top of page
1964 gegrënnt
Iwwersetzt dës Säit:
Eng Zeil vu Poesie kann e Liewen änneren
Mir hëllefen Schüler ausdrécken hir Kreativitéit, Fantasi, a Virwëtz duerch Poesie.
ACTIVE POET-TEACHERS
Many Poet-Teachers will travel and offer Zoom workshops by request.
Click headshots for full bio & links.
You may request Poet-Teacher services at info@cpits.org or 415-221-4201.
SOUTH
Amanda Chiado, San Benito
Amanda Chiado is the author of the chapbook Vitiligod: The Ascension of Michael Jackson (Dancing Girl Press, 2016). Her poetry and fiction is forthcoming or appears in Ghost Parachute, Vine Leaves Press, Paper Darts, Cheap Pop, Jersey Devil Press, Arcana: The Tarot Poetry Anthology, All We Can Hold: A Collection of Poetry on Motherhood and many others. Her poem "The Devil Has Taken His Dress Off" won the Molotov Cocktail Shadow Poetry Award, 2016.
Amanda is writer, teacher and arts advocate. She is the Director of Arts Education for the San Benito County Arts Council and is an active California Poet in the Schools.
She holds degrees from the University of New Mexico and California College of the Arts in addition to be a credential teacher. She edits for Jersey Devil Press.
Her work has garnered support from the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley, The Creative Capacity Fund, the Highlights Foundation and The Luna Dance Institute. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.
Amanda is writer, teacher and arts advocate. She is the Director of Arts Education for the San Benito County Arts Council and is an active California Poet in the Schools.
She holds degrees from the University of New Mexico and California College of the Arts in addition to be a credential teacher. She edits for Jersey Devil Press.
Her work has garnered support from the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley, The Creative Capacity Fund, the Highlights Foundation and The Luna Dance Institute. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.
Eva Poole-Gilson, Inyo
Eva Poole-Gilson has taught poetry in K-12 classrooms in four southern California counties. She also taught basic writing skills and literature at the Cerro Coso College in Bishop and Mammoth Lakes for 15 years. She's published three books: Love Letter to the High Sierra; Little Star Sleeping; and Whiskered Wisdom. As editor, she's completing development and layout of A Spark in Slow Motion, One Woman's Way with Parkinson's Disease. Eva loves teaching young children, at-risk teens, and adults of all ages who want to share their original poems and stories. She can be reached via her website: www.evapoole-gilson.com or www.fb.com/groups/TheImaginationLab.
Dawn Trook, Merced
Dawn Trook is a writer, performer, and educator based in Merced. She is the Area Coordinator for California Poets in the Schools and a writing program faculty member at UC Merced. Besides teaching first year composition and creative writing at UC Merced, she teaches Central Valley Stories, a first-year seminar in which students interview and collect stories from local community members and respond to and share the stories through creative work. IG: @dawntrook
Beth Beurkens, Monterey
BAY AREA
(Alameda, Marin, Santa Clara, Sonoma, San Francisco)
CENTRAL
Jessica Wilson, Los Angeles
Jessica M. Wilson Cárdenas is an International Chicana Poet, born in East Los Angeles, CA. Jessica is a 3rd generation Beatnik. She has a BA in Creative Writing, and Art History, from UC Riverside.(Riverside, CA) and a Master of Fine Arts from Otis College of Art and Design. (Los Angeles, CA) In 2009 she founded the Los Angeles Poet Society and began a network of literary events and open mics in LA County! She teaches poetry with California Poets in the Schools, the oldest non-profit dedicated to the empowerment of our youth in CA, where she taught Youth US Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman! Jessica is an Artivist; 100 Thousand Poets for Change in Los Angeles since 2011, and an organizer. Her activism is lent to stand against oppressors, standing up for justice for: Andy Lopez, Mely Corado, George Floyd, and other people of color who have been murdered; she is a woman on the Red Road. Jessica is a social justice Publisher for Los Angeles Poet Society Press, amplifying QTBIPOC voices. She’s a DJ for Radio Ollin, (www.radioollin.org) Her books of poetry include: What Breathes, Raw Kit, Marie Morrison, Serious Longing, published by Swan World Press in Paris, France.
Website: www.jessicamwilson.com
Website: www.jessicamwilson.com
Nancy Woo, Los Angeles
Nancy Lynée Woo is a poet, writer, organizer, and climate activist who harbors a wild love for the natural world. Her debut poetry collection is called I’d Rather Be Lightning (GASHER Press, March 2023). Nancy has received fellowships from Artists at Work, PEN America, Arts Council for Long Beach, and Idyllwild Writers Week. Her work has been published in The Shore, Tupelo Quarterly, Stirring, Radar Poetry, and other journals and anthologies. Nancy has an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University and a BA in sociology from UC Santa Cruz.
Nancy has been teaching poetry to adults since 2017 as the founder of Surprise the Line, and teaching poetry to children and teens since 2019. She has taught poetry in 5th grade classrooms as an Artist-Teacher with Angels Gate Cultural Center and led an after-school poetry class as an Artist at Work, which culminated in a booklet of student work. She has also taught a STEAM summer program for middle schoolers and been a guest teacher in high school classrooms. Find her cavorting around Long Beach (Tongva land) in California, and online at nancylyneewoo.com or @fancifulnance on social.
Nancy has been teaching poetry to adults since 2017 as the founder of Surprise the Line, and teaching poetry to children and teens since 2019. She has taught poetry in 5th grade classrooms as an Artist-Teacher with Angels Gate Cultural Center and led an after-school poetry class as an Artist at Work, which culminated in a booklet of student work. She has also taught a STEAM summer program for middle schoolers and been a guest teacher in high school classrooms. Find her cavorting around Long Beach (Tongva land) in California, and online at nancylyneewoo.com or @fancifulnance on social.
Alice Pero, Los Angeles
Alice Pero began teaching children poetry with a program with The New York City Ballet Education Department in the five boroughs of NYC in 1991. She was highly regarded as an asset as she was not only a published poet, but a dancer and musician and using her knowledge of all the arts, she developed a curriculum for teaching children poetry that involved a holistic artistic approach. Moving to Los Angeles in 1996 led her to the California Poets in the Schools and she began a successful career in Southern California, teaching in both public and private schools. Her students' poems have made their way into numerous CA Poets anthologies.
Pero's book, "Thawed Stars" was praised by Kenneth Koch as having "clarity and surprises." She is also collaborative with other poets and artists, having done dialogues over the last 25 years with over 20 poets and her book, "Beyond Birds and Answers" is the result of an on-going dialogue with NYC artist, Vera Campion.
In addition to being a prolific poet and poet/teacher, Pero is a flutist who formed the chamber music group, "Windsong" in 2015.
She also formed the long-running poetry series, "Moonday" in 2002 and is now curating the reading for Village Poets in Tujunga, CA. She is the 10th Poet Laureate of Sunland/Tujunga.
www.alicepero.com or write info@cpits.org
Pero's book, "Thawed Stars" was praised by Kenneth Koch as having "clarity and surprises." She is also collaborative with other poets and artists, having done dialogues over the last 25 years with over 20 poets and her book, "Beyond Birds and Answers" is the result of an on-going dialogue with NYC artist, Vera Campion.
In addition to being a prolific poet and poet/teacher, Pero is a flutist who formed the chamber music group, "Windsong" in 2015.
She also formed the long-running poetry series, "Moonday" in 2002 and is now curating the reading for Village Poets in Tujunga, CA. She is the 10th Poet Laureate of Sunland/Tujunga.
www.alicepero.com or write info@cpits.org
Kiana Shaley, Los Angeles
Kiana Shaley Martin writes and lives in Long Beach, CA. Currently, she teaches poetry at CSU, Long Beach, and coordinates the Youth Poet Laureate program through the Long Beach Public Library. Previously, she was a Teaching Assistant at Community Literature Initiative. Previous work of hers has appeared in Annex Magazine, Fugue, The Racket, and Sim's Library of Poetry's Poem-a-Week. She is available for workshops and can be reached via email at hikianashaley@gmail.com.
James Coats, Riverside
James Coats is a multidisciplinary artist, author, and educator born in Los Angeles and raised in the Inland Empire. As a creative change agent he believes the arts can inspire youth and influence positive change in the world.
Cie Gumucio, Santa Barbara
Cie Gumucio is a Master Poet/Teacher and Area Coordinator in Santa Barbara for Cal Poets in the Schools. In 2021, Cie worked in collaboration with elementary students, the Botanic Garden, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art to help bring awareness to the plight of the monarch butterflies. Poetry with Wings engaged more than 1000 students in our community and won a Santa Barbara Beautiful Award.
Cie Gumucio has designed art installations incorporating poetry, video, and dance. She curated the TEDx event, Rediscovery of the Senses in Los Angeles. Her solo Los Angeles art exhibit Writers in Search of the Sacred explored the convergence of art, literature, and spirituality.
Her writing and performance has been selected for the Speaking of Stories series and her poetry has been published in numerous Anthologies. Prior to becoming a Poetry teacher, she won awards for writing in the film and television industry.
Cie Gumucio has designed art installations incorporating poetry, video, and dance. She curated the TEDx event, Rediscovery of the Senses in Los Angeles. Her solo Los Angeles art exhibit Writers in Search of the Sacred explored the convergence of art, literature, and spirituality.
Her writing and performance has been selected for the Speaking of Stories series and her poetry has been published in numerous Anthologies. Prior to becoming a Poetry teacher, she won awards for writing in the film and television industry.
Lalli Dana Drobny, Santa Barbara
Long, long time ago, Lalli Dana Drobny began leading writing workshops for children and older folks while completing her MA in Writing at the University of Iowa. Soon after, she moved to New Hampshire, where one morning, feeling a bit forlorn as she rushed between too-tightly packed tables in the almost always too-busy restaurant, Lalli suddenly remembered a line from a poem. She uttered it aloud. A fellow waiter dashing the other direction, without missing a beat, recited back (by heart) the next line of the poem. (They've been friends ever since.)
Poetry is good company! Back then, Lalli knew a little about the power of poetry – how it helps us connect, discover, better understand ourselves, each other, the worlds we live in. That day, she gained new respect for its magic and mystery. She enjoys co-creating spaces where children can welcome, nurture, celebrate, and share their voices. Workshops include playing with poems, sound, mindfulness, movement. Creativity, curiosity, and imagination help us write and read and write.
Lalli leans on nature in her own writing. She strives to honestly acknowledge life's beauty and messiness, to honor joy and struggle, to listen. She holds hope that we humans can ground and grow in harmony. Her "circle wide" was published in Spring - Women's Inspiration for the Season of Hope and New Beginnings.
Poetry is good company! Back then, Lalli knew a little about the power of poetry – how it helps us connect, discover, better understand ourselves, each other, the worlds we live in. That day, she gained new respect for its magic and mystery. She enjoys co-creating spaces where children can welcome, nurture, celebrate, and share their voices. Workshops include playing with poems, sound, mindfulness, movement. Creativity, curiosity, and imagination help us write and read and write.
Lalli leans on nature in her own writing. She strives to honestly acknowledge life's beauty and messiness, to honor joy and struggle, to listen. She holds hope that we humans can ground and grow in harmony. Her "circle wide" was published in Spring - Women's Inspiration for the Season of Hope and New Beginnings.
Vincent Jimenez, Ventura
Vincent Trevino Jimenez is a Chicano poet, Slam Champion, and an emerging scholar. Currently, Vincent is a Northridge student working on his Bachelor's in History and Chicano studies. In addition, Vincent is a Ventura College worker who encourages students to pursue what they are passionate about and reminds them that true change starts with their voices.
Luzmaria Espinosa, Ventura
Ventura County's Poet Laureate, internationally acclaimed poet Luzmaria "Luzma" Espinosa, is a life-long activist, teatrista, danzante and cultural worker. Born in Michoacán, Mexico, she and her family migrated to Ventura County in 1956, and she attended Santa Paula schools. She received BA degrees from UC Santa Barbara in Spanish and Sociology, and
she earned an Adult Teaching Credential and MA from Antioch University. She has shared her poetry in K-12 schools, community colleges and community cultural events in Ventura County, Santa Barbara County and San Luis Obispo County, throughout California, Mexico, Nicaragua and Africa.
Ms. Espinosa has performed in theater productions with the former group, Los Mascarones of Mexico City, Teatro Gusto of the Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco, Teatro de la Calle in Sacramento, and Teatro In Lak ‘Ech of Oxnard. She was also a member of TENAZ (Teatro Nacional de Aztlan).
In 1979, she became a member of the Royal Chicano Air Force, a Sacramento, California-based art collective which supported the activities of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta and helped to advance the cause of the United Farm Workers movement and other marginalized groups. She also began her life’s passion of sharing and teaching Danza Azteca. She is the first person to introduce Danza Mexica/Azteca to the Central Coast of California, where her group has impacted hundreds of lives—particularly youth—throughout Ventura County.
#poetlaureate #LuzmariaEspinosa #santapaula
she earned an Adult Teaching Credential and MA from Antioch University. She has shared her poetry in K-12 schools, community colleges and community cultural events in Ventura County, Santa Barbara County and San Luis Obispo County, throughout California, Mexico, Nicaragua and Africa.
Ms. Espinosa has performed in theater productions with the former group, Los Mascarones of Mexico City, Teatro Gusto of the Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco, Teatro de la Calle in Sacramento, and Teatro In Lak ‘Ech of Oxnard. She was also a member of TENAZ (Teatro Nacional de Aztlan).
In 1979, she became a member of the Royal Chicano Air Force, a Sacramento, California-based art collective which supported the activities of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta and helped to advance the cause of the United Farm Workers movement and other marginalized groups. She also began her life’s passion of sharing and teaching Danza Azteca. She is the first person to introduce Danza Mexica/Azteca to the Central Coast of California, where her group has impacted hundreds of lives—particularly youth—throughout Ventura County.
#poetlaureate #LuzmariaEspinosa #santapaula
Genesis Perez, Ventura
Genesis Perez is a poet and performer from Oxnard, California. In 2021, their debut poetry collection, Flash Photography, was published by Spit Shine Publishing. They graduated from California State University, Northridge with a BS in Recreation. Perez is currently a poet-teacher and the Programs and Bookstore Assistant at Beyond Baroque in Venice Beach.
Johnnierenee Nia Nelson, Coordinator, San Diego
Johnnierenee Nia Nelson has presented readings and workshops from Cairo, Egypt to Vancouver, British Columbia. She is the Poet Laureate of the WorldBeat Center in beautiful Balboa Park. "Identify the who, the what, and the where that you are passionate about and embrace it wholeheartedly. For me that's my immediate family (including spouse), working with children, poetry, travel, and residing in San Diego.” --Johnnierenee Nia Nelson
Award-winning poet and playwright Johnnierenee Nia Nelson, aka, the Kwanzaa Poet, has written five books of Kwanzaa poetry. Her first volume, “A Quest for Kwanzaa”, published in 1988, was heralded as the authoritative genesis of Kwanzaa literature. “Classic Kwanzaa Poems: New and Selected” is her latest work.
She is a poet/teacher with CalPoets and with San Diego's Border Voices Project, as well as a performance poet who has presented readings and workshops from Cairo, Egypt to Vancouver, British Columbia. Ms. Nelson was featured at the fifth Annual El Cajon Friendship Festival with her creation “A Taste of Kwanzaa” and on two KPBS radio shows, “These Days” and “The Lounge.” She also performed at San Diego City College in collaboration with Urban Bush Women. Her video credits include the Emmy Award-winning documentary, “Lighting the Way” and KPBS' acclaimed “Border Voices” TV show.
In 2017, Ms. Nelson received a Fellowship from the Livingkindness Foundation to attend the International Women Writers Guild's 40th Annual Summer Conference in Allentown, PA. Johnnierenee serves as the Poet Laureate of the World Beat Center in beautiful Balboa Park and is the San Diego County Area Coordinator for California Poets in the Schools.
Ms. Nelson loves facilitating interactive writing workshops with middle and elementary school students while integrating art, drama, movement, and music.
Award-winning poet and playwright Johnnierenee Nia Nelson, aka, the Kwanzaa Poet, has written five books of Kwanzaa poetry. Her first volume, “A Quest for Kwanzaa”, published in 1988, was heralded as the authoritative genesis of Kwanzaa literature. “Classic Kwanzaa Poems: New and Selected” is her latest work.
She is a poet/teacher with CalPoets and with San Diego's Border Voices Project, as well as a performance poet who has presented readings and workshops from Cairo, Egypt to Vancouver, British Columbia. Ms. Nelson was featured at the fifth Annual El Cajon Friendship Festival with her creation “A Taste of Kwanzaa” and on two KPBS radio shows, “These Days” and “The Lounge.” She also performed at San Diego City College in collaboration with Urban Bush Women. Her video credits include the Emmy Award-winning documentary, “Lighting the Way” and KPBS' acclaimed “Border Voices” TV show.
In 2017, Ms. Nelson received a Fellowship from the Livingkindness Foundation to attend the International Women Writers Guild's 40th Annual Summer Conference in Allentown, PA. Johnnierenee serves as the Poet Laureate of the World Beat Center in beautiful Balboa Park and is the San Diego County Area Coordinator for California Poets in the Schools.
Ms. Nelson loves facilitating interactive writing workshops with middle and elementary school students while integrating art, drama, movement, and music.
Seretta Martin, San Diego
Seretta Martin, mission is to encourage the love of poetry. She is the managing editor and a regional editor of the San Diego Poetry Annual and a co-founder of Haiku San Diego. She has taught in the San Diego area through California Poets in the Schools and the Border Voices Poetry Project since 2004. At Oasis Learning Center she teaches adult poetry workshops. She served as a co-editor and contributor of the CPITS 50th Anniversary, “Poetry Crossing” Lesson book.
Seretta is a Philip Levine Prize, Washington Prize and Atlanta Review finalist. Her publishing credits over the last 25 years include Serving House Journal, Web Del Sol, Poetry International, Margie, Modern Haiku, California State Poetry Society, California Fire & Water anthology, A Year in Ink and San Diego Poetry Annual. She hosted the New Alchemy, Barnes and Noble Poetry Series for fifteen years. Here appearances on TV as a featured poet and interviewer of award-winner students airs frequently on the Border Voices Doorway to Vision, educational ITV channel. Seretta holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Diego State University and is a Phi Kapa Phi alumnus. She also serves as a hospice volunteer.
Sunday, November 20, 2022, was declared “Seretta Martin Day” throughout San Diego County in recognition of her accomplishments and her important work within and on behave of The Arts community by San Diego Writer’s Ink, the San Diego Entertainment and Arts Guild and the San Diego Poetry Annual. She was honored at a reception and given a Certificate of Appreciation and Recognition. Seretta’s awards include California Center for the Arts; Outstanding Leadership, grants from the Lannan Foundation and Poets and Writers, California State Poetry Society awards, the OASIS Journal’s “Best Poem” award, and the Linda Brown Memorial Idyllwild Summer Poetry Scholarship.
Seretta is a Philip Levine Prize, Washington Prize and Atlanta Review finalist. Her publishing credits over the last 25 years include Serving House Journal, Web Del Sol, Poetry International, Margie, Modern Haiku, California State Poetry Society, California Fire & Water anthology, A Year in Ink and San Diego Poetry Annual. She hosted the New Alchemy, Barnes and Noble Poetry Series for fifteen years. Here appearances on TV as a featured poet and interviewer of award-winner students airs frequently on the Border Voices Doorway to Vision, educational ITV channel. Seretta holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Diego State University and is a Phi Kapa Phi alumnus. She also serves as a hospice volunteer.
Sunday, November 20, 2022, was declared “Seretta Martin Day” throughout San Diego County in recognition of her accomplishments and her important work within and on behave of The Arts community by San Diego Writer’s Ink, the San Diego Entertainment and Arts Guild and the San Diego Poetry Annual. She was honored at a reception and given a Certificate of Appreciation and Recognition. Seretta’s awards include California Center for the Arts; Outstanding Leadership, grants from the Lannan Foundation and Poets and Writers, California State Poetry Society awards, the OASIS Journal’s “Best Poem” award, and the Linda Brown Memorial Idyllwild Summer Poetry Scholarship.
Tureeda Mikell, Alameda
Tureeda Ture Ade Mikell, Story Medicine Woman, author, ‘activist for holism, called ‘word magician,’ is an award winning poet, published nationally and internationally. Qigong Healer, workshop leader, storyteller, lyricist, performance artist, founder of The Tree of Life Foundation H.L.P. (www.treeoflifefound.com), child advocate for youth, and adults finding voice. Published over 70 student anthologies with CA Poets in the Schools since 1989. Performs/ed in schools, libraries and universities, Google, Genentech, Aspire, Lawrence Hall, and Golden Gate Academy of Sciences, Randall, Oakland, and De Young Museums. Was featured spoken word artist at SOAN [Soul of a Nation] Exhibit, and the American Academy of Poets, Fire Thieves, at the De Young, and Museum of the African Diaspora, (MoAD) Lit-Quake Afrofuturism. Featured storyteller for the 55 Year Anniversary of the Black Panther Party, National Association of Black Storytellers, featured poet storyteller celebrating Octavia Butler’s 70th birthday, and Eth-Noh-Tec Nu Wa Delegate storyteller in Beijing, China in collaboration with the University of Beijing. Recent publications of her work can be found in, Black Fire -This Time, released in 2022 by Willow Press, Revolutionary Poets Brigade, 2022, Second Stutter by City Lights Books, 2022, Common Ground, by Pease Press, 2022, and many more.
Her full length collection, Synchronicity, The Oracle of Sun Medicine, was released in 2020, and nominated for the California Book award. She is also co-curator of the Patrice Lumumba Anthology, released in 2021 by Nomadic Press, both now at Black Lawrence Press, New York. 2023 has presented Tureeda to, Filoli, Stories in Bloom, Atherton, Stanford University, Poets by the Bay, Berkeley Museum of Modern Art, Berkeley, San Jose Poetry Center, Beautiful Black Books (BBB) interviewed by Tshaka Campbell, Santa Clara Poet Laureate, San Jose Museum of Art Invitational, curated by Poet Laureate Tshaka Campbell, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, S. F., Belmont Poetry Center, Belmont, and more…
Her full length collection, Synchronicity, The Oracle of Sun Medicine, was released in 2020, and nominated for the California Book award. She is also co-curator of the Patrice Lumumba Anthology, released in 2021 by Nomadic Press, both now at Black Lawrence Press, New York. 2023 has presented Tureeda to, Filoli, Stories in Bloom, Atherton, Stanford University, Poets by the Bay, Berkeley Museum of Modern Art, Berkeley, San Jose Poetry Center, Beautiful Black Books (BBB) interviewed by Tshaka Campbell, Santa Clara Poet Laureate, San Jose Museum of Art Invitational, curated by Poet Laureate Tshaka Campbell, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, S. F., Belmont Poetry Center, Belmont, and more…
Milani Pelley, Alameda
Milani Pelley is a forever-changing being, probably not initially from this earth. An advocate of children, families, art, spirituality, and freedom for all people, Milani was born and raised and gave birth in Berkeley; She believes Black people belong in Berkeley. Milani believes in Matriarchy and Divine Love and uses her gifts as an educator, healer, poet, and facilitator of self-expression and healing to create this in the world.
Milani has performed at the Opera House in San Francisco and for activists Will i.am, Saul Williams, Jesse Jackson, and Angela Davis. She solely represented Oakland in the Women of the World Poetry Slam in 2010. She was a part of Team Oakland in 2010, placing top four in group-piece finals, and was a member of Team Oakland in 2011, ranking top ten in the nation. To hear, read and speak Milani’s words is truly an unforgettable experience. To participate in her workshops is transformative.
“I enjoy working with people of any age, whether 4 years old or 94 years old. Everyone has a voice, story, and journey that deserves to be heard and documented.”
“My favorite lesson plans are “Purpose” and “Manifestation”. I believe it is essential to know one's purpose and what one is made to do on this earth. I enjoy the power of manifestation and activating that through writing.”
Milani has performed at the Opera House in San Francisco and for activists Will i.am, Saul Williams, Jesse Jackson, and Angela Davis. She solely represented Oakland in the Women of the World Poetry Slam in 2010. She was a part of Team Oakland in 2010, placing top four in group-piece finals, and was a member of Team Oakland in 2011, ranking top ten in the nation. To hear, read and speak Milani’s words is truly an unforgettable experience. To participate in her workshops is transformative.
“I enjoy working with people of any age, whether 4 years old or 94 years old. Everyone has a voice, story, and journey that deserves to be heard and documented.”
“My favorite lesson plans are “Purpose” and “Manifestation”. I believe it is essential to know one's purpose and what one is made to do on this earth. I enjoy the power of manifestation and activating that through writing.”
Tobey Kaplan, Alameda
Tobey Kaplan, a poet originally from New York City, with degrees from Syracuse and San Francisco State Universities, has been teaching in the San Francisco Bay Area for over forty years.
An active member of Associated Writing Programs, Ms. Kaplan has given readings, workshops and presentations throughout the country regarding creative process, literacy and social change. Ms. Kaplan has received grants from the California Arts Council to serve as poet in residence at community mental health centers. She has also worked for Contra Costa County Schools as an instructor in the jails, and for Project Second Chance as the Detention Facilities Tutor Coordinator. Her honors include: Dorland Mountain Colony Fellow 1986/2018, Affiliate Artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts 1995-98, and a recipient of the Bay Area Award (New Langton Arts, 1996). She was selected to present work on the Tupelo Press website 30 poems/30 days July 2015. She has coordinated the Poetry Café for the Young Rhetoricians’ Conference held every year in Monterey, CA during the third weekend of June for the past ten years.
Across the Great Divide was published by Androgyne, in 1995, and her poems are contained in numerous literary anthologies, on-line 'zines and various journals.
Featured in the East Bay Monthly April 2012, Omnidawn Feature February 2010, A Train of Thought Upside Down (Scarlet Tanager 2012) The Berkeley Poets Cooperative: A History of the Times (Hip Pocket Press, 2013), and her work appears in issues of Amsterdam Quarterly and Kestral.
As an adjunct faculty member, Tobey Kaplan currently teaches and has taught literature, arts and humanities, creative writing and college composition at several East Bay community colleges, and had previously assisted families of the Native American community in Alameda County with navigating education opportunities. A long- time mentor poet-teacher for California Poets in the Schools, she remains committed to the primacy of imaginative language and the resilience embedded in story. As an art-education advocate, she has worked with developing collaborative partnerships between artists, organizations and public schools. She regularly develops performance pieces for theatre, literary work and music. Her own poetry is inspired by music and visual work and language where words dance off the page.
She lives in a fabulous Oakland neighborhood with her partner, performer Nan Busse and wonderdog Vida—who sadly passed away Nov 2022.
http://www.themonthly.com/byday1204.html
https://omnidawn.wordpress.com/2010/01/31/poetry-feature-tobey-kaplan/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPwkaW2ZzQY&t=26s
An active member of Associated Writing Programs, Ms. Kaplan has given readings, workshops and presentations throughout the country regarding creative process, literacy and social change. Ms. Kaplan has received grants from the California Arts Council to serve as poet in residence at community mental health centers. She has also worked for Contra Costa County Schools as an instructor in the jails, and for Project Second Chance as the Detention Facilities Tutor Coordinator. Her honors include: Dorland Mountain Colony Fellow 1986/2018, Affiliate Artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts 1995-98, and a recipient of the Bay Area Award (New Langton Arts, 1996). She was selected to present work on the Tupelo Press website 30 poems/30 days July 2015. She has coordinated the Poetry Café for the Young Rhetoricians’ Conference held every year in Monterey, CA during the third weekend of June for the past ten years.
Across the Great Divide was published by Androgyne, in 1995, and her poems are contained in numerous literary anthologies, on-line 'zines and various journals.
Featured in the East Bay Monthly April 2012, Omnidawn Feature February 2010, A Train of Thought Upside Down (Scarlet Tanager 2012) The Berkeley Poets Cooperative: A History of the Times (Hip Pocket Press, 2013), and her work appears in issues of Amsterdam Quarterly and Kestral.
As an adjunct faculty member, Tobey Kaplan currently teaches and has taught literature, arts and humanities, creative writing and college composition at several East Bay community colleges, and had previously assisted families of the Native American community in Alameda County with navigating education opportunities. A long- time mentor poet-teacher for California Poets in the Schools, she remains committed to the primacy of imaginative language and the resilience embedded in story. As an art-education advocate, she has worked with developing collaborative partnerships between artists, organizations and public schools. She regularly develops performance pieces for theatre, literary work and music. Her own poetry is inspired by music and visual work and language where words dance off the page.
She lives in a fabulous Oakland neighborhood with her partner, performer Nan Busse and wonderdog Vida—who sadly passed away Nov 2022.
http://www.themonthly.com/byday1204.html
https://omnidawn.wordpress.com/2010/01/31/poetry-feature-tobey-kaplan/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPwkaW2ZzQY&t=26s
Freddy "Manos" Gutierrez, Alameda
Freddy "Manos" Gutierrez, California poet and teaching artist. Freddy has facilitated writing and performance art spaces with people in incarceration from the Bay to the UK for over 10 years. He specializes in using metaphor alongside personal narrative in order to shape social commentary as catalysts for storytelling. His poetry seeks to foster agency of voice in those he creates with. He’s been published by Los Angeles Poet Society Press, The Puerto Rico Review, The Acentos Review, the Nomadic Press, and University of Houston's Arte Publico Press; and was featured as LoWriter of the Week selected by U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera.
Cynthia Patton, Alameda
Cynthia Patton, BS, JD, attended UC Davis and has authored three books, including Across An Aqueous Moon: Travels in Autism (2016), and edited Double Take: Art and Literature Side By Side (2022). Her award-winning work has appeared in sixteen anthologies plus publications such as Mom Egg Review and Spoon River Poetry Review. Two essays were performed onstage, and the Museum of Motherhood featured her work in 2015.
Patton is an attorney, activist, editor, nonprofit consultant, and founder of the organization, Autism A to Z. The California native served as the City of Livermore’s Poet Laureate (2017-2022), hosts the long-running Whistlestop Writers Open Mic, and teaches with California Poets in the Schools. She’s completing a second poetry collection plus a memoir, My Guardian Angel Sings the Blues, on her unconventional journey to motherhood. She lives with her daughter, a dog, and two rowdy cats. Learn more at CynthiaJPatton.com
Patton is an attorney, activist, editor, nonprofit consultant, and founder of the organization, Autism A to Z. The California native served as the City of Livermore’s Poet Laureate (2017-2022), hosts the long-running Whistlestop Writers Open Mic, and teaches with California Poets in the Schools. She’s completing a second poetry collection plus a memoir, My Guardian Angel Sings the Blues, on her unconventional journey to motherhood. She lives with her daughter, a dog, and two rowdy cats. Learn more at CynthiaJPatton.com
Maureen Hurley, Alameda
Maureen Hurley, California Poets in the Schools area coordinator, teaches creative writing residencies in Bay Area schools. Recipient of many California Arts Council artists in schools, and other teaching grants, she has taught arts programming to students of all ages throughout Northern California.
long bio
Maureen Hurley is California Poets in the Schools Alameda County area coordinator, and former board member. She teaches poetry and art residencies in Bay Area schools, including Malcolm X Elementary School in Berkeley, and Alexander Valley where she has taught poetry to kids for more than 30 years. Recipient of numerous California Arts Council artist in schools grants, and other arts teaching grants and awards including nominations for the Golden Bell Award, and the Kawasaki Award. She has taught arts programming to students of all ages throughout California and beyond—including Montana, the Bahamas, Mexico, and the former USSR.
Maureen Hurley is a photographer, and poet whose work has been widely published in print, and electronic anthologies, and she has won many awards for her writing, and she received a Sonoma County poet laureate nomination, and Pushcart nominations. Her photos are featured in an upcoming documentary on Berkeley street poet, Julia Vinograd.
Publishing credits. “Oh, Wind” in Fly Like the Clouds of Time, 2022 California Poets in the Schools Statewide Anthology, “The gift of this day”, The Freedom of New Beginnings: Poems of Witness and Vision from Sonoma County, California, 2022. Readings at several Sebastopol venues,and Petaluma Poetry Walk. Poems and photos published in Memories of Southern California: Poetic Recollections, Four Feathers Press. “War’s End (3 days after Hiroshima)” published in the US Air Force’s annual publication, War, Literature and the Arts.
long bio
Maureen Hurley is California Poets in the Schools Alameda County area coordinator, and former board member. She teaches poetry and art residencies in Bay Area schools, including Malcolm X Elementary School in Berkeley, and Alexander Valley where she has taught poetry to kids for more than 30 years. Recipient of numerous California Arts Council artist in schools grants, and other arts teaching grants and awards including nominations for the Golden Bell Award, and the Kawasaki Award. She has taught arts programming to students of all ages throughout California and beyond—including Montana, the Bahamas, Mexico, and the former USSR.
Maureen Hurley is a photographer, and poet whose work has been widely published in print, and electronic anthologies, and she has won many awards for her writing, and she received a Sonoma County poet laureate nomination, and Pushcart nominations. Her photos are featured in an upcoming documentary on Berkeley street poet, Julia Vinograd.
Publishing credits. “Oh, Wind” in Fly Like the Clouds of Time, 2022 California Poets in the Schools Statewide Anthology, “The gift of this day”, The Freedom of New Beginnings: Poems of Witness and Vision from Sonoma County, California, 2022. Readings at several Sebastopol venues,and Petaluma Poetry Walk. Poems and photos published in Memories of Southern California: Poetic Recollections, Four Feathers Press. “War’s End (3 days after Hiroshima)” published in the US Air Force’s annual publication, War, Literature and the Arts.
Claire Blotter, Marin
Spoken word poet, Claire Blotter, inspires young people to write & perform poetry with figurative language, movement chants, vocabulary enrichment & wild imagination. She motivates them to write from their hearts about their ideas, big questions and deep feelings.
With both an elementary teaching credential and a Special Writing & Performance M.A., she has taught in the San Jose and Saratoga public schools, at Tamalpais High School, San Francisco State University, Dominican University and the College of Marin. She is also a Poetry Out Loud Coach in Marin high schools.
She has published three poetry chapbooks and won numerous grants for her poetry, video & original community theater productions. She won the 1992 & 1993 San Francisco Performance Poetry Slams, placing second with her team in national competitions in Boston and Chicago. Her first full length poetry collection, EXPANDING.WATER.WAYS., is forthcoming from Kelsay Press in November, 2023. To contact Claire, visit claireblotter.com
With both an elementary teaching credential and a Special Writing & Performance M.A., she has taught in the San Jose and Saratoga public schools, at Tamalpais High School, San Francisco State University, Dominican University and the College of Marin. She is also a Poetry Out Loud Coach in Marin high schools.
She has published three poetry chapbooks and won numerous grants for her poetry, video & original community theater productions. She won the 1992 & 1993 San Francisco Performance Poetry Slams, placing second with her team in national competitions in Boston and Chicago. Her first full length poetry collection, EXPANDING.WATER.WAYS., is forthcoming from Kelsay Press in November, 2023. To contact Claire, visit claireblotter.com
Laura Walker, Alameda
Laura Walker is the author of six books of poetry, most recently PSALMBOOK (2022) and STORY (2016). She began teaching as a California Poet in the Schools in 2003, and currently teaches at Washington Elementary School in Berkeley. Laura has also taught poetry writing to undergraduates at San Francisco State University, MFA students at University of San Francisco, and community members at UC Berkeley Extension. In all her teaching, she stresses the importance of imagination and artistic freedom, and the wonder and possibilities alive in language. Originally from North Carolina, she now lives in Berkeley, where she keeps bees and wrangles chickens. More information can be found at www.laura-walker.com.
Meredith Heller, Marin
Meredith Heller is a poet, author, singer/songwriter, avid nature lover, and educator with degrees in writing and education. A California Poet in the Schools, she leads writing workshops at public & private schools, women’s prisons, juvenile detention centers, the Institute for Poetic Medicine, the Kennedy Center for the Arts, creativity summits, wellness retreats, and online. She is the author of two guide books on writing, Write a Poem, Save Your Life, and the upcoming Writing By Heart, and three poetry collections, Songlines, Yuba Witch, & River Spells.
My passion is helping empower kids to believe in themselves, trust their creativity, cultivate curiosity and imagination, and express themselves with depth, clarity, and confidence.
My workshops are interactive and fun. I draw on nature, the five senses, personal discovery, and a rich library of poets and writing invitations to inspire poetry from kids in their own voices about what most concerns and enlivens them.
For more info: www.meredithheller.com
My passion is helping empower kids to believe in themselves, trust their creativity, cultivate curiosity and imagination, and express themselves with depth, clarity, and confidence.
My workshops are interactive and fun. I draw on nature, the five senses, personal discovery, and a rich library of poets and writing invitations to inspire poetry from kids in their own voices about what most concerns and enlivens them.
For more info: www.meredithheller.com
Lea Aschkenas, Marin
Lea Aschkenas is a bilingual (English and Spanish) writer who has taught with the Marin County chapter of California Poets in the Schools since 2001. She also works as a public librarian and is the author of two books-- the memoir Es Cuba: Life and Love on an Illegal Island and the children's book, Arletis, Abuelo, and the Message in a Bottle. Visit her at www.leaaschkenas.com.
Virginia Barrett, Marin
Virginia Barrett is a poet, writer, artist, editor, and educator. She earned her MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco where she was poetry editor of Switchback. Her six books of poetry include Between Looking (Finishing Line Press, 2019) and Crossing Haight—San Francisco poems (Jambu Press, 2018). Lead designer for Light on the Walls of Life—a tribute anthology to Lawrence Ferlinghetti (Jambu Press, 2022), she is also the editor of four anthologies including RED: a Hue Are You anthology (Jambu Press, 2023) and Feather Floating on the Water—poems for our children.
Michele Rivers, Marin
English author Michele Rivers has taught with CPITS in Marin Schools for over 20 years. She specializes in teaching personal and planetary awareness to her poet students with a focus on writing tools: simile, metaphor, personification and alliterations. Poetry Presentations and the creation of Poetry Anthologies are encouraged at the completion of Michele’s poetry programs, both help to build student confidence and are masses of fun for the students, their families and the classroom teachers.
NORTH
Dan Levinson, Humboldt
Dan has been teaching with California Poets in the Schools since 1998, reaching thousands of K-12 students at over one hundred sites, including court and community schools. He is CalPoets’ area coordinator of Humboldt, Trinity, Siskiyou, and Del Norte counties. He holds degrees in creative writing, literature, and the teaching of writing from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro; the University of California, Santa Cruz; and Humboldt State University.
While most of Dan’s residencies are in Humboldt, he has also taught poetry in Del Norte, Mendocino, Siskiyou, and Santa Cruz counties, as well as in Australia. He has also taught at Humboldt State University, College of the Redwoods, the Redwood Coast Writers’ Center, and is a Redwood Writing Project teacher-consultant. He is a founder of the Lost Coast Writers Retreat, which he attends each summer. Being a freelance editor and writing consultant, Dan has acted as a contributing editor to various publications. He is the author of Song of Six Rivers, an epic-length poem published by Humboldt State University Press. His poems and other writings have appeared in many journals and anthologies. See ZevLev.com.
While most of Dan’s residencies are in Humboldt, he has also taught poetry in Del Norte, Mendocino, Siskiyou, and Santa Cruz counties, as well as in Australia. He has also taught at Humboldt State University, College of the Redwoods, the Redwood Coast Writers’ Center, and is a Redwood Writing Project teacher-consultant. He is a founder of the Lost Coast Writers Retreat, which he attends each summer. Being a freelance editor and writing consultant, Dan has acted as a contributing editor to various publications. He is the author of Song of Six Rivers, an epic-length poem published by Humboldt State University Press. His poems and other writings have appeared in many journals and anthologies. See ZevLev.com.
Blake More, Mendocino
Point Arena Poet Laureate, Blake More practices many disciplines including visual art, poetry, video, performance, and teaching. She is CalPoets Mendocino County Area Coordinator, a poetry teacher, host of a montly poetry & jazz reading series and two public radio shows: Be More Now on KZYX&Z FM Mendocino and Cartwheels on the Sky on KGUA FM. Learn more at bmoreyou.net.
Thomas Roberdeau, Mendocino
is an award-winning film-maker and writer. He has been widely published and produced.
Karen Lewis, Mendocino
Karen Lewis has been leading K-12 and community writing workshops since 1995 in rural Mendocino County. She encourages imaginative thinking and the creative "invention" process using language and mixed-media. Karen's prose and poetry have been widely published in literary journals and anthologies. Her chapbook PEACE MAPS is available from Finishing Line Press. She is a California Arts Council / Artists in Schools awardee. Learn more about Karen at https://www.wordjourneys.org/workshops-events
Michele Krueger, Lake
Michele Krueger hails from the Bronx, New York and studied literature at Lehman College with U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. She has worked as a poet teacher with California Poets In the Schools for several decades. She is the Sonoma County program coordinator for Poetry Out Loud. She is also the Lake County coordinator for an AIS grant offering poetry writing workshops at local high schools. Her poetry for children appears in anthologies edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins, Jack Prelutsky, J. Patrick Lewis, Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton, Kenn Nesbitt, Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong.
Terri Glass,
Del Norte & Marin
Terri Glass has been an active CALPOETS poet teacher since 1989, an Area Coordinator for Marin County since 1996 and served as and Program Director from 2008-11. She has taught poetry workshops in over 35 schools in Bay area and many venues including senior centers, bookstores, and museums. She has lead workshops nationally for the Childspirit conference, River of Words program the National Poetry Therapy conference and the Austin Poetry Festival.
She is a published author of three books of poetry, most recent Being Animal from Kelsay Books, a chapbook of haiku, Birds, Bees, Trees, Love, Hee Hee from Finishing Line Press, and an e-book, The Wild Horse of Haiku: Beauty in a Changing Form. She published a lesson plan guide for teachers, Language of the Awakened Heart by Fund for Global Awakening press. Some of her writing has appeared in Eastern Iowa Review, Fourth River, About Place, California Quarterly, Young Raven’s Literary Review, and many anthologies including , Wild Gods, Fire and Rain; Ecopoetry of California, and Earth Blessings.
A writer of the natural world, which include essay, poetry and haiku, she now resides in Del Norte county where she continues to write and teach poetry writing through CALPOETS and for DNACA, the local arts council. She has her MFA in creative writing from University of Southern Maine. See www.terriglasss.com
She is a published author of three books of poetry, most recent Being Animal from Kelsay Books, a chapbook of haiku, Birds, Bees, Trees, Love, Hee Hee from Finishing Line Press, and an e-book, The Wild Horse of Haiku: Beauty in a Changing Form. She published a lesson plan guide for teachers, Language of the Awakened Heart by Fund for Global Awakening press. Some of her writing has appeared in Eastern Iowa Review, Fourth River, About Place, California Quarterly, Young Raven’s Literary Review, and many anthologies including , Wild Gods, Fire and Rain; Ecopoetry of California, and Earth Blessings.
A writer of the natural world, which include essay, poetry and haiku, she now resides in Del Norte county where she continues to write and teach poetry writing through CALPOETS and for DNACA, the local arts council. She has her MFA in creative writing from University of Southern Maine. See www.terriglasss.com
Julie Valin, Nevada
Julie Valin has been writing poetry since Ditto jeans and arcades were a thing, and she has been performing and publishing her poetry for over 25 years. Her poems have appeared in The Gasconade Review, The Black Shamrock, Chiron Review, Red Fez, and more, plus several anthologies & collections, including the Punk Rock Chapbook Series by Epic Rites Press. Her latest book of poetry is Songs for Ghosts published in 2022 by Meadowlark Press (www.tinyurl.com/mcsongsforghosts), following The Distance Between (Six Ft. Swells Press) in 2011.
Julie has been an advocate of poetry in her community and in schools as a board member of the Nevada County Poetry Series from 2001-2014; a co-founder of the celebrated after-hours poetry press, Six Ft. Swells; a founding committee member of the Sierra Poetry Festival, and a founding member of the performing group, The Poetry Crashers. Her great love was the Poetry Out Loud program, where she was a poet-coach in both Nevada and Placer counties since 2009.
Julie served as Area Coordinator for CalPoets in Nevada County from 2014-2020, and was the editor of the annual California Poets in the Schools Anthology for two consecutive years: 2016-2017.
Julie has been an advocate of poetry in her community and in schools as a board member of the Nevada County Poetry Series from 2001-2014; a co-founder of the celebrated after-hours poetry press, Six Ft. Swells; a founding committee member of the Sierra Poetry Festival, and a founding member of the performing group, The Poetry Crashers. Her great love was the Poetry Out Loud program, where she was a poet-coach in both Nevada and Placer counties since 2009.
Julie served as Area Coordinator for CalPoets in Nevada County from 2014-2020, and was the editor of the annual California Poets in the Schools Anthology for two consecutive years: 2016-2017.
bottom of page