Four Poets and Their Music: Internationalist Poems & Music of Resistance

Music, poetry, and future converge powerfully when Bonafide Rojas, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Bonnie Kwong, and Josiah Luis Alderete explore themes of imperialism, cultural identity, cultural resistance, love, and revolution through collaborations with guitarists Peck the Town Crier, Oliver Mok, and Eli Carlton-Pearson.
 
FEATURING:
Bonafide Rojas – poetry, guitar
Tongo Eisen-Martin – poetry
Peck the Town Crier – guitar
Bonnie Kwong – poetry
Oliver Mok – guitar
Josiah Luis Alderete – poetry
Eli Carlton-Pearson – guitar
 
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Bonafide Rojas is the author of four collections of poetry: Notes On The Return To The Island, Renovatio, When The City Sleeps, and Pelo Bueno. He’s appeared on Def Poetry Jam, been published in numerous anthologies and journals, and is the vocalist/guitarist for the Mona Passage, who released their debut EP in 2016. He’s performed at various stages, including Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Museum, El Museo del Barrio, Bowery Ballroom, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Rotterdam Arts Center, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, BusBoys & Poets, and Festival De La Palabra.
 
Born in San Francisco, Tongo Eisen-Martin is a movement worker, educator, and poet who has organized against mass incarceration and extrajudicial killing of black people throughout the United States. His curriculum on extrajudicial killing of black people, We Charge Genocide Again, has been used as an educational and organizing tool throughout the country. His book of poems Someone’s Dead Already was nominated for a California Book Award. His latest book, Heaven Is All Goodbyes, is the 61st City Lights Pocket Poets book.
 
Peck The Town Crier has been recording and performing “hist-hop” and “song-rap” since 1994. His music has been featured on MTV UK, Current TV, and the Wall Street Journal online. Peck teaches guitar in San Rafael and can often be found crying a capella on the corner of 16th and Mission.
 
Bonnie Wai-Lee Kwong is an artist in many mediums and languages: Cantonese, English, Mandarin, Japanese, Ruby, and JavaScript. Her first book of poetry, ravel, is a finalist for New Rivers Press’ Many Voices Project and the White Pine Press Poetry Prize. Her work has garnered a number of Pushcart nominations and an artist residency at Stanford University.
 
Josiah Luis Alderete is a full-blooded Pocho Indio who refries his beans and poems in Spanglish. He was a founding member of outspoken word group the Molotov Mouths and is currently living on the border of Oakland and Berkeley waiting for Quetzalcoatl to arrive.
 
Eli Carlton-Pearson is an instrumentalist extraordinaire, musical visionary, and inventor of many strange musical objects.

 
Time: Doors 6:30PM / Show 7:00PM
Admission: $15-20 sliding scale
Tickets will not be sold in advance for this event – please arrive at the Red Poppy when doors open to purchase tickets.

Join the conversation at the Poppy – volunteer for this event!