¿QUE PASO GENTE?
Hi everyone, been busy back to back with work, planning gigs, getting ready for gigs and rehearsal, to post about last Saturday. I finally got a little change to catch my breath, and I am still walking on Latino Sunshine from how incredibly well our show went!
The second installment of this three day festival, ¿DONDE ESTA MI GENTE? at Magnet in the Castro, was packed, the poetas were on fire, they delved deep, made us laugh and cry, and we could not have hoped for a better night.
We are so grateful to Magnet. I have to take a moment and talk about how special they are. I’ve been going to Magnet for a long time, not just cause I’m a gay man that needs a free clinic to make sure I’m up to date on everything and taking care of myself, but because they are a center for community art and performance. Magnet is where I have met a lot of my artist friends, Kirk Read, Larry-bob, Philip Huang, the sexy boys from Orchid and Hound. I’m so grateful that Magnet opened up their space for an event like this, and made space for a show that focused on all types of Latinos. From the get go, they were excited about us, especially the handsome Jared Hemming, who was helpful every step of the way. 
We filled all the seats pretty fast. People just kept coming in and coming in, at point in the show I had to ask folks to squeeze in and move to the other side of the clinic, the show was packed! So happy and grateful for that. We had 7 poets on the line up, and each one gave so much. Even my father read a poem. My father and my mother are both writers. Growing up, they were the first poets I met, and the first people to influence me artistically. My father had not read a poem at a mic, since, I guess, the 70s, but I talked him into reading his new poem and he said it was a great experience. 
I brought coffee from Peet’s Coffee, who were generous enough to donate some coffee to our show! Showing that the Castro Peet’s supports their Latino community, coffee and poetry go very well together!
Gabriel Cortez did a sacrificial poem, and got the night started. Then Estela de la Cruz performed, followed by Dylan Amaro Mcintyre, Maya Chinchilla, Kay Nilsson did a special guest piece, Leo Bryant, Fish Vargas, then Jaime Cortez and we ended the night with the legendary Avotcja. This set of pictures were taken by Carrie Gocker, our graphic designer.
Blythe Baldwin, cohost of The San Francisco Queer Open Mic was in the audience and took these sweet pics!
We are so grateful to everyone that came, and everyone that donated at the show which helped us pay the poets for their work. Pay your poets, people!
We cannot wait for this Saturday, come join us for the final installment of ¿DONDE ESTA MI GENTE?! Which will be at Galería de la Raza, April 19th, 7:30pm, 15 dollars online to reserve a seat, 10 to 20 sliding scale at the door.
To buy your tickets now, click here!
¿Donde Esta Mi Gente? 