Poetas Potion

Last Updated on April 9, 2021

In conjunction with Beta Main’s current exhibition, Star Montana: I Dream of Los Angeles, join us for an evening of poetry, music, and zines that celebrate Los Angeles’s Chicana community.

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Alma Rosa, founder of Frijolera Press, brings together local poets for a night of bilingual readings. Music will be provided by the Vinyl Frontier Crew, a local collective of womyn and gender nonconforming DJs spinning cumbia and funk. Zines and chapbooks from participating artists will be available for purchase. 

Participating poets: Alma RosaYesika SalgadoMissy FuegoCynthia Guardado, and Xitlalic Guijosa-Osuna


Poetas Potion: a night of poesía y palabra
Captured by Seo Yun Son

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About Alma Rosa

Alma Rosa is a Chicana writer, spoken word poet, and zine maker who resides in Los Angeles. She is the founder of Frijolera Press, a d.i.y. Chicana zine press. She is the creator of Tranquila Zine and Love in the Time of Trump. She is currently working on a new collection of stories titled Feathered Serpent: The Raven and The POEtry.

About Meliza Bañales

Meliza Bañales aka Missy Fuego is the author of three books, most notably the 2016 Lambda Literary Finalist novel Life Is Wonderful, People Are Terrific from Ladybox Books. She was a fixture in the spoken word and Slam communities of the San Francisco Bay Area from 1996-2010 and has spent the past three years in her hometown of LA building with Xicanx youth in East & South LA, working on two new short films, as well as curating programming for La Concha and the Lambda Literary Foundation. She is a Professor of Literature at the University of California, San Diego and is working on a fourth book, Adventure Awaits You In Hell: A Survivor’s Manifesto which explores the culture and power of survivorship. 

About Cynthia Guardado

Cynthia Guardado is a Salvadorian-American poet and professor of English at Fullerton College. Her debut collection of poetry Endeavor was published by World Stage press earlier this year. She is also the 2017 recipient of the Pellicer-Frost Binational Poetry Prize.

About Xitalic Guijosa-Osuna

Xitlalic Guijosa-Osuna is a Southeast L.A. Michoacana-Sinaloense, Mexicana poeta and visual artist. She is part of Proyecto Vecindad from Southeast Los Angeles a grassroots community organization and is currently part of Guayaba Tree Writers. She also creates greeting cards that represent her community and her madre. She writes about Guayabas, her Madre, her grandmothers, domestic violence,  and memories. These mediums have become her outlet to heal from trauma and has helped her connect with the world. 

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About Yesika Salgado

Yesika Salgado is a Los Angeles based Salvadoran poet who writes about her family, her culture, her city and her brown body. She has shared her work in venues and campuses throughout the country. In the last four years she self published three collections of poetry titled The Luna Poems, WOES and Sentimental Boss Bitch. She is a member of the 2014, 2016 and 2017 Da Poetry Lounge Slam Team. Her work has been featured in Latina Magazine, Univision, Vibe Magazine, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, TEDx and many other digital platforms. Yesika is the Co-founder of the Latina feminist collective Chingona Fire and an internationally recognized body positivity activist. Her first full length book Corazon will be published with Not A Cult, October of 2017.