Poets Laureate Reading

Lee Herrick is the California Poet Laureate. He is the author of three books of poems: Scar and Flower, Gardening Secrets of the Dead, and This Many Miles from Desire. He is co-editor, with Leah Silvieus, of The World I Leave You: Asian American Poets on Faith and Spirit (Orison Books 2020). He served as City of Fresno Poet Laureate from 2015-2017. His poems have appeared widely in literary magazines, anthologies, and textbooks including The Bloomsbury Review, Columbia Poetry Review, Berkeley Poetry Review, The Normal School, The Poetry Foundation, ZYZZYVA, Seeds from a Silent Tree: Writing by Korean Adoptees, Highway 99: A Literary Journey Through California’s Great Central Valley (2nd edition), The Place That Inhabits Us: Poems from the San Francisco Bay Watershed, Naming the Lost: The Fresno Poets—Interviews and Essays, One for the Money: The Sentence as Poetic Form, Indivisible: Poems of Social Justice, Dear America: Letters of Hope, Habitat, Defiance, and Democracy, and HERE: Poems for the Planet, with a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (Copper Canyon 2019), among others. Herrick serves on the advisory board of Terrain.org and Sixteen Rivers Press. He has taught in Qingdao, China, and for Kundiman. He co-founded LitHop(link is external) in Fresno. He has traveled throughout Latin America and Asia, and has given readings across the United States. He was born in Daejeon, South Korea, adopted at ten months of age, and raised in California. He lives with his family in Fresno, California, and teaches at Fresno City College and in the low-residency MFA program at University of Nevada Reno at Lake Tahoe. He is the 10th California Poet Laureate, and the first Asian American to serve in the role.

Kealoha is the first Poet Laureate of Hawaiʻi. As an internationally acclaimed poet and storyteller, he has performed throughout the world — from the White House to the ʻIolani Palace, from Brazil to Switzerland. He is the first poet in Hawaiʻi’s history to perform at a governor’s inauguration, was selected as a master artist for a National Endowment for the Arts program, and delivered the keynote address for MIT’s special commencement ceremony in 2022. Kealoha’s latest work, The Story of Everything, is a science-based theater production that has toured in various cities throughout the United States and will premiere as a feature film at the 2022 Maui Film Festival. ​He is the founder of Hawaiʻi Slam (ranked 2nd in the nation), Youth Speaks Hawaiʻi (2-Time International Champions), and First Thursdays (the largest registered slam poetry competition in the world with an average attendance of 500+). He has featured at hundreds of live venues throughout the world including the Nuyorican poets cafe (New York City), the Bowery Poetry Club (New York City), the Green Mill (Chicago), the Schiffbau (Zürich, Switzerland), the Rokerij​ (Amsterdam, Netherlands), the Bienal do Ibirapuera (São Paulo, Brazil), and the 2007 NFL Pro Bowl halftime show. In the genre of storytelling, he has gained national recognition by showcasing at high profile events such as the National Storytelling Network Conference, the Bay Area Storytelling Festival, and the Honolulu Storytelling Festival. 

Nadia Elbgal is the Oakland Youth Poet Laureate. She is a Berkeley High graduate currently taking a few classes at Berkeley City College during her gap year. She is a Yemeni-American Muslim woman who advocates for and raises awareness on topics relating to the Middle Eastern and Muslim communities. Nadia has been a literacy mentor to Yemeni students in OUSD elementary schools as well as a teaching assistant in a mental health class at Hoover Elementary’s summer program. As an artist-activist, Nadia’s themes range from the Middle East to American cities: the perspectives, experiences, and effects on people from both sides. She is an older sister and cousin whose values and insight come from her upbringing in mixed cultures and families. As a storyteller, she identifies as an actor, playwright, lyricist, and poet. She plans to get a degree in social work and pursue a career that will help keep youth out of jails.