KELSEYVILLE >> The sixth event of the Poet Laureate Reading Series takes place Friday featuring the work of Lake County poet laureate emeritus Russell Gonzaga.
The reading, which begins at 6:30 p.m., will take place at the Riviera Common Grounds Coffee House at 9736 Soda Bay Rd. It will also feature guest poet Vicente Colacion and guest musician Kay Ashley.
The eight-month series is held on the second Friday of each month through April and showcases local poetry by presenting each of Lake County’s eight poets laureate in sequence, along with a guest poet and musician. Admission is free with a $5 suggested donation.
The poet laureate is an official appointment by a government or conferring institution for the purpose of promoting poetry in that jurisdiction. These appointments occur from local to national levels.
In Lake County, the two-year position began in 1998 with the appointment of Jim Lyle. In 2010, Russell Gonzaga was selected as the sixth poet laureate of Lake County.
A Dervish, minister, writer, freelance journalist, editor, social justice activist, teacher, youth mentor and martial artist, Gonzaga was born in the Philippines and raised in Oakland/East Bay where he was immersed in hip hop culture.
Gonzaga has worked with at-risk and underserved youth in some of the Bay Area’s most dynamic inner city arts education and community enrichment programs, including the Larkin Street Youth Project, the Family Revival Center, the Oakland Parks and Recreation, and the California Poets in the Schools program. He served as the 2001 artist-in-residence for the San Francisco WritersCorps.
“In working with young people, “ said Gonzaga, “it’s not my role to project my ethics or tell them what to do, but rather to show them their options and choices in life, and to make sure they are aware of the resources available to them.”
Gonzaga also served as a board member for the Kearney Street Workshop, the oldest Asian Pacific American multidisciplinary arts organization in the country. In 2000, Gonzaga received a Certificate of Honor from the San Francisco board of supervisors for his contributions to the community. Then-Mayor Willie Brown declared May 10th official Russell Gonzaga Day in San Francisco. Gonzaga represented San Francisco for three years at the National Poetry Slam Championships and was a founding member of Youth Speaks, a Bay Area nonprofit organization that is part of the slam poetry movement.
Slam poetry is a form of spoken poetry that often expresses a personal story and/or struggle. A poetry slam is a competition at which poets read or recite their original work. These performances are then judged on a numeric scale by previously selected members of the audience.
Although slam poetry has not always been embraced by mainstream academia, it is often considered the voice of the marginalized, drawing upon racial, economic and gender injustices as well as current events for subject manner. Slam poetry became prominent in the Bay Area in the 1990s with San Francisco hosting the first National Poetry Slam in Fort Mason, and has grown into an internationally recognized genre of spoken poetry.
Spoken and slam poetry is now utilized in classrooms across the country, effectively engaging and motivating young students to improve literacy skills, public speaking skills, self-confidence and community involvement.
Gonzaga currently mentors youth at the Reunion Resource Center in Middletown. He facilitates “Elyseum,” a weekly writer’s workshop at Harbin Hot Springs in Middletown where he is a resident. He continues to write, perform and advocate for social justice, sex positivity and gender equality issues. Gonzaga is renowned for his explosive delivery of poetry that is provocative, introspective and political, and he unabashedly confronts issues of social oppression. It’s not uncommon to hear local poets claim that no one wants to read after Russell, because he’s such a hard act to follow.
Casey Carney is the current poet laureate of Lake County.
