The 12th Annual San José Poetry Festival continues!
This is Day Three of our four-day festival! This free Zoom event will feature Lem “Saint” Gonsalves, Alyesha Wise, Rico Frederick & Ainsley Burrows as a part of the 2026 San Jose Poetry Festival! Presented and hosted by Tshaka Campbell.
RSVP for the Zoom link here
Our Guests
Lem “Saint” Gonsalves first began his poetic journey reciting poems at his father’s church. Since then, he has performed internationally and has released 2 albums, a chapbook, and a DVD documentary entitled "Rise To the Ill-List: Poetic Journey of The Saint". His style infuses humor, passion, and ideals which inspire as well as entertain. He has opened for hip-hop artists Common, Talib Kweli and Lupe Fiasco as well as gospel sensation Kirk Franklin and has shared the stage with R&B legends Bel Biv Devoe and Faith Evans. He has even performed for the Chief Justice of the Republic of Ghana. He was selected to be on Season 3 and Season 5 of the NAACP Image Award nominated show "Verses and Flow" as a performance poet.
As a competitor, he has represented numerous poetry slam teams over the years at the National Poetry Slam competition and has won many championship titles as a solo performer. One of his greatest joys is conducting poetry workshops with students all over the state of California. This has allowed him to impart knowledge and skills that he has learned in his almost 30 year career and show how writing can be a vehicle for change and deal with personal challenges that can affect mental wellness, among other things.
In addition to performing spoken word poetry, he has worked as an accomplished host in Los Angeles partnering with television networks such as VH1, FOX and MTV and online network Afterbuzz TV. In 2020, he created the podcast “Colors of Fatherhood” in which he interviewed fathers of color seeking to highlight their stories of trial and triumph. He can also be seen in commercials appearing in spots for FanDuel and Apple, to name a few.
Alyesha Wise is an award-winning poet, educator and speaker from Camden, N.J. Currently a resident of Los Angeles, she is the Director of Programming for Street Poets, Inc., an organization mostly serving injustice-impacted youth with mentorship and arts programming. A recipient of a 2025 Los Angeles Preservation Award, Alyesha has been featured on platforms and in publications such as OWN TV, BET, LA Times, Bustle, Afropunk, PBS, Buzzfeed and more. Other collabs include the ACLU, The Shabazz Center, The Nantucket Project, Brave New Films and the Google Interstellar Project. Ron Howard once wrote about Alyesha's work, "Very Powerful." My Older Brother, A Famous Rapper, is Alyesha’s latest book of poetry, released in fall 2025 by El Martillo Press.
Rico Frederick
Creative Director / Sr. Designer / Writer / Educator.
An Adjunct Professor at Rutgers University-Newark, and the author of the book Broken Calypsonian (Penmanship Books, 2014). He holds an MFA in Writing from Pratt Institute, is a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Finalist, Fulbright semi-finalist, Cave Canem Fellow, Poets House Emerging Poets Fellow, Pushcart nominee, and the first poet to represent all four original New York City poetry venues at the National Poetry Slam. Rico is a Trinidadian transplant, that scribbles poems on the back of maps in the hope they take him someplace new.
Ainsley Burrows
Extended bio to come.
Ainsley Burrows (b. 1974 in Kingston, Jamaica; based in Baltimore, MD) is a full-time multidisciplinary artist who explores untold stories and unspoken emotions. Raised in Brooklyn, NY, Burrows' creative pursuits as a poet, musician, performer, and painter deeply influence one another.
Santa Clara County Poet Laureate Emeritus Tshaka Campbell has authored four books of poetry and is an internationally recognized artist and performer. He has won grand slam championships in a number of cities across the US. He will publish his next poetry collection, Blood at the Root, with @elmartillopress He currently resides in San José and continues to ask the world to listen different.
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San José Poetry Festival 2025 is presented by Poetry Center San José and sponsored in part by a Cultural Affairs grant from the City of San José; a grant from SVCreates, in partnership with the County of Santa Clara and the California Arts Council; and additional support from Anne & Mark’s Art Party and the Brandenburg Family Foundation. Many thanks to Four Points by Sheraton for hotel accommodations and Robertino R. Ragazza for his guidance and hospitality. We would like to acknowledge and offer our deepest gratitude to past and current venues worthy of your support: San Jose Stage, Central Park Library Santa Clara, Convergence Arts Center, SJZ Break Room, Art Boutiki, Books Inc., Caravan Lounge, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, First Unitarian Church of San José, History/San José, MACLA, Mama Kin, Recycle Bookstore, The School of Arts and Culture at Mexican Heritage Plaza, Tabard Theatre (R.I.P.), Willow Glen Public Library, Works/San José art & performance center and Hillbrook Upper School of San José. Please support these spaces however you can. And we thank all our volunteers whose time and effort make this festival possible.