Poetry Lounge Online Open Mic
POETRY LOUNGE ONLINE OPEN MIC!
Please note this change in date for this month:
Sunday, September 13, 1:00 p.m. (PST) via Zoom
Poetry Lounge is held twice a month on the first and third Sunday.
Hosted by Lesa Medley! Contact Lesa Medley to receive your Zoom link: lcmedley016@gmail.com.
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. We offer programs and services to stimulate passion for the literary arts and to inspire and support emerging and established writers.
Poetry Lounge Online Open Mic
POETRY LOUNGE ONLINE OPEN MIC!
Please note this change in date for this month:
Sunday, September 27, 1:00 p.m. (PST) via Zoom
Poetry Lounge is held twice a month on the first and third Sunday.
Hosted by Lesa Medley! Contact Lesa Medley to receive your Zoom link: lcmedley016@gmail.com.
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. We offer programs and services to stimulate passion for the literary arts and to inspire and support emerging and established writers.
Well-RED Reading Series featuring Louise Kantro!
Well-RED Reading Series featuring Louise Kantro!
Co-sponsored by Works/San José art and performance center!
38 South Second Street, downtown San José
7:00 p.m. PDT
Open mic to start the show!
If you are unable to attend in person, we welcome you to join via Zoom! Register in advance for this event via Zoom.
Link: https://bit.ly/Well-RED_September2026
Louise Kantro worked in a hospital, county immigration, and held other usually part-time positions while her children were young. After receiving her California teaching credential, she taught high school English, and sometimes first-year Spanish, for twenty-five years. At the age of 49, in the middle of her teaching career, she pursued her MFA through a low-residency program at Goddard College.
After she retired, her focus became poetry and she has published poetry in many journals throughout the country such as SLAB, Glimpse, Trajectory Journal, Arlijo, The Willow Review, Monterey Poetry Review, and Song of the San Joaquin. She has been featured in anthologies such as Doomer Anthology, Rushing Through the Dark, The Anthology of New England Writers, Borders and Boundaries, and several Tallgrass (Outrider Press) anthologies. She has won prizes such as Grand Prize and second prize in the Westmoreland Arts and Heritage Festival; The Derick Burleson Prize and publication in The Best of Choeofpleirn, along with nomination to Best American Poets; and first prize in The Writer’s Place, and various prizes from the Ina Coolbrith Circle. In 2010, Pudding House Press published her first chapbook, Dwellingplaces.
She has three cats, plays bridge, has twice served as President of the local chapter of the National League of American Pen Women, and now finds that most of her poetry veers toward the political.
Downtown SJ provides free parking on the street after 6:00 p.m. Available street parking is difficult to find after 6:30 p.m.
If you are unable to find parking on the street, there are two parking garages of note:
1.) 25 S. 3rd Street PARKSJ Garage (located underground, under The Globe Apartments), about 300 meters from Works/San Jose;
2.) 2nd & San Carlos PARKSJ Garage (first 90 minutes are free). This is a 5-10 minute walk to Works/San Jose.
TO SUBMIT EVENT FEEDBACK, visit: https://bit.ly/4dBnxR2
Poetry Lounge Online Open Mic
POETRY LOUNGE ONLINE OPEN MIC!
Sunday, August 16, 1:00 p.m. (PST) via Zoom
Poetry Lounge is held twice a month on the first and third Sunday.
Hosted by Lesa Medley! Contact Lesa Medley to receive your Zoom link: lcmedley016@gmail.com.
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. We offer programs and services to stimulate passion for the literary arts and to inspire and support emerging and established writers.
Poetry Lounge Online Open Mic with Lesa Medley
POETRY LOUNGE ONLINE OPEN MIC!
Sunday, August 2, 1:00 p.m. (PST) via Zoom
Poetry Lounge is held twice a month on the first and third Sunday.
Hosted by Lesa Medley! Contact Lesa Medley to receive your Zoom link: lcmedley016@gmail.com.
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. We offer programs and services to stimulate passion for the literary arts and to inspire and support emerging and established writers.
Bauchhaar: Poetry Prism
Bring your poems, a mat, your family, and friends to experience the poetic hues in the vibrant aura of the farmers' market at EV Square! Come over to the poetry store of Bauchhaar's 'Poetry Prism,' our annual Open Mic from Poetry Center San Jose on Sunday, July 26th, from 10:30 AM-12:30 PM at EV Square, San Jose, CA
Secure your spot, send your work to bauchhaar@gmail.com
All languages are welcome. Hosted by Anshu Johri
Address: 4055 Evergreen Village Sq., San Jose, California
Summer 2025: A crowd enjoys poetry at a beautiful summer Bauchhaar session.
Poetry Lounge Online Open Mic
POETRY LOUNGE ONLINE OPEN MIC!
Sunday, July 19, 1:00 p.m. (PST) via Zoom
Poetry Lounge is held twice a month on the first and third Sunday.
Hosted by Lesa Medley! Contact Lesa Medley to receive your Zoom link: lcmedley016@gmail.com.
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. We offer programs and services to stimulate passion for the literary arts and to inspire and support emerging and established writers.
Poetry Lounge Online Open Mic
POETRY LOUNGE ONLINE OPEN MIC!
Sunday, July 5, 1:00 p.m. (PST) via Zoom
Poetry Lounge is held twice a month on the first and third Sunday.
Hosted by Lesa Medley! Contact Lesa Medley to receive your Zoom link: lcmedley016@gmail.com.
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. We offer programs and services to stimulate passion for the literary arts and to inspire and support emerging and established writers.
Poetry Lounge Online Open Mic
POETRY LOUNGE ONLINE OPEN MIC!
Sunday, May 17, 1:00 p.m. (PST) via Zoom
Poetry Lounge is held twice a month on the first and third Sunday.
Hosted by Lesa Medley! Contact Lesa Medley to receive your Zoom link: lcmedley016@gmail.com.
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. We offer programs and services to stimulate passion for the literary arts and to inspire and support emerging and established writers.
Poetry Lounge Online Open Mic
POETRY LOUNGE ONLINE OPEN MIC!
Sunday, June 7, 1:00 p.m. (PST) via Zoom
Poetry Lounge is held twice a month on the first and third Sunday.
Hosted by Lesa Medley! Contact Lesa Medley to receive your Zoom link: lcmedley016@gmail.com.
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. We offer programs and services to stimulate passion for the literary arts and to inspire and support emerging and established writers.
Poetry Lounge Online Open Mic
POETRY LOUNGE ONLINE OPEN MIC!
Sunday, May 17, 1:00 p.m. (PST) via Zoom
Poetry Lounge is held twice a month on the first and third Sunday.
Hosted by Lesa Medley! Contact Lesa Medley to receive your Zoom link: lcmedley016@gmail.com.
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. We offer programs and services to stimulate passion for the literary arts and to inspire and support emerging and established writers.
Well-RED features Open Mic Night celebrating Poetry Month
Well-RED features Open Mic Night celebrating Poetry Month!
Tuesday, May 12th, 7:00 p.m. (PDT)
Co-sponsored by Works/San José art and performance center!
Address: 38 S. 2nd Street, San José.
Come share your own new or favorite works. Did you create something during a Poets@Play Creative Writing workshop or Writers' Cafe at Markham House? Come share it live in-person or via Zoom!
We will have appetizers and beverages available!
Click here to register in advance for this event via Zoom.
TO SUBMIT EVENT FEEDBACK, visit: https://bit.ly/4dBnxR2
Poetry Lounge Online Open Mic
POETRY LOUNGE ONLINE OPEN MIC!
Sunday, May 3, 1:00 p.m. (PST) via Zoom
Poetry Lounge is held twice a month on the first and third Sunday.
Hosted by Lesa Medley! Contact Lesa Medley to receive your Zoom link: lcmedley016@gmail.com.
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. We offer programs and services to stimulate passion for the literary arts and to inspire and support emerging and established writers.
Poetry Lounge Online Open Mic featuring Veronica Kornberg!
POETRY LOUNGE ONLINE OPEN MIC!
Featuring Veronica Kornberg!
Sunday, April 19, 1:00 p.m. (PST)
via Zoom
Hosted by Lesa Medley!
Poetry Lounge is held twice a month on the first and third Sunday.
Contact Lesa Medley to receive your Zoom link: lcmedley016@gmail.com.
Veronica is a San Francisco Bay Area poet who splits her time between Portola Valley and Pescadero, a small coastal town on the Central Coast. She is a recipient of the Wandering Aengus Book Award in Poetry, and the Morton Marcus Poetry Prize. Veronica's poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Alaska Quarterly Review, Poet Lore, New Ohio Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, RHINO Poetry, Plume, Calyx, Salamander, Indiana Review, Rattle, and Catamaran Literary Reader. She is a Peer Reviewer for Whale Road Review. At her home in Pescadero, she can be found happily exploring the tidepools or on her knees in the dirt in her habitat garden of coastal scrub. Veronica’s debut poetry collection, Strange Gift, will be published by Wandering Aengus Press in April, 2026.
Poetry Lounge Online Open Mic featuring Nils Peterson!
POETRY LOUNGE ONLINE OPEN MIC!
Sunday, April 5, 1:00 p.m. (PST) via Zoom
Poetry Lounge is held twice a month on the first and third Sunday.
Hosted by Lesa Medley! Contact Lesa Medley to receive your Zoom link: lcmedley016@gmail.com.
Special Guest: Nils Peterson! Open Mic to follow.
Nils Peterson is Professor Emeritus at San Jose State University where he taught in the English and Humanities Departments.
He has published poetry, science fiction, and articles on subjects as varyied as golf and Shakespeare, has had several chapbooks and three collections of poetry, the latest, All the Marvelous Stuff, 2020.
His memoir, Talk in the Reading Room published in 2014 by wordrunnerpress can be read at http://www.echapbook.com/memoir/peterson/. He also has a memoir about his friendship and work with Robert Bly, The Dear Time of our Talking, 2020. His latest, My Dinner with Nils, is just out and available from Amazon. It is a gathering of poems, memoir bits, essays, and Memorable Fancies.
In 2009, he was chosen to be the first Poet Laureate of Santa Clara County.
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. We offer programs and services to stimulate passion for the literary arts and to inspire and support emerging and established writers.
Well-RED featuring Arlene Biala & Rosanna Alvarez!
Co-sponsored by Works/San José art and performance center!
38 South Second Street, downtown San José.
Open mic to start the show!
If you are unable to attend in person, we welcome you to join via Zoom! Register in advance for this event.
Link: https://bit.ly/Well-RED_January2026
Arlene Biala
POET, AUTHOR, PERFORMANCE ARTIST
Arlene Biala is a Pinay 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, (November 2025) from Sampaguita Press is available at bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, and Arlene's tote bag.
Rosanna Alvarez
Rosanna Alvarez is a Chicana storyteller, educator, Aztec dancer, and visual artist whose work thrives at the intersection of cultura, creativity, and comunidad. A woman of many hats—literally and artistically—her practice spans poetry, performance, publishing, and handcrafted art that honors memory and movimiento. A silver medalist for the Juan Felipe Herrera Best Book of Poetry Award, she is the author of Braided [Un]Be-Longing, a collection that weaves poetry, testimonio, and ancestral echoes into a journey of healing and reclamation.
Her work has been anthologized and published across academic journals and community-rooted collections, including Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, the MALCS Journal of Chicana/Latina Studies, Somos Xicanas, and Anger Is a Gift, among others.
Through every medium, Rosanna invites others to dream, heal, and dismantle fronteras as we co-create a future rooted in dignity, humanidad, and collective joy.
She is also the co-founder of Eastside Magazine, the founder of Ocote Libre Press, and an Ethnic Studies educator at West Valley College.
Downtown SJ provides free parking on the street after 6:00 p.m. Available street parking is difficult to find after 6:30 p.m.
If you are unable to find parking on the street, there are two parking garages of note:
1.) 25 S. 3rd Street PARKSJ Garage (located underground, under The Globe Apartments), about 300 meters from Works/San Jose;
2.) 2nd & San Carlos PARKSJ Garage (first 90 minutes are free). This is a 5-10 minute walk to Works/San Jose
TO SUBMIT EVENT FEEDBACK, visit: https://bit.ly/4dBnxR2
Well-RED features Kristina Robertson!
Co-sponsored by Works/San José art and performance center!
38 South Second Street, downtown San José.
Open mic to start the show!
If you are unable to attend in person, we welcome you to join via Zoom! Register in advance for this event via Zoom.
Link: https://bit.ly/Well-RED_November2025
Kristina Robertson is a confessional spoken word performer, writer, and producer here in the South Bay. She has competed in 2 national poetry slam competitions. Her work has appeared in Overachiever Magazine and was published in Chopsticks Alley Art’s Asian American Healing: A Nature Walk Guide. She just released her first full length book of confessional poems titled Getting Out of My Head … with Poems from My Heart in October. She currently co-produces Chopsticks Alley Art’s CreativiTEA Open Mic. Through her work with Chopsticks Alley Art, she helps to provide opportunities for AAPI artists to showcase their work while also sharing her love for art and poetry with her community.
Downtown SJ provides free parking on the street after 6:00 p.m. Available street parking is difficult to find after 6:30 p.m.
If you are unable to find parking on the street, there are two parking garages of note:
1.) 25 S. 3rd Street PARKSJ Garage (located underground, under The Globe Apartments), about 300 meters from Works/San José;
2.) 2nd & San Carlos PARKSJ Garage (first 90 minutes are free). This is a 5-10 minute walk to Works/San José.
TO SUBMIT EVENT FEEDBACK, visit: https://bit.ly/4dBnxR2
Poetry Lounge (via Zoom)
POETRY LOUNGE ONLINE OPEN MIC!
Sunday, September 21, 1:00 p.m. (PST)
via Zoom
Hosted by Lesa Medley!
Poetry Lounge is held twice a month on the first and third Sunday
Contact Lesa Medley to receive your Zoom link: lcmedley016@gmail.com
Well-RED features Veterans of Life Write authors G. Craige Edgerton, Jaime Lee Johnson, Bill Noyes & Nick Butterfield!
Co-sponsored by Works/San José art and performance center!
38 South Second Street, downtown San José.
Open mic to start the show!
If you are unable to attend in person, we welcome you to join via Zoom! Register in advance for this event via Zoom.
Link: https://bit.ly/Well-REDseptember2025
Our featured poets:
G. Craige Edgerton
Craige started his writing practice at age 75, as suggested by his Vet Center counselor to help him deal with his negative issues regarding his time in Vietnam as a combat Marine. He fought it for many months and finally decided to try it just once. It turned out to be one of the best decisions of his life and he hasn’t stopped writing since. In college, he admired those who could write creatively and tell compelling stories. But being from rural South Texas, he lacked confidence. And who would want to hear his story of a very ordinary life anyway? The counseling sessions at the Vet Center that dealt with his, and many others, PTSD made him realize that being in combat was not an ordinary experience. Very few individuals have such experiences. He realized that the stories of the mostly Vietnam veterans were unique, not in actual combat stories, but in how they had recovered fifty-plus years later. For reasons that are still unclear, he decided to write some of those stories and enroll others willing to tell their stories too. This book is the result of that decision.
Jaime Lee Johnson
Born in San Jose, California, Jaime Lee Johnson was raised by his aunt after an adoption at a very early age. Jaime knew he wanted to serve, given how every generation in his family had in one way or another, but he also knew it was a commitment. He served 7 years in the US Army as an infantryman and in a military intelligence unit, including a deployment to Baghdad in 2005. After his discharge, he experienced trouble, like most vets with PTSD, and had to find help for it. A friend recommended he go to the Vet Center in San Jose, and everything changed. Jaime knew that the lessons he learned through the group could help others, which is why he became part of the project for this book. To pass on his experiences with PTSD and how he found ways to deal with the side effects of war, both physically and mentally. He hopes that with this book, he can help at least one veteran reconnect with their family or their friends, or show them the way to get help for problems they feel no one else can understand.
Bill Noyes
Born in San Francisco, Bill was raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, and then again in San Francisco. He graduated in 1965 from Andrew Hill High in San Jose and then attended San Jose State College. In 1967, Bill was drafted into the Vietnam War, B 2/22, earning a Silver Star and a Combat Infantry Badge north of Saigon. He finally earned his BA degree from San Jose State University in Philosophy in 1978. Bill married in 1976 and raised two daughters at their Campbell home. He retired from welding after 30 years. During this time, he worked on various home additions, sculpted statues, and persisted with writing projects and books. War experiences have taken much of his attention throughout his life and, accordingly, resulted in many valuable lessons learned.
Nick Butterfield
Nick AKA Nektarios Butterfield served in the USNR as a Hospital Corpsman HM1 from 1983 to 1993. Active during Operation Desert Storm and Desert Shield in 1990-1991 “Grief is the source of many of my writings.” “PTSD, I saw in my dad who was a Pearl Harbor Survivor and many of my current writing collaborators.” They are not just veterans of war but of life.” Nick was one of the few who gathered in Willow Glen Bookstore in the mid-90s. The Willow Glen Poetry Project went on to publish 3 anthologies in which Nektarios participated in. He has contributed to 3 Caesura editions in the past and contributed to Veterans of Life Write book that came out in 2020. He co-facilitates Veterans of Life Zoom meetings, the first Friday of every month, which is sponsored by the Psychology Dept. at SJSU and Martin Luther King Library and Poetry San Jose. The group has participated in seven Poetry San Jose Festivals and has been meeting regularly since 2015. This group started with Amy Meier’s recognition of a need for Veterans to write and heal.
TO SUBMIT EVENT FEEDBACK, visit: https://bit.ly/4dBnxR2
Poetry Center San José is a member supported organization and is funded, in part, by grants from Applied Materials Foundation, the City of San José's Office of Cultural Affairs, Literary Arts Emergency Fund, supported by the Mellon Foundation (@MellonFdn), Knight Foundation, Poets & Writers, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, SVCREATES, in partnership with the County of Santa Clara and the California Arts Council and also supported in part by a SVCreates National Endowment for the Arts American Rescue Plan grant. We also thank Brandenburg Family Foundation and Anne & Mark's Art Party for their generous giving.
Poetry Lounge (via Zoom)
POETRY LOUNGE ONLINE OPEN MIC!
Sunday, September 7, 1:00 p.m. (PST)
via Zoom
Hosted by Lesa Medley!
Poetry Lounge is held twice a month on the first and third Sunday
Contact Lesa Medley to receive your Zoom link: lcmedley016@gmail.com