3:00-3:45 PM

Trails and Meetings: Memories and Stories

Reading Venue: Fresno Music Academy & Arts: Vista Theatre (1296 N. Wishon Ave)

• Juleen Eun Sun Johnson

• Megan Espinor

• Lee Herrick

• Susan Ito

Four BIPOC artists and writers will read about loss from different prospectives. Some have been adopted, others have experienced a loss of a parent. We hope by sharing our stories that we help the next generation of Adopted-Americans and children who lose a parent to overcome their losses, not by setting them aside, but by examining the pieces that are left. We hope the reading helping others tell their own stories, share their memories, help cultivate community, and conversations around adoption and loss.

Body-Mind Synthesis: How Connection Shapes the Person

Reading Venue: Hart's Haven Used Bookstore (950 N. Van Ness Ave)

• Alberto Uribe (he/him)

• Vanessa Gonzalez (she/her)

• Jacob Simmons (he/him)

• James Morrison (he/him)

Four writers explore the limits of relationships, from connection to codependency, and how they each fundamentally alter the individual both cognitively and corporeally.

Human, or something like it.

Reading Venue: Splash (644 E Olive)

• Kirk Alvaro Lua

• Matthew Driscoll

• Fili Casillas

• David Reyna

Two poets and two creative writers come together to share writings about life and the absurdities that come with trying to understand it. They are all serious writers who TRY not to take life too seriously. Join us for a time of laughs and unique insight into the human condition.

Feels Like the First Time: Reflecting Back on New Experiences.

Reading Venue: Mi Cafesito (1495 N. Van Ness Ave)

• René Miguel Rodríguez-Astacio (he/él/they)

• Michele McConnell (she/her/mom)

• Yamil Sárraga-López (he/him)

• David Low (he/him)

What is the “first time” for something? What propelled us forward? What motivated us to leave old worlds or beliefs behind, to do something new and frightening? What pleasures and pains awaited us? Diving into oft-romanticized or purposefully hidden memories of first experiences, four Fresno State professors plunge headfirst into nostalgic moments and personal histories. Highlighting firsts and our retrospective understandings of those moments as turning points, we endeavor to complicate facile narratives of inevitability or triumphalism. We instead find nuance in the delicate space that exists between ‘the before’ and ‘the after’ of key moments in our life stories.

The Four Horsemen of Lithopocalypse

Reading Venue: Sour Milk (1474 N. Van Ness Ave)

• Brandon Xiong (he/him)

• Alaina Schneider (she/her)

• Ariana Enriquez (she/her)

• Katie Quigley (she/her)

Four young Fresno writers have come together to share their love of prose and poetry. While navigating the adversity and successes of being in your early twenties, this diverse group has found writing as an outlet to process their current life events and as a healthy form of escapism. Their themes range from lighter topics of friends and family to darker themes of mental health and death.

Fantasmas de Califas: Chasing Shades

Reading Venue: Spectrum Art Gallery (608 E. Olive Ave)

• Viviana Melgoza (she/her)

• Luivette Resto

• Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo (she/her)

• Marisol Baca (she/her)

Four poets explore the shadows in their work. They will surface from the depths, talk love, old wounds, and summon those muddy, webbed fantasms left in all the corners of Califas – from Fresno to Los Angeles. 

Traficando Poetas / Trafficking Poets

Reading Venue: Goldstein’s (1279 N Wishon)

• Iván Salinas (he/him)

• Mylo Lam (he/him)

• Ingrid M. Calderón (she/her)

• Hermelinda Hernandez (she/her)

A poetry reading with four authors based in Los Angeles and Fresno embodying "traffic" in its multitude of meanings. Each poet's work explores themes of displacement, urban mobility, and personal experiences as poets of color navigating militarized borders in the U.S.; with distinct cultural roots in Mexico, El Salvador, and Vietnam the poets will read primarily in English with a mix of their native tongues in their respective works.

Diasporas, Horizons, and Auroras (Vol. I): Healing

Reading Venue: Teazer World Tea Market (645 E. Olive Ave) 

• Dante Erlang (he/him)

• Yennefer Chouda-Erlang (she/her)

• Bo Vang (she/her)

• Chou Xiong (he/him)

Four poets reeling from the aftershocks and aftermaths of diaspora gather together to read their poetry that share the universal human spirit that wanders in search of somewhere to call home. The themes embedded within these poems will consist of forging personal identities in post-war lives, breaking silences by embracing catharses in all its raw forms, and the power of poetry to heal its wielders and practitioners solely through words alone.

together we’ll be a song: introducing four andrés montoya scholars

Reading Venue: Tower Yoga: The Lotus Room (626 E. Olive Ave)

• David R. Carrasco-Gomez (he/him)

• Guadalupe Salgado Partida (she/her/they/them)

• Stefan Leiva (he/him)

• Victoria Monsivaiz (she/her)

The educator and activist Andrés Montoya — described as “a field hand, ditch digger, canner, ice plant worker, and sometimes teacher of writing” — graduated from Fowler High and earned his bachelor’s degree from Fresno State. He died from leukemia in 1999 and left the world two poetry collections: “the ice worker sings and other poems,” and the posthumous “a jury of trees.” His legacy lives on through the Andrés Montoya Memorial Scholarships, supported by the Montoya family and awarded annually since 2000. Hear the voices of four Montoya Scholars as they traverse contemporary landscapes of identity, queerness, cultura, y chicanismo.