Sharing works that delight, provoke, inspire and rouse, the Poetic Tuesdays series turns lunchtime into a sumptuous literary repast. Lighting up Jessie Square with a fabulously curated line-up of poets and musicians, Poetic Tuesdays offer an invigorating midday breather for neighborhood groups, students, office workers on break and out-of-towners looking for respite from The City’s hustle and bustle.

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Curated by Nia Pearl. Nia Pearl is an award-winning poet, writer, and environmental justice advocate working at the intersection of art, activism, and public engagement. Nia’s writing has been published in Radicle magazine, the journal Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism, The Town: An Anthology of Oakland Poets, and Painting the Streets: Oakland Uprising in the Time of Rebellion. She is a recipient of the 2023 Nomadic Press/San Francisco Foundation Literary Awards.

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Participating Artists

Vernon Keeve III (Trey) is a doctoral student in English Education whose research focuses on literacies of resistance, abolitionist teaching and culturally sustaining curriculum. He is the award-winning author of Southern Migrant Mixtape and an advocate for centering student narrative-especially grievance, grief and truth-telling-as a pathway to healing and engagement in English Language Arts classrooms.

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Vania Luna Gutierrez (they/she) is a poet, orator and educator exploring what it means to hold relations — to land, lineage, language, community, history and self. She affirms that poetry and education are essential liberatory tools and vehicles for storytelling. Vania grounds her commitment to writing and education as a responsibility to cultural preservation. Born and raised on Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi lands (Chicago, IL), her work is heavily influenced by the city, as well as her lineage of Central Mexico’s mountains and valleys. Vania has toured throughout the country to share her work, moderate panels and facilitate workshops. You can engage with her work in The Womanist, Palacio Magazine, The Offing, on Youtube and more. Vania currently resides on Lisjan Ohlone territory (Oakland, CA).

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Tino V.H Jr. is a Mexican-American teaching artist and spoken word poet born and raised in Oakland, CA. He attended UC Santa Cruz, pursuing a degree in Literature with a concentration in Latin American Literature. He has represented poetry teams for the cities of Santa Cruz and Berkeley and more on national stages. Most recently, he participated in the Bigfoot Poetry Festival with the 2023 Berkeley Slam team, where they took 3rd place. His work explores im/migration, indigeneity, the hood, queerness, feminism and decolonial frameworks. he currently organizes with RichOak Events in the Bay Area co-curating Alchemy Open Mic, Day Dreamer’s Poetry, the Oakland Poetry Slam and the Berkeley Poetry Slam. He is also Editor in Chief of the Poet’s Bookshelf on Substack and at Nomadic Bookshop as a monthly literary series In his spare time he constantly updates his “Best Tacos in East Oakland” list, plays too many video games, reads to feel alive and writes pre-colonial high fantasy.

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Alie Jones is a writer, artist, and Creole mermaid. She is the author of Saltwater Moonshine, a poetry collection that honors her matrilineal Creole heritage through poetry, music and reflections of love. Alie is passionate about centering our breath work as sacred and hopes to build a legacy of awareness and expression. She is the Director and Co-founder of Black Freighter Press, a revolutionary press committed to the exploration of liberation. Alie is the host of the podcast called “Chit Chat with Aliecat”, exploring self-care practices and journeys of self-love. She received her MPA from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies as well as a MFA from Mills College in Creative Writing.

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ZHENIIA is the solo project of San Francisco-based bassist and composer Leela Paymai, blending Persian music with modern jazz, psychedelic rock and hip-hop. Drawing on her family’s musical legacy and a deep commitment to social justice, Paymai crafts emotionally charged, politically rooted songs that move across genres and generations. Backed by a rotating cast of Bay Area musicians, ZHENIIA made its live debut at San Jose Jazz’s New Works Festival in 2025, earning immediate attention from local press. With bass at the center and electric oud weaving through every set, ZHENIIA is music for grief, resistance and joy.

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Presented in partnership with:

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