Flash Reading Series
In spring 2021, ARC piloted a new Flash Reading Series featuring two dozen Bay Area poets. reading one of their poems in relation to the theme “emerge/ncy”. In addition to ARC’s larger monthly readings, this series extended the number of voices we wanted to hear from, and carry with us, in these changing times – from emerging to established poets. Ongoing, we will add new Bay Area poets each April during National Poetry Month.
Over time, the series has turned into a growing online archive of Bay Area poets. These 52 short recorded readings are carried on our website (below), on ARC’s YouTube channel, and shared on social media. Sign up for our newsletter (to the right) and you will be sent the spring readings each Friday in April for National Poetry Month!
Fall 2021 & Spring 2022 Flash Readings:
Katherine Agyemaa Agard, Dodie Bellamy, Maxe Crandall, Eric Falci, Caroline Goodwin, Amanda Gunn, Ra Malika Imhotep, Mason J, Fiza Jihan, Nathalie Khankan, Ava Koohbor, Dana Koster, Angie Sijun Lou, tanea lunsford lynx, Randall Mann, Florencia Milito, Zouhair Mussa, Lucie Pereira, Katie Peterson, Atsuro Riley, Janice Lobo Sapigao, Kevin Simmonds, Darius Simpson, Maya Sisneros, Aimee Suzara, Lehua M. Taitano, & Nellie Wong
In Fall of 2021 and Spring 2022, each poet read one of their poems related to the theme coexistence. The word coexistence has a spatial component, and implies the sharing of space or cohabitation within overlapping territories; it also has a temporal dimension, suggesting simultaneous presence with others in the same moment in time. We were interested in work that engaged capaciously with issues of mutuality, synchronicity, interdependence, and care – from enlivening exchanges between beings, to the porous line between animate and inanimate, to the challenges of living together on our planet, to the uncanny shivers of coincidence.
Spring 2021 Flash Readings:
Kim Addonizio, Bahaar Ahsan, Ari Banias, William Brewer, MK Chavez, Jennifer Cheng, Lindsay Choi, Sophia Dahlin, Jennifer Foerster, C.S. Giscombe, Brenda Hillman, Jane Hirshfield, Leena Joshi, Raina Leon, Thea Matthews, Geoffrey G. O’Brien, Brittany Perham, D.A. Powell, Barbara Reyes, Rachel Richardson, sam sax, Kim Shuck, Juliana Spahr, & D’mani Thomas.
In Spring 2021, the theme was emerge/ncy. We were interested in what was emergent or birthed at times of crisis and the voices that became maps, guideposts, and sustenance along the way. The series was launched during 2021 National Poetry Month as part of a semester-long festival of poetry. Motivating questions included, what kinds of poetic modes of address might be recruited in times of global catastrophe? How does poetry help us think through and within crisis? “Emergency” implies urgency, sudden harm, life-threatening violence, and extreme circumstances, but embedded within it is the word “emergence;” suggesting rebirth and new beginnings. We sought to understand how moments of emergency could act as catalysts for renewal, as ruptures that signaled massive—if painful—change.