debut Screening

VIDEO + AUDIO Alice Notley reads The Descent of Alette, 2 nights at The Lab

VIDEO + AUDIO José Kozer, a bilingual reading and conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Carolina De Robertis and Micah Perks: Prose at The Poetry Center

VIDEO + AUDIO Geneva Chao and Mg Roberts, Reading and in Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Rod Smith and Lee Ann Brown, Reading and in Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Florencia Castellano, Luis Felipe Fabre, Pablo Katchadjian, Stalina Emmanuelle Villarreal

VIDEO + AUDIO Julia Bloch and erica lewis, Reading and in Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Jennifer Foerster, Poetry Reading at "When I Remember I See Red"

VIDEO + AUDIO Bill Berkson Memorial Tribute

VIDEO + AUDIO Samantha Giles and Angela Hume, Reading and in Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Tongo Eisen-Martin and Jasmine Gibson, Reading and in Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Hollie Hardy and Mukta Sambrani, Poetry Center Book Award Reading

VIDEO + AUDIO For Franco Beltrametti: with Joanne Kyger, Duncan McNaughton, Donald Guravich, Maggie Brown, Jim Nisbet, Judy Goldhaft, Stefan Hyner

VIDEO + AUDIO Stefan Hyner: “This Other World Not Civilized,” a reading and talk with Lao Tzu, T’ao Yüan Ming, Li T’ai Po

VIDEO Kuwentuhan (Talkstory) Collective Performance at McRoskey Mattress Co.

VIDEO + AUDIO Kuwentuhan (Talkstory): a project of The Poetry Center and Barbara Jane Reyes

VIDEO + AUDIO Sarah Schulman and Terry Castle: a reading from The Cosmopolitans and a conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Elaine Kahn and Trisha Low, Reading and in Conversation

AUDIO Ed Pavlić and David Lau, Reading and in Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Fred Moten and Nathaniel Mackey, with Hafez Modirzadeh

VIDEO + AUDIO Clarence Major and Patricia Spears Jones, Reading and in Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Annie Finch, A Solo Reading and Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Tom Clark and Vincent Katz, Reading New Work

VIDEO + AUDIO Vincent Katz and Jane Gregory, Reading and in Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Roberto Tejada, The George Oppen Memorial Lecture: "Assault on the Quiet Continent: Oppen in Mexico"

VIDEO + AUDIO Gregory Pardlo reading, 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry

VIDEO + AUDIO Stephen Rodefer, a Memorial Tribute

VIDEO + AUDIO Leticia Hernández-Linares and Lee Herrick, Reading and in Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Adjunct Action | Poets in Action: Jessica Beard, Hugh Behm-Steinberg, David Buuck, Stephanie Young

VIDEO + AUDIO Poet | Artist | Activist: Let’s Make A Plan: Christopher Higgenbotham, Christian Nagler, Cassie Thornton

VIDEO + AUDIO John Keene, Counternarratives: Reading and in Conversation with Tân Khánh Cao

VIDEO + AUDIO Prose at The Poetry Center: John Keene, Counternarratives

VIDEO + AUDIO Tonya M. Foster and David Buuck, Reading and in Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO Lucia Berlin's A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories, a reading with Stephen Emerson, Gloria Frym, August Kleinzahler, and Mimi Pond

VIDEO + AUDIO Michael Gizzi's Collected Poems, a Celebration

VIDEO + AUDIO Katy Bohinc and Paul Ebenkamp, Reading and in Conversation

VIDEO + AUDIO David Meltzer: Two-Way Mirror

VIDEO + AUDIO Robert Dewhurst and Michael Seth Stewart on the Life and Work of John Wieners