Dear Friends of Poetry,
The Poetry Night Reading Series will feature the poets Francisco Aragón, Gerald Fleming, and Florencia Milito at 7 PM on Thursday, November 21st, 2024, on the first floor of the John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street in Davis.
We are excited to welcome back Francisco Aragón to Poetry Night. Aragón is the son of Nicaraguan immigrants. His books include, After Rubén (2020), Glow of Our Sweat (2010), and Puerta de Sol (2005). He’s also the editor of The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry (2007). His work has appeared in over twenty anthologies, most recently in Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology (2024). A native of San Francisco, CA, he is on the faculty of the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, where he teaches courses in Latinx poetry and creative writing. He also directs their literary initiative, Letras Latinas, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2024. A finalist for Split This Rock’s Freedom Plow Award for poetry and activism, he has read his work widely, including at universities, bookstores, art galleries, the Dodge Poetry Festival and the Split This Rock Poetry Festival. For more information, visit: http://franciscoaragon.net.
Gerald Fleming is known for the high quality of his verse, and for his support of other poets. Fleming’s most recent book is The Bastard and the Bishop, (prose poems, Hanging Loose Press, Brooklyn). Other titles include One, an experiment in monosyllabic prose poems (also Hanging Loose), The Choreographer (Sixteen Rivers, San Francisco), Night of Pure Breathing (HL), Swimmer Climbing onto Shore (Sixteen Rivers), and others. Fleming recently edited The Collected Poetry and Prose of Lawrence Fixel (Sixteen Rivers), has edited various literary magazines (traditional, epistolary, vitreous), and lives most of the year in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Florencia Milito is a bilingual poet whose work has appeared in ZYZZYVA, Indiana Review, Catamaran, Diálogo, 92nd Street Y, Quiet Lightning, Ninth Letter, Latinas: Struggles & Protests in 21st Century USA, Zócalo Public Square, GUEST, and This Wandering State: Poems from Alta, among others. A Hedgebrook and Community of Writers alumna and San Francisco Writers Grotto and CantoMundo fellow, her writing has been influenced by her early experience fleeing the U.S.-supported 1976 coup in Argentina, subsequent childhood in Venezuela, and immigration to the United States at the age of nine. Her bilingual collection Ituzaingó: Exiles and Reveries / exilios y ensueños was originally published in 2021 by Nomadic Press. Her chapbook Sor Juana, published by Gunpowder Press in 2023, won the Alta California Chapbook Prize and was included in Urayoán Noel’s “‘La Treintena’ 2023: 30 (Something) Books of Latinx Poetry.” In 2022, Milito and her family relocated from San Francisco to Davis, California.
Our Poetry Night event will take place on the first floor of the John Natsoulas Gallery (521 1st Street in Davis) at 7 PM on Thursday, November 21st, 2024. An open mic will follow the featured performers. Open mic performances will be limited to four minutes or two items, whichever is shorter. As Robert Southey says, “Be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams – the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.” The open mic list typically fills by 6:40 PM, so please arrive early if you would like to perform something during the 8 o’clock hour. Attendees who request to be added to the list after 7 PM will be invited to try again at a subsequent event.
Find the Facebook event for this evening of poetry at
The Poetry Night Reading Series, taking place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, and by Thea and the other members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis.
Find out more about the Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting https://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, check out his weekly podcast at https://poetrytechnology.buzzsprout.com/.
Upcoming Events:
December 5: The Young Eco Poets of Davis
Please Google any of these poets to discover their many poetic accomplishments. Additional future readers will include Julia Connor, Katie Peterson, Mischa Kuczynski, Susan Browne, Julia Levine, Clarence Major, Chris Erickson, Patrick Grizzell, Oswaldo Vargas, and other favorites.
The Poetry Night Reading Series has been committed to serving the literary and arts community in the city of Davis since 2006. Happening every 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month at the Natsoulas Gallery, each reading contains two featured poets followed by an open mic. Poetry in Davis was voted “Best Open Mic” in The California Aggie’s “Best of Davis″ edition and has been featured in Davis Life Magazine. The more than 375 featured poets have included UC Davis faculty Francisco X. Alarcón, John Boe, Zinzi Clemmons, Joshua Clover, Jack Forbes, Sandra Gilbert, Laurie Glover, Brad Henderson, Pamela Houston, Andy Jones, Clarence Major, Sandra McPherson, Maceo Montoya, Katie Peterson, Kim Stanley Robinson, Margaret Ronda, Joe Wenderoth, and Alan Williamson, as well as many regional and traveling poets, including Molly Peacock, Jane Hirshfield, Dana Gioia, and James Ragan.
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