San José Poetry Festival, Day 2: 2025-26 SCC Youth Poet Laureate Commencement!
This is Day Three of our four-day festival! Check out the complete list of events that are part of the 2025 San José Poetry Festival! Our festival pass will get you into all live events and online events.
This event is free to all youth aged 19 and under and to those with a festival pass. $25 for general public and $20 for PCSJ Members. Admission may be purchased at the door.
Click here to peruse all 2025 San José Poetry Festival tickets and passes!
Doors open at 6:30pm. Show begins at 7pm.
Nearest ParkSJ Garage: 45 N. Market St. near San Pedro Square.
(First 90 minutes free, $1 per 15 minutes after)
2025-26 SCC Youth Poet Laureate Commencement
Note: Due to limited space, Hillbrook School Parents and Students must select the complimentary ticket from the dropdown menu. This is so that we can ensure seating for all ticketed attendees.
This is Day Three of our four-day festival! Check out the complete list of events that are part of the 2025 San José Poetry Festival! Our festival pass will get you into all live events and online events. Click here to peruse all 2025 San José Poetry Festival tickets and passes!
$25 for general public and $20 for PCSJ Members. Admission may be purchased at the door.
Doors open at 7:30pm. Show begins at 8pm.
2025-26 SCC YOUTH POET LAUREATE COMMENCEMENT!
Our third night of poetry introduces Santa Clara County to the incoming Youth Poet Laureate and 2025 finalists! Outgoing YPL Sage Cobb (24-25) will also read a couple of poems and pass the baton. The new YPL will be announced on the SCC YPL Instagram. Featuring special guest poet, Lucia Misch and hosted by Yosimar Reyes, current SCC Poet Laureate. Note: In 2005, Lucia and Yosimar were students together through MACLA's poetry and spoken word workshops.
Tonight's Poets
Lucia Misch is a writer, performer and facilitator from unceded Muwekma Ohlone land. Lucia's spoken word poetry has found a home everywhere from historic theaters to high school auditoriums, and their first collection of poetry, The Problem With Solitaire, was released by Write Bloody North in 2020.
Yosimar Reyes
Hailing from East San José by way of Guerrero, Mexico, Reyes quickly made a name for himself at the tender age of sixteen, exploding onto local Bay Area stages and captivating his audiences with deeply moving spoken word performances.
Reyes’ repertoire has since evolved to include nationally-acclaimed keynotes, writing workshops, and his one-man show, Prieto, a coming-of-age story that explores subjects like migration, sexuality, and socio-economic struggle—all while empowering his audiences to tap into their own creative potential.
His achievements don’t stop there. In addition to being the first-ever undocumented poet to achieve Santa Clara County Poet Laureate status, Reyes was chosen to be a 2024 Creative Ambassador by the City of San José, The Advocate named him one of "13 LGBT Latinos Changing the World," and Remezcla included him on their list of "10 Up And Coming Latinx Poets You Need To Know."
Amongst numerous accolades, Reyes has been awarded a NALAC Catalyst for Change Grant (2020), a Gerbode Foundation Grant and most recently, a Walter & Elise Haas Creative Work Fund Grant (2023). His writing has appeared in publications such as MARIPOSAS: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry, Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings and forthcoming UndocuPoetics.
YOUTH POET FINALISTS (APPEARANCE TO BE DETERMINED)
Rebecca Cai: Rebecca Cai is a Chinese-American poet from the Bay Area. Her writing has been recognized by DePaul’s Blue Book, Hollins University, Scholastic Art & Writing and more. She is an alum of the Adroit Writing Mentorship, Kenyon Young Writers' Workshop, and the SUNHOUSE writing mentorship. Outside of writing, Rebecca is always talking—in speech, mock trial, and with her friends/family.
Helen Gu: Bio to come.
Laya Krishnan: Laya Krishnan is a senior at Evergreen Valley High School in San Jose. Her poetry, largely inspired by her own experiences as a daughter of immigrants and an advocate for social justice, explores themes of loss, joy, and paradox. She has been published in International Policy Digest and selected for the Kenyon Review's Young Writers Workshops. Laya hopes her work can create a language of connection, making poetry a home for aspiring young voices.
Ashley Mo: Bio to come.
Kurn Sundaram is a performance poet based in Northern California. He has been published by PWU, The Battering Ram, The Outlook, WEIGHT Journal, Paper Crane, and more, and was named a 2024 YoungArts Winner in spoken word. Additionally, he has been recognized by the Iowa Young Writers' Studio, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, and the Los Gatos Poet Laureate. He is the founder & editor-in-chief of JADE&COMPASS, a literary magazine that advocates for marginalized voices across the globe. When he isn't writing, you can catch him watching a show he will never complete.
Ariel Zhang: Bio to come.
Follow Poetry Center San José on Facebook and Instagram for announcements about other amazing South Bay poetry events happening throughout the rest of the year. Help support Poetry Center San José by becoming a member.
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.