My 2023 CAC artist panel application

I’ve worked 2 decades in Bay Area schools, teaching poetry & art to historically underserved students in Oakland & Hunters’s Point, developing culturally relevant arts programming. I implemented school arts programming, and trained poets & artists in both rural Sonoma County and urban Alameda County. I’ve worked with all demographics, including inmates at Napa State Hospital, elders, preschoolers.

I’ve taught artist-in-schools residencies in rural & urban schools in California since 1979. I’ve had 7 individual CACAIR grants in Sonoma & Napa counties; & a grant from the Montana Arts Council. I’ve administered/taught in CAC multi-artist residencies including Poetry Flash (current), received a PBS/KQED AIR grant, & two Oakland Cultural Arts Council grants. I’ve led arts workshops in the Western US & Florida, as well as the Bahamas, Netherlands & the former USSR. I’ve mentored/ trained artists, writers and teachers through several arts organizations including California Poets in the Schools, Young Audiences, Artists in Schools of Sonoma County, and Rural Arts Services. 

I’m widely published and I’ve won prizes, fellowships and awards for my writing, art, photography—and teaching residencies—including a Golden Bell award. I’ve worked for alternative newspapers, writing news & arts feature stories & photojournalism. From 1980 to 1997, I produced literary events in Sonoma County, including Russian River Writers’ Guild, Sonoma State University, Cotati Cabaret, Johnny Otis Club, and other venues. I was staff photographer and workshop leader for the Napa Valley Poetry conferences..

I’ve taught clients in a diverse range of communities of all ages/abilities throughout California. The schools where I teach are historically underrepresented in all the arts—I utilize poetry and language from their respective cultures. I also invite in guest artists from the community. Needs were determined by meeting with host clients before the residency and creating an arts program to meet specific ideals and goals. For example, at Malcolm X ES in Berkeley, we developed, and are expanding a long-term poetry and art project that celebrates racial equity, diversity and inclusion. 

I’ve worked with many cultural demographics with a diverse language base & cultural focus, including training Middle Eastern and African health care providers to teach creative writing to their clients in the Netherlands. Though not fully bilingual, I speak Spanish & can converse in several languages. I also volunteer at the San Geronimo Valley Community Center working with elders. I am a coordinator & current  coordinator and emcee for the annual Poetry Flash Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival, as well as administrator of the Poetry Flash CAC AIS John Oliver Simon Legacy Poetry Project grant.