The Founder and Chief Planter at 100K Trees for Humanity, Amos White is a Climate Mobilization Strategist, Coro Fellow in Public Affairs, author, poet, arts impresario, civil rights activist, father, and husband based in Alameda, California.
Trey Keeve
Trey Keeve is a Virginia-born writer that California molded into an educator. He lives and teaches in Oakland, CA. His purpose is to teach the next generation the importance of relaying their personal narratives, sharing their experiences, and taking control of their destinies. Southern Migrant Mixtape is his first book.
Mitra Faridian
Mitra Faridian is a writer and a fan of all things tech. Here’s a fun fact: one of Mitra’s ancestors was a poet in the Persian court!
Poem on Belonging
HEARTBEAT OF PARDESIA
Lost Rafte* Words that flow from clicking tongues about someone born away from that beloved sea. Do they not know how the stones of that land are familiar to my grasp? Whether all I see of its shores are visions peeking through the pines ‒ I preserve each moment in the shutter blinks of my eyes. Indeed, I laugh and play in the wellspring of my culture. Gulping in its beauty and mystique ‒ A mystery that eludes onlookers akin to a gorbe's* eyes, hypnotic in their trance but enigmatic in their meaning. The mighty names that transversed those soils are not foreign to me, Persepolis, Jamshid, Land of Kings Such company I have found along the highway that runs through my heart and very soul ‒ Yes, with verse I will imbue parchments with the pulse of this land I have always known... In hopes that Pardesia Beats, beats, beats, Long after I have taken my steps home. *Pardesia: Paradise *Rafte: Gone *Gorbe: Cat
Copyright © 2012 by Mitra Faridian. Used with permission of the author.
J. K. Fowler
J. K. Fowler is the founder and executive director of Nomadic Press, a community-focused literary and arts non-profit with operations in Oakland, CA, Des Moines, IA, Philadelphia, PA, and Brooklyn, NY. He is co owner of Medicine for Nightmares Bookstore & Gallery in the heart of the Mission District in San Francisco. He has spoken to classrooms and organizations on small publishing and the art of making space all over the nation. He currently sits on City of Oakland’s Cultural Affairs Commission (where he spearheaded the launch of the first Oakland Poet Laureate Program in 2021), acted as Co-chair on the board of North Atlantic Books and Secretary on the board of the Oakland Peace Center, and previously sat on Cogswell College’s English and Humanities Professional Advisory Board. He has taught anthropology and sociology at Rutgers University Newark, and has guest lectured at Mills College. He has been published in a wide range of publications, including San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland Magazine, SF Weekly, Oakland Voices, Datebook SF, Bay Area Reporter, and elsewhere, has performed across the Bay Area, Cairo, Egypt, and Brooklyn, and has been featured in a number of radio shows and online podcasts, including shows on KPFA, KPOO, StoryCorps, and others. He is the recipient of the 2016 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award and travels the world with a Kelpie named Stella. He is busily working on a book titled Making Space, which is a wide-ranging nuts-and-bolts “how to publish” creative nonfiction text paired with the aesthetic philosophy of literally and figuratively making space on the page and stage.
Sharon Coleman
Sharon Coleman is a fifth-generation Northern Californian. She writes for Poetry Flash, co-curates the reading series Lyrics & Dirges, and co-directs the Berkeley Poetry Festival. She’s the author of a chapbook, Half Circle, and a book of micro-fiction, Paris Blinks. Her poetry and fiction appear in several publications, including Your Impossible Voice, White Stag, Ambush Review. She’s been nominated twice for a Pushcart and once for a micro award for blink fiction. She received a scholarship from the Luso-American Foundation to attend the Disquiet Literary Conference in Lisbon and was a finalist for the Jane Underwood poetry prize.
Sharon was born and raised in San Mateo. Her father, Richard H. Coleman, was the City Planner who worked hard to create the Downtown Plan. Prior to revitalization efforts in 1972, B-Street had a number of dive-bars. Mr. Coleman included mix-use—which was rare for a downtown and attracted many businesses—and planned for high density apartment living with shopping and restaurants in walking distance. He also supported the renovation of San Mateo’s historic train station. (Built in 1863, the station was the midpoint on the San Francisco to San Jose railroad. It witnessed many historical events including the visit of President Theodore Roosevelt, who came through town by train in 1909.)
Poems on Belonging
LAUREL CREEK/ARROYO DE LOS LAURELES
windless nights
cricketsong
opens ears
past tvs
to rhythms
once folding
rancho de las pulgas
into evening harmonics
californios
and costanoans
who survived missions
exhaled tired
into deepening cobalt
crowning oaks and figs
before contact
ramaytush kept clear
fields around freshwater
to catch deer
who lowered
lips to stream
laurels and chestnuts
willow-bowed homes
bent towards
its wide banks
warm evenings
the selfsame cricketsong
hints hillsdale boulevard’s curves
follow a creekbend
behind houses—
slow waters carve
against concrete
channels
narrowing
below streets
in measures
of earthtime
SOURCES
the map won’t show
more
than two blue lines
cupping steep terrain—
one flows east
along the steep northern
slope, yankee-named
for a sugar haul
another stream seeps
from wary ghosts
of the county’s
poor farm rubble
of the unmarked
ssalson town
this east bend snakes
round the southern side
flows through laurel roots
into its twin
just before fernwood street
the creek a confluence
increased by drainage
a pipe extends
from library grounds
old french crique
with krik old norse
maybe middle dutch kreke
unknown ultimate origin
whatever flows
into words so fluently
sourced by unmapped
springs trickling
through embankments
of pixels and ink
Copyright © 2022 by Sharon Coleman. These poems were presented at the 2022 National Poetry Month Celebration sponsored by San Mateo Public Library and the City of San Mateo. Used with permission of the author.
Nancy Patrice Davenport
Nancy Patrice Davenport is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area. She currently lives in San Mateo with three cats.
Nancy’s poems are widely published various journals and anthologies, and have been translated into many languages. Her JUNE 2 RETROGRADE MINDFULNESS poem was nominations in 2016 for Best of Net.
Nancy’s first chapbook, LA BRIZNA, was published in 2014 by Bookgirl Press. A full-length collection, SMOKING IN MOM’S GARAGE, was published in 2018 by Red Alice Press. Nancy is currently working on a third book.
Stephanie Garma Balón
Stephanie Garma Balón, MA, AMFT (she/her) is a second generation Pinay-American, & proud Mama—born and raised on Ramaytush Ohlone land (SF/Daly City), and of Ilokano & Visayan descent. As an Expressive Arts Therapist in North San Mateo County (SMC) providing individual and group therapy to youth, parents, and families, Stephanie leans on her belief in the transformative healing power of the arts. This inspires her to intentionally integrate ritual, visual art, writing, and poetry in her professional and personal practice, especially as it relates to her continuous decolonial healing journey. Stephanie’s work is rooted in trauma-informed care, healing-centered, community care, and narrative therapy approaches. Her heartwork and hustle includes over 20 years of experience in health & human services, namely a community mental health advocacy background addressing health inequities amongst hxstorically marginalized populations. As Co-chair of the Filipino Mental Health Initiative of SMC, she co-founded the first social enterprise cultural center/cafe in North SMC (anticipated to break ground in 2022/2023) that aims to increase access to culturally attuned mental health support and provide an intergenerationally engaging, healing & creative gathering space for the Filipina/o/x community. Stephanie featured in Filipinx Kwentuhan: Equity Through Art Series co-hosted by San Mateo County Libraries, Health BHRS Office of Diversity and Equity, and the Chief Equity Officer at the County of San Mateo.
Poem on Belonging
Presented at the “FILIPINX KWENTUHAN: SAN MATEO COUNTY EQUITY THROUGH ART SERIES“
Lisa Suguitan Melnick
Lisa Suguitan Melnick is a third generation Fil-Am of Ilokano and Cebuano roots. She is the author of #30 Collantes Street (Carayan Press, 2015) and also a correspondent for PositivelyFilipino.com. Her published pieces in Positively Filipino earned Plaridel Awards in 2020 for Best Profile Writing (“The Scholar Unplugged”), and Best Feature Writing (“Utom Unfolds T’boli Myths Through Music”). Her work is also published in Beyond Lumpia, Pansit, and Seven Manangs Wild, edited by Evangeline Buell et al (Eastwind Books, 2014) and The New Filipino Kitchen, edited by Jacqueline Chio-Lauri (Agate Surrey Press, 2018). She currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Hinabi Project.
Poems on Belonging
ManG/Ko
Grandpa fried scrambled eggs on high. Small skillet. High fire. Quick in and out. Grandma saves her styrofoam cups Washing them again and again, drying them—bite marks around the rim and all—in the sun It is said there were twins when my dad was born, but one didn’t make it. Maybe that’s why he always felt extra needy. One of the eggs got scrambled in the frenzy.
FAVORITE SISTER OF THE NEWEST ANCESTOR
Maybe I had just finished talking with him on the phone and he was doing well. Maybe I had even gotten to hear him laugh, pain-free. “We only have this moment,” I would say to him. Maybe I was gauging how he was doing, from the tonality in his voice. Maybe somewhere in the conversation he told me I was his favorite sister. Maybe him sounding so well that day helped me decide that it would be okay for me to visit him on his birthday. I couldn’t imagine it might be his last. The most divine day that many only dream of, but it wasn’t. A dream I mean. He made fried rice. We hung out on the couch watching Flip this House—a show he loved to watch and it didn’t require too much head work. The day was bright.
Copyright © 2022 by Lisa Suguitan Melnick. Used with permission of the author.
Rosie Tejada
Rosie Tejada is a first generation Filipino-American and proud mom of two. Her father was a Bataan Death March survivor and Filipino veterans rights advocate. An elected official, she currently serves as the Jefferson Union High School District Board President. She is also on the Board of Directors of REACH Coalition, a coalition of elected officials and community-based organizations of color in San Mateo County who are steadfast in dismantling systemic bias and long-standing barriers to access across the county. Rosie featured in Filipinx Kwentuhan: Equity Through Art Series co-hosted by San Mateo County Libraries, Health BHRS Office of Diversity and Equity, and the Chief Equity Officer at the County of San Mateo.
Poem on Belonging
IN HER MIND I. She was a ripe cherry tomato picked sweet off the vine, left to spoil on the kitchen counter covered in grease from splattering bacon. II. The piercing sun danced into my autumn, and waved as it passed into fog and clouds and moaning Pacific air. I am covered in mist, chilled, shivering, bitten hard by jagged little teeth, shards of summer good-byes. III. It’s kind of funny, he said, Isn’t it funny how things turn out? (No, not funny.) He actually laughed (faintly, but it was a laugh). His rambling apologies increasingly dinned, then his words slowly silenced as they rolled down the tin funnel in her head. She stared uncommitted at his blurring face, until all that was left was the mouth that used to say it loved her.
Copyright © 2022 by Rosie Tejada. Used with permission of the author.
Amy L. Pabalan
Amy L. Pabalan was made and delivered in San Francisco, with original parts from the Philippines. Forged in Daly City fog, she started writing in the fifth grade when she discovered a book of Langston Hughes’ work in the school library. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from San Jose State University, she worked as a newspaper copy editor in Southern California. She returned to her childhood home with her husband to be caregivers for her mother and father, who passed away respectively in 2017 and 2020. Amy continues to dream, write and craft. Not necessarily in that order.
Poems on Belonging
BOXES I’m drowning in clutter Five decades in the making Boxes and boxes of stuff And you’re not here To tell me what to do Unused yarn and kitchenware mock me as I say “I can still use this!” But what about Undated pictures of holiday tables filled with your dishes Greeting cards bound by disintegrating rubber bands loved received over the years over and over Prayer cards of saints frayed at the edges surely memorized from whispering over and over I put everything back minus the junk mail, printouts of email jokes, and high blood pressure readings Mentally labeling each box: Hold for now CAMERA ROLL Scrolling as if I’ll find more I know exactly when there are no more new pictures of you.
Copyright © 2022 by Amy L. Pabalan. Used with permission of the author.
Speak Poetry in San Mateo County 