Poetry at Kearny Street Workshop

Poetry is an integral to Kearny Street Workshop’s mission. Since our inception, poetry has imagined a stronger future for Asian Pacific American communities in the SF Bay Area. We are the premiere home for Asian Pacific American poets on the West Coast and as an organization focusing on APA communities and supporting the diverse tapestry of voices in the SF Bay Area, we understand the unique position poetry holds in activism, community-building, creating meaning, and transforming society. As an organization, our programming is led by poetry vis-a-vis our Co-Executive Directors and dedicated Program staff: all poets who uplift poetry as a key means to how art gets us free.

KSW Origins & the KSW Press

Kearny Street Workshop was one of several community arts workshops which formed in the wake of the 1968 Third World Liberation Strike for ethnic studies at SF State. KSW  grew into a multidisciplinary arts center with a gallery, a poetry workshop, and a diverse program of classes.  Legendary poets such as Janice Mirikitani and Jessica Hagedorn could be found at KSW during the early days and the organization even makes an appearance in Hagedorn’s novel, The Gangster of Love (Houghton Mifflin 1996).  

Pivotal Asian Pacific American poets such as Jeff Tagami, Jaime Jacinto, Truong Tran, Virginia Cerenio, and SF poet laureate, Genny Lim, published their first collections through  Kearny Street Workshop Press and KSW is also responsible for the publication of one of the earliest Filipino American poetry anthologies,  Without Names (KSW Press 1985), edited by Jacinto, Tagami, Shirley Ancheta and features poets such as Lou Syquia, Oscar Peñaranda, and Al Robles.

Programming

KSW’s programming provides Asian Pacific American (APA) poets opportunities to grow throughout the trajectory of their careers by: 

-hosting workshops to hone skills and learn from award-winning poets of color; 

-creating retreats and safe spaces for poets to build community and heal; 

-integrating poetry with activism, performance, visual art, new media and other genres through our multidisciplinary programs and intergenerational influences; 

-and by offering APA poets opportunities to connect with mentorship and new and growing audiences through public showcases, readings, and presentations.

Recent events include:

• KSW Presents “We Gathered the Heat: Asian American and Pacific Islander Poetry, Performance, and Spoken Word” Edited by Franny Choi, Bao Phi, Noʻu Revilla, and Terisa Siagatonu. Featured readers: Art 25, Nicola Andrews, Jason Bayani, Sagaree Jain, Hieu Minh Nguyen, Barbara Jane Reyes, Megan Roberto, Siwaraya Rochanahusdin, Janice Lobo Sapigao, Terisa Siagatonu, and Shelley Wong

• KSW Presents, Taking Root: Transforming Personal & Communal Grief with acclaimed poet Diana Khoi Nguyen as we celebrate the release of her highly anticipated second book, "Root Fractures"! Diana will be joined in conversation with local artist, writer, and curator, Việt Lê.

• KSW Presents Sarah Ghazal Ali and Soham Patel. Celebrating the newest collections from both of these stunning poets Theophanies (Alice James Books, 2024) and all one in the end—/water (Delete, 2023). This reading featured the return of our community mic: Candy Shue, Christine Hsu, Yibing Du, saahil m, Kristin Avenis, and Angel Bista!

Angel Island - poetry in our history

From 1910 to 1940, the United States detained Asian immigrants at the Angel Island Immigration Station to enforce the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which was not repealed until 1943. In 1970, Chinese and Japanese writing was discovered carved into the walls under layers of paint: poems written by detainees during periods of incarceration often spanning months.

Asian Americans suddenly had a bridge to a lost history, a history of poets no less. Angel Island and its poetry inspired numerous exhibitions, books, art installations, and other projects. Kearny Street Workshop mounted an exhibition of the Chinese experience at Angel Island Immigration Station in 1976 which drew large crowds and inspired testimonies from former detainees. Their recorded stories, collected in books like Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940, rescued this chapter of people’s history from oblivion.