Tony Robles

Tony Robles, “The People’s Poet” was born in San Francisco and is the nephew of Filipino-American poet, historian and social justice activist Al Robles. He was a shortlist nominee for poet laureate of San Francisco in 2017 and the recipient of the San Francisco Art Commission individual literary artist grant in 2018. His two books of poetry and short stories, Cool Don’t Live Here No More - A letter to San Francisco and Fingerprints of a Hunger Strike (both published by Ithuriel’s Spear Press) take on the issues of eviction, gentrification and police violence in communities of color. He is also the author of two children’s books, Lakas and the Manilatown Fish and Lakas and the Makibaka Hotel, published by Children’s Book Press and Lee and Low.

Tony w­as nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2011 for the story, “In My Country” and also served as board president of the Manilatown Heritage Foundation, an organization started by housing activists to honor, preserve and promote Filipino American history and culture. His work is included in numerous anthologies including Growing Up Filipino Volume II; Of Color: Poet’s Ways of Making; Poverty Scholarship: Poor People Led Theory, Art, Words and Tears Across Mama Earth, and many others. For the last ten years Robles has worked as a tenants’ rights advocate for seniors and people with disabilities.

Robles moved to Hendersonville in 2019 to be closer to his mother, writer Flo Mayberry and stepfather Pete Mayberry, as well as their two dogs, Holly and GG. He has since become a volunteer with the Friends of the Library of Henderson County and Meals on Wheels. He conducted a writing workshop at the request of the North Carolina Writer’s Network and organized the first ever celebration of Filipino American History Month in October 2019 at the Ashville Public Library with the Filipino-American Community of Western North Carolina (FAC-WNC).