The 12th Annual San José Poetry Festival concludes!
This is the closing event of the 2026 festival! Today’s small press fair and reading take place inside History Park, under the oak tree in front of Markham House.
Our Poets
Scorpiana Xlent is a Bronx raised poet, spoken word artist, and armchair activist who now makes San José her home and considers herself equal parts New Yorker and Northern Californian. A member of The San José Poetry Slam’s 2014 slam team competing in Nationals, she has also featured at venues in New York, Florida, and California. Scorpiana's poems have been published in two anthologies: Fruition and The Bandana Republic. She also has her own book Inked. In addition to writing and performing she has taught youth poetry workshops in San José. Scorpiana Xlent is currently the Slam Coordinator for the San José Slam, and a member of the PCSJ Board of Directors. She likes bacon and chocolate, but not together, and has learned to accept her caffeine addiction.
Joseph Jason Santiago LaCour is a Filipino/French Creole Spoken Word Poet and Hip-Hop Artist from the Midwest now living in Santa Cruz. You can find him most weekends at Sacred Mud Henna and Tattoo Studio at The Tannery Arts Center offering workshops, coaching and henna & jagua hand art by Appointment.
In Partnership with Rica Smith De La Luz, @sacredpoets, he hopes to inspire a creative message of peace and empowerment. A part of Mic Drop!, the monthly open mic at 418 Project, and a member of Writers of Color Santa Cruz County, he works to contribute to a strong community of Artists and Supporters locally and globally. Currently, he is developing a grant project in collaboration with CityArts and Arts Council Santa Cruz County called Poets on the Path - in efforts to revitalize our San Lorenzo Riverwalk.
Brian Sonia-Wallace is the Poet Laureate of Los Angeles. They are a poet, educator, and public artist whose work explores the line between the intimate and the monumental, reimagining public space as a site of memory, care, and dialogue. Over the past decade and a half, he has written poems on-the-spot in public for over 10,000 strangers and their communities, a practice that has unfolded into books including The Poetry of Strangers (HarperCollins) and Maze Mouth (Moon Tide Press), as well as performances and public projects across theaters, galleries, and everyday city spaces. A City of LA Master Artist and former Poet Laureate of West Hollywood, Sonia-Wallace has served as Poet-in-Residence for places as varied as the National Parks, Amtrak, and the Mall of America (yes, really). His work centers on creating art that bridges civic space, public memory, and lived experience, often collaborating with LGBTQ+ communities, youth, and elders to amplify voices that are rarely heard. A Fellow of the Academy of American Poets and LA County, his writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, The Guardian, LitHub, Rattle, and American Poets, and has been performed from Walt Disney Concert Hall to the Kennedy Center. He teaches at UCLA Extension, facilitates the APLA Health Writers’ Group, and leads school outreach for Get Lit – Words Ignite. More @rentpoet.
Poetry Center San José's mission is to nurture and promote diverse literary expression in our community as a means of exploring, defining, and enriching the human experience.