VIDEO + AUDIO Tripwire Cross-Cultural Poetics Series: John Pluecker and Jen Hofer, reading from their poetry at E. M. Wolfman Bookstore

Full-program video: John Pluecker and Jen Hofer: September 26th, 2018
Video highlight clips: John Pluecker reads from "4. For Hugo, and the Moss" | Jen Hofer reads from her translation of Uruguayan poet Virginia Lucas's Amé.RICA

The Poetry Center's new Tripwire Cross-Cultural Poetics Series debuts September 2018 with a two-day series by poet-translator-activists Jen Hofer and John Pluecker, who collectively organize Antena, a language justice and language experimentation collaborative, focusing on writing, art- and book-making, translating, interpreting, and language justice. Hofer and Pluecker, visiting respectively from Los Angeles and Houston, will read from their own work on Wednesday, September 26, at E. M. Wolfman Books in downtown Oakland, then present their work around Antena the following evening, Thursday, September 27, at The Poetry Center. Both events are free and open to the public. Please join us!

Jen Hofer is a Los Angeles-based poet, translator, social justice interpreter, teacher, knitter, book-maker, public letter-writer, urban cyclist, and co-founder of the language justice and language experimentation collaborative Antena and the local language justice advocacy collective Antena Los Ángeles. She publishes poetry, essays and translations with numerous small independent presses, most recently Kenning Editions, NewLights Press, and Ugly Duckling Presse, and in various DIY/DIT incarnations. Jen teaches writing and translation at Otis College of Art + Design and at Occidental College, and does cross-language work supporting community groups in creating effective bilingual and multilingual spaces through language justice practices.

John Pluecker is a language worker who writes, translates, organizes, interprets, and creates. In 2010, he co-founded the collaborative Antena and in 2015 the social justice interpreting collective Antena Houston. His undisciplinary work is informed by experimental poetics, language justice, and cross-border/cross-language cultural production. He has translated numerous books from the Spanish, including most recently Gore Capitalism (Semiotext(e), 2018) and Antígona González (Les Figues Press, 2016). His book of poetry and image, Ford Over, was released in 2016 from Noemi Press. More info at johnpluecker.com