San José Poetry Festival, Day 2: ¡Cultura Poetry Night! w/Open Mic on Zoom
Featuring Leticia Hernández-Linares & Marvin Flores
This is Day Two of our four-day festival! Our festival pass will get you into all live events.
Click here to peruse all 2025 San José Poetry Festival tickets and passes!
This event is free to the public. Zoom opens at 6:15pm. Show begins at 6:30pm.
¡Cultura Poetry Night! with Open Mic
Friday, September 26, 2025
6:30-8:30pm Pacific Time via Zoom
¡Cultura Poetry Night! celebrates the culture of people who identify as Chicana/o, Raza, Latinx, and people with Indigenous heritage rooted in areas that are now Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. A multilingual event with two featured poets, guest poets, and open mic! Everyone is welcome at this inclusive event presented by Poetry Center San José, hosted by Elizabeth Jiménez Montelongo, in partnership with La Raíz Magazine.
About the Featured Poets:
Leticia Hernández-Linares is a bilingual, interdisciplinary writer, artist, and racial justice educator. Widely published, she is the author of the poetry collection Mucha Muchacha, Too Much Girl (Tía Chucha Pres, 2015) and the children’s book Alejandria Fights Back! ¡La lucha de Alejandria! (Feminist Press, 2021). A five-time San Francisco Arts Commission grantee, she received the San Francisco Flor y Canto Community Appreciation award in 2023. She teaches in Latina, Latino Studies at San Francisco State University, and has lived, created, and protested in the Mission District (unceded, ancestral Ramaytush Ohlone land), while living on the same block, for thirty years.
website: joinleticia.com
IG: @mucha_muchacha15
Marvin Flores is a poet, teaching artist, and community organizer who won the 2024 Youth Speaks Bay Area Slam and went on to represent the SF Bay Area at the national youth slam in Washington, D.C. Since then his work has centered on bringing poetry to underserved and underrepresented youth in the South Bay, with the goal of launching a youth slam specifically for local youth.
IG: @marvinflorespoesia
OPEN MIC:
Sign up at http://bit.ly/laraizopenmic
Confirm your presence at the start of the event, when asked (in the first 10 minutes).
Day-of sign ups are first come, first served.
Thank you!
*****
Presented by: Poetry Center San José www.pcsj.org @poetrycentersanjose
Host: Elizabeth Jiménez Montelongo
IG: @elizabethjimenezmontelongo / FB: @ejmontelongo
Community Partner: La Raíz Magazine http://laraizmagazine.com
IG: @laraizmagazine / FB: @laraizmag
#culturapoetrynight #pcsj #laraizmagazine #multilingualpoetry #poesiabilingue #indigenouspoetry #chicanopoetry #poetasenvivo #poetsofcolor #laculturacura #poetry #poesía
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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.