Poets@Play Creative Writing Workshop with Joyce Lee (Ages 18+ Recommended)
Note: Due to themes of sexuality, we recommend participants ages 18 and up. See workshop description.
Poets@Play is a monthly creative writing workshop hosted by Robert Pesich, Brandon Luu and former Santa Clara County Poet Laureate David Perez. Each session features a different guest facilitator leading hands-on exercises to inspire creativity and new ideas.
Our Facilitator: Joyce Lee
Poet and performer, Joyce Lee, has toured the United States and been featured at the Nuyorican Poetry Café, Yoshi’s of San Francisco, 1st Annual Oakland Gay Pride Parade, and many other spoken word events. As the winner of the 2009 and 2010 Oakland Grand Slams, she speaks with Michelle Flowers of Orijin Culture’s Indigo Thread about her influences, art as testimony and her need to grow beyond boundaries of time and space.
Questioning is how Joyce Lee grows, learns, writes, and teaches. Joyce Lee has over thirteen years of classroom experience teaching everything from erotic poetry to ESL in four countries with ages ranging from 5 to 88. She has been a paid speaker and freelance instructor for over a decade now in places such as (but not limited to) Facebook Headquarters, UC Berkeley, Stanford University, Google Headquarters, and Third World Press. Joyce is the founder of JL Soul Camp in Sonoma County, California. JL Soul Camp is an annual, all expenses paid, Black and Indigenous womyn/non-male, five-day healing retreat that utilizes creativity and community to inform, heal, and support. Black and First Nation healers and those healing conduct paid workshops and facilitate internal and outdoor reconnections with nature. Joyce is a professional storyteller on WNYC’s Snap Judgment (one of the top five storytelling podcasts in the nation) and has spent the pandemic midwifing others in the completion of their literary projects, as well as teaching college students Oral Interpretation of Literature as an adjunct professor at her alma mater, Jamestown University. Among other things, Joyce is also a mentor and volunteer at the Minnesota Prison Writing Program and the Minnesota Book Festival. She will graduate with her MFA in poetry and creative writing from Hamline University this coming May (2023).
Workshop Description: Uses of the Erotic
Based on Audre Lorde's essay, "Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power." Ms. Lee assures a fun exploration into words, sense, and sensuality.
Lorde’s essay argues that the erotic is a profound, spiritual, and creative life force, not just sexual pleasure, used to empower women by connecting them to their deepest feelings and desires, enabling them to reject oppression and live more fully and authentically
Paper and pens are available. The internet connection is unreliable.
No RSVP required. Just show up at 1:00pm
Admission: Free (donations welcome)
📍Location: Markham House @ History Park
635 Phelan Ave, San Jose, CA.
Free parking right outside of the main gate or in the lot at the end of Phelan Avenue (except during some History Park events.)
Once you walk into the park from Phelan Avenue, go straight until the road dead ends, then make a left. Markham House is then the second house on your left. There will be a flag over the steps that reads OPEN.
Poets@Play Creative Writing Workshop with Darrell De La Cruz!
Poets@Play is a monthly creative writing workshop hosted by former Santa Clara County Poet Laureate David Perez. Each session features a different guest facilitator—or sometimes David himself—leading hands-on exercises to inspire creativity and new ideas.
Our Facilitator: Darrell Dela Cruz
Darrell Dela Cruz’s debut collection This is a Love Poem, Listen (Tourane Poetry Press) came out in 2024. His work has also appeared in Saw Palm, The Minetta Review, Crab Orchard Review, Studio One, Steam Ticket, and Cider Press Review. As an editor, he worked in Reed Magazine and Red Wheelbarrow. He was a VONA 2025 fellow. For more about him and his analysis of poems: ddcpoetry.blogspot.com.
Workshop Description: (Failed) Love Poems
After watching Heated Rivalry and seeing the outpour of love and support from people for a genuine and joyful queer love story, I looked back on my work and realized I never wrote a love poem that was just joyous.
In this generative workshop, we’re going to attempt to write joyous love poems – or at least try to. Some of the most effective poems in my life were about failing to write a love poem.
Using Elizabeth Bishop, Harold Norse, and Bill Knott as guides we’ll learn the ways they “failed” into successfully portraying humor, yearning, regret, but also recognizing the beauty and depth of their emotions within their lines.
No RSVP required. Just show up at 1:00pm
Admission: Free (donations welcome)
📍Location: Markham House @ History Park
635 Phelan Ave, San Jose, CA.
Free parking right outside of the main gate or in the lot at the end of Phelan Avenue (except during some History Park events.)
Once you walk into the park from Phelan Avenue, go straight until the road dead ends, then make a left. Markham House is then the second house on your left. There will be a flag over the steps that reads OPEN.
Poets@Play Creative Writing Workshop with David Perez
Poets@Play is a monthly creative writing workshop hosted by former Santa Clara County Poet Laureate David Perez. Each session features a different guest facilitator—or sometimes David himself—leading hands-on exercises to inspire creativity and new ideas.
Our Facilitator: David Perez
David served as the 3rd Poet Laureate of Santa Clara County. He is a recipient of the Arts Council Silicon Valley Literary Art Fellowship and the National Association for Latino Arts and Culture Achievement Award. He has appeared on the NPR series, Snap Judgment and his book, "Love in a Time of Robot Apocalypse" is available from Write Bloody Publishing. He has taught literature and creative writing at San Jose State University and Ohlone College.
Workshop Description
Revision and Revelation
Beautiful things can happen when you embrace revision as an art unto itself. You notice things you didn’t see before. You can make images clearer and more impactful. With a sharp eye, this can often be achieved with just a few well-placed edits. In this workshop, David will focus on simple revision techniques that can help you realize your vision and possibly surprise yourself with insights you didn’t catch during the first draft.
It’s encouraged to bring a draft that you’d like to revise, but it’s not required.
No RSVP required. Just show up at 1:00pm
Admission: Free (donations welcome)
📍Location: Markham House @ History Park
635 Phelan Ave, San Jose, CA.
Free parking right outside of the main gate or in the lot at the end of Phelan Avenue (except during some History Park events.)
Once you walk into the park from Phelan Avenue, go straight until the road dead ends, then make a left. Markham House is then the second house on your left. There will be a flag over the steps that reads OPEN.
Poets@Play Creative Writing Workshop with Sally Ashton
Poets@Play is a monthly creative writing workshop hosted by former Santa Clara County Poet Laureate David Perez. Each session features a different guest facilitator—or sometimes David himself—leading hands-on exercises to inspire creativity and new ideas.
Our Facilitator: Sally Ashton!
Former Santa Clara County Poet Laureate Sally Ashton is the author of five books of poetry including most recently Listening to Mars. She specializes in brief forms across genres. Her poem “4.6 Billion Years” is now archived with the Lunar Codex on the Moon. Going to the Moon, a book of personal essays exploring her personal experiences and the race to space, is forthcoming from Duke University Press. www.sallyashton.com
Workshop Description
Writing an Ode
Celebration is an act of resistance, a dear friend recently reminded me. It’s also fun. Let’s take a break from any worries and write an ode: that is, a poem of praise and celebration. This too will be fun and appropriate for the beginning of Thanksgiving week. So come on down to Markham house, pencil and paper in hand, where we shall make some joyful noises together.
No RSVP required. Just show up at 1:00pm
Admission: Free (donations welcome)
📍Location: Markham House @ History Park
635 Phelan Ave, San Jose, CA.
Free parking right outside of the main gate or in the lot at the end of Phelan Avenue (except during some History Park events.)
Once you walk into the park from Phelan Avenue, go straight until the road dead ends, then make a left. Markham House is then the second house on your left. There will be a flag over the steps that reads OPEN.
Poets@Play Creative Writing Workshop with Olga Rosales Salinas
Poets@Play is a monthly creative writing workshop hosted by former Santa Clara County Poet Laureate David Perez. Each session features a different guest facilitator—or sometimes David himself—leading hands-on exercises to inspire creativity and new ideas.
Our Facilitator: Olga Rosales Salinas!
From olgars.com/about
I'm Olga, an editor and freelance writer who produces poetry, short stories, and essays. I am the Managing Editor for San Francisco Bay Area Moms, where I also host a podcast called Hella MomVersations. My bylines have appeared in palabra, by National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), Voices of Monterey Bay (VOMB), Jumble & Flow, and others. My debut collection of poetry and prose, La Llorona, was published by Birch Bench Press.
In October of 2022, THINK/NPR and host Krys Boyd, interviewed me about How Latino culture can make it hard to talk about mental health. We discussed my article, Los Curiosos, published by palabra.
My philanthropy and activism started in 2019 with a non-profit benefiting first-generation and immigrant students, The Rosales Sisters' Scholarship. Since then, the Rosales Sisters' Scholarship has raised $50,000. As the President and Co-Founder of this organization, I am proud of what we've accomplished so far, and I'm excited about our future.
I am passionate about all my creative endeavors, including motherhood, mental health, fitness, writing, and wife life.
Workshop Description
Description to come.
No RSVP required. Just show up at 1:00pm
Admission: Free (donations welcome)
📍Location: Markham House @ History Park
635 Phelan Ave, San Jose, CA.
Free parking right outside of the main gate or in the lot at the end of Phelan Avenue (except during some History Park events.)
Once you walk into the park from Phelan Avenue, go straight until the road dead ends, then make a left. Markham House is then the second house on your left. There will be a flag over the steps that reads OPEN.
Poets@Play Creative Writing Workshop with Arlene Biala
Santa Clara County Poet Laureate Emeritus Arlene Biala will teach your soul!
Poets@Play is a monthly creative writing workshop hosted by former Santa Clara County Poet Laureate David Perez. Each session features a different guest facilitator—or sometimes David himself—leading hands-on exercises to inspire creativity and new ideas.
Our Facilitator: Arlene Biala!
POET, AUTHOR, PERFORMANCE ARTIST, COMMUNITY ORGANIZER
Arlene Biala is a Filipina American writer from the San Francisco Bay Area who has been participating in poetry performances and workshops for over 30 years. She is a 2023-2026 Lucas Artist Residency Fellow in Literary Arts at the Montalvo Arts Center and was Poet Laureate of Santa Clara County for 2016 and 2017. She is the author of continental drift, one inch punch, and her beckoning hands, which won the 2015 American Book Award. Her latest book, a thousand voices whispering, is forthcoming from Sampaguita Press in November 2025.
Workshop Description
workshop title: do you remember? burning for the new moon
The new moon is a time to release what doesn’t serve us. It’s a time to write the raw break up poem, to cycle out the stagnant energy and see what imagination can do. Through some free writing exercises and poetry prompts we can share a space to write, listen, and talk story in the key that our souls are singing. And in case you can't tell by now, there will be earth, wind & fire music in the house :)
No RSVP required. Just show up at 1:00pm
Admission: Free (donations welcome)
📍Location: Markham House @ History Park
635 Phelan Ave, San Jose, CA.
Free parking right outside of the main gate or in the lot at the end of Phelan Avenue (except during some History Park events.)
Once you walk into the park from Phelan Avenue, go straight until the road dead ends, then make a left. Markham House is then the second house on your left. There will be a flag over the steps that reads OPEN.
Poets@Play Creative Writing Workshop with Brandon Luu
Our friend Brandon Luu will soothe us with his perfect voice and inspire us to create!
Poets@Play is a monthly creative writing workshop hosted by former Santa Clara County Poet Laureate David Perez. Each session features a different guest facilitator—or sometimes David himself—leading hands-on exercises to inspire creativity and new ideas.
Our Facilitator
Brandon Luu is a poet from San Jose, California. He received his Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from San Jose State University, and he is a member of the Board of Directors of Poetry Center San Jose. He also served as a 2022 Creative Ambassador for the City of San Jose.
Workshop Description:
"Breathing Life into Poems" is a performance workshop that explores an alternative way of appreciating poetry and writing. How do you want to read a poem vs. how does a poem want to be read? Learn about the different techniques that readers use to enhance the experience of reading out loud and try them for yourself!
No RSVP required. Just show up at 1:00pm
Admission: Free (donations welcome)
📍Location: Markham House @ History Park
635 Phelan Ave, San Jose, CA.
Free parking right outside of the main gate or in the lot at the end of Phelan Avenue (except during some History Park events.)
Once you walk into the park from Phelan Avenue, go straight until the road dead ends, then make a left. Markham House is then the second house on your left. There will be a flag over the steps that reads OPEN.