Come hear poems in Maya, Spanish, and English and learn about the forthcoming book The Word Turned Butterfly: Mayan Poems from Mexico, with Alejandro Murguía and Pedro Uc Be, Saturday, October 4, 2025, 10:45-11:45 AM

Bay Area Maya Festival

City College of San Francisco, Mission Campus

1125 Valencia Street, Room 108

Come in person or join on Zoom!

https://ccsf-edu.zoom.us/j/88977298511

See the rest of the festival program here:

https://festivalmaya.my.canva.site/festivalmaya

See you there!

What: Bay Area Maya Festival!

Where: CCSF Mission Campus, 1125 Valencia Street!

When: Saturday, October 4, 2025, 9 AM to 1:30 PM!

Free and open to the Public! Music, dance, poetry, art, discussions, food!

The Bay Area Maya Festival, a single-day festival on the Mission Campus of CCSF, shares the ancient knowledge and the contemporary concerns of the Maya community. It’s the only event in the Bay Area that brings together Maya people across various Maya regions, languages, and traditions. The festival aims to unify people across Maya traditions and educate the community. The festival not only offers workshops on Maya history and mythology but also includes presentations contemporary poetry and arts and discussions on   today’s pressing issues including immigrant rights. This year’s festival is especially focused on the creation of the Maya universe and the Maya world view.

The festival is scheduled for Saturday October 4, 2025, and includes readings by noted poets, writers, professors, as well as a parade of traditional clothing from various Maya villages, an exhibit of Maya art, photography, and more! Festival events are open to the Bay Area community, from children to young adults to elders.

Everybody’s Climate 2025, San Francisco Public Library, July 2025

https://sfpl.org/locations/main-library/general-collections/everybodys-climate-2025

Solito to Solidarity: From climate fear, grief, and conflict to sharing stories and envisioning our way forward together

Saturday July 12, 11am, Zoom

We’ve been on a five-year journey to listen to the stories of people who are searching for creative solutions to climate crises in their regions of the world. Our forthcoming book, Last Chance Road, is an urgent present-tense story documenting our journey to interview individuals on the frontlines of climate change. We take readers along with us to listen to climate-displaced people and defenders of the environment in four remote regions. The interviews are conducted on the ground and via online platforms during the coronavirus pandemic. We’re letting these stories take us where they will, listening rather than prescribing. Last Chance Road leads us to Yucatan, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, back home to California, and converge in Glasgow, Scotland in November of 2021, where the narrators convene at the People’s COP26 to reflect on the global climate crisis, and to envision a shared future. In this panel discussion, we will continue the conversation on storytelling as a way to process climate fear and grief, resolve conflict, and imagine a way forward together.

• We are Steven Mayers, a professor of English and oral historian, and Jonathan Freedman, a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and author. What brought us together was our mutual passion for the human rights of migrants and the power of stories to bring about change. From 2014 to 2019, we joined forces to travel across Mexico and the United States listening to the life stories of young people who had fled extreme poverty, gang violence, and domestic violence in the Northern Triangle of Central America. We collected fifteen of these oral histories in Solito, Solita: Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees from Central America, which is part of the Voice of Witness oral history book series on human rights.
• Anahí Haizel De la Cruz Martín is a Maya photographer. She was born in Ticul, Yucatán, on July 25, 1993. She studied high school at the Rodríguez Tamayo Educational Center. On March 7, 2018, within the framework of International Women’s Day, she participated in a group exhibition Mujeres, Movement and Perspective, on the main trellis of the State Center of Fine Arts of Mérida, Yucatán. On August 9, she was invited to the collective exhibition The memories of the Mayan Territory at the Museo Maya Santa Cruz Xbáalam Naj in Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Quintana Roo, Mexico. She was a fellow of the Young Creators 2019-2020 program of the Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA) in the Visual Arts Photography Area. She has published her photographs in the magazines La Ojarasca, Revista Sinfín, in the Italian magazine La Macchina Sognante, as well as in the Mexico News Daily newspaper and the Diario de Yucatán. Haizel accompanies and documents processes of struggle for the vindication of the Mayan language and culture as a member of the Assembly of Defenders of the Maya Múuch ’Xíinbal Territory. She has shared his photographs on Facebook and on her blog for the outreach of the communities. https://haizeldelacruzm.wixsite.com/misitio.
• Seifu Assegid was born and raised in the Eastern part of Ethiopia in Diredawa city. At age six, he lost his father in the Ethio-Somali War.  His widowed mother was forced to fell trees to survive. Seifu then went to Cuba at age eight on scholarship as an orphan to study at a government-run primary and junior high school. Seifu returned from Cuba to finish high school with his sister in Tigray, where he witnessed the severe malnutrition crisis there in the ‘80’s. Currently, Seifu works for Save the Children as a Roving Humanitarian Communication Coordinator. Seifu earned a Diploma in environmental Health Science from Gondar College of Medical Science and a BA in Disaster Risk Management and Sustainable Development from Yardstick International University. Seifu’s photographs and stories have appeared in popular television programs, newspapers, and magazines including the UK Daily Telegraph, Aljazeera TV, and media outlets in Australia and elsewhere. He has been voice to the voiceless by sharing their stories for donors and members of Save the Children. His work mainly focuses on people affected by climate change, and is informed by his personal experiences as a child and adult. 
• Lipi Rahman is one of the founders directly involved in the evolving of Badabon Sangho. She has been supporting organisation with money, labour and suggestion. She has worked as Executive Director of Badabon Sangho since its inception on volunteering basis. Currently she is acting as Executive Director and General Secretary of Executive Committee. She worked with non-profit development sector for last 20 years with different capacities. She was born and brought up in an educated Muslim family. She earned a Master’s in Political Science from University of Dhaka. She has a strong passion and commitment for the vulnerable women. She is single lady, spending most of the time for organisation wellbeing.
• Mamun Ur Rashid is working with a national women’s rights organisation i.e. ‘Badabon Sangho’ in Bangladesh, working for human rights and climate justice. He was born and brought up in the southwest coastal region at the belt of the Bay of Bengal, where people are continuously fighting with climate induced violence and displacement, mobilizing, organizing, and educating vulnerable women, equipping them with tested tools and methods and helping them to be resilient. This is his day-to-day work.

Latin American Studies Association 2025 Congress

Poner el cuerpo en Latinx América

This iteration of the LASA Congress sets out to put the body on the line. To place the body center-stage in order to reveal its weight, relevance, and meaning. To recover its memory and materiality in our debates and agendas; to explore its dimensions at once individual and communal, biological and digital, contingent and situated. Because awakening our skin, opening our eyes and ears, setting our tongues in motion means reading ourselves, understanding ourselves as other(s), and rejecting the petrification of a single way of feeling and thinking. 

Emotional Journeys: A Psycholinguistic Analysis of Youth Migration Narratives

Denis Rey, Steven Mayers, Jonathan Freedman

Sunday May 25, 2025, 3:30 PM, San Francisco Marriott Marquis, 4th Floor, Pacific B

The question that our research aims to address is: How are youth migrants from Central America emotionally affected by their journey through Mexico and into the United States? Much has been written about the psychological and emotional impact of poverty, trauma, and violence on youth migrants, but very little is known about how the journey has directly affected these youth by analyzing the words they use to describe their experiences. With this research, we have a unique opportunity to research this question using interviews of close to two dozen youth migrants in differing stages of their journey. Our research employs Language Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software to determine positive and negative emotion, sadness, anxiety, and ideations of death in the voices of youth migrants from Central America’s Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras) who have travelled through Mexico in hopes of reaching and crossing the southern US border. These migrants describe the pull or push factors that motivated their decisions to migrate, the dangerous journey across Mexico, and their experience crossing the border and interacting with Border Patrol officials. Our research allows us to isolate each of these factors to determine their effects on these individuals. We expect to find that the journey across Mexico significantly affects the psychological and emotional well-being of these individuals. The research will shed light on what may be the more traumatizing aspects of the journey as well as who may be more susceptible to the greatest harm and benefit from mental health services.

DÍA MUNDIAL DE LA MADRE TIERRA

SEMINARIOS CIUDADANOS POR UN MUNDO NUEVO

ENLACE DE ACCESO- SEMINAR ZOOM LINK

ALIANZA CLIMA, VIDA Y SALUD ARGENTINA

VIERNES 19 DE ABRIL 2024, 11.00 am Argentina

FRIDAY APRIL 19TH, 2024, 4.00 pm Spain, 07.OO am California, 10.00 pm Malasia, 08.00 am Yucatán, México

PARA ENTRAR A LA REUNIÓN ZOOM PROGRAMADA

Haga doble click sobre este enlace:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86714538529?pwd=QTBXN3doQzBVVmZvM3RQNDZlamlNUT09

ID de reunión: 867 1453 8529

Código de acceso: 161636

EVENTO NO ARANCELADO.

Información  WhatsApp: Castellano: +54 9 351 209813 – +54 8 11 34621705; inglés: +54 9 11 32166375   Francés: +34 620 371 867

Last Chance Road: Voices from the Frontlines of Climate Change

Steven Mayers and Jonathan Freedman

Howard Zinn Book Fair

Sunday December 3, 2023, 10:30AM-12PM

CCSF Mission Campus, 1125 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA

Room 322

Join us in person or on Zoom!

Zoom link: https://tinyurl.com/272zb683

We’re excited to invite you to our upcoming book talk, “Last Chance Road: Voices from the Front Lines of Climate Change.” Our presentation with guest speakers features a “sneak preview” of our challenging four-year journey recording the harrowing and inspiring dozens of first-person accounts of people in four radically different environments: Yucatán, Mexico; Ethiopia, Santa Cruz, and Bangladesh. Their incredible stories bring you deep into Maya heartland, Ethiopia’s droughts/hunger, the wildfires of Santa Cruz, and the rising tides/floods of Bangladesh. Narratives are entwined, geo-synchronously, revealing the challenges people face month to month, year by year, hour by hour with uncertainty, suspense, realism. Our modest global outreach occurred during the COVID lockdown, when we reached out – and people reached back. As far-flung narrators become friends, we share their personal tragedies, hopes and collective dreams of cooperation against a common enemy: passivity and despair of climate inaction. What Can Be Done? Our journey leads to the 2021 UN Climate Conference COP-26 in Glasgow Scotland. Our Dec. 3 presentation happens during COP-28 in Dubai, and two of our narrators – Ibrahim Tchan from Benin, and Lipi Rahman from Bangladesh – hope to join us via Zoom from the climate conference. A third narrator, Seifu Assegid, from Ethiopia, will also join us via Zoom.

We’re asking displaced people the most fundamental human questions: How have they survived? What forces them to leave their homes? What are their journeys like? How are their experiences crossing borders? What is life like where they currently reside? What relief efforts are working? What can we learn from them? And more specifically: How do Maya farmers in Yucatán, Mexico, whose land is being encroached upon by destructive mega-projects protect their territory, their culture, their way of life? How do historically nomadic herders who have been driven by drought to farm in the highlands in Oromia, Ethiopia adapt to overpopulation while trying to maintain their cultural identity? How do firefighters in Santa Cruz County, California, fight the largest wildfire in one hundred years of history while masking up with COVID? How do coastal fishermen and farmers in the Asia Pacific adapt and respond to warming seas, typhoons, and rising sea levels?

We’re seeking wisdom from the displaced, those who come to their aid, as well as those who are fighting for their right to stay home and defend the land. We hope their stories will catalyze questions in readers. Since humans are causing these environmental crises, how can humans work to create change? What kinds of legal, economic, social, moral paradigm shifts would need to take place to ensure human rights are respected? How can we re-envision our relationship with nature?

@sfmayafest What: Bay Area Maya Festival!
Where: CCSF Mission Campus, 1125 Valencia Street!
When: Saturday, September 7, 2024, 9AM to 2PM!
 
Free and open to the Public! Music, dance, poetry, Art, discussions, food!
 
The Bay Area Maya Festival, a single-day festival on the Mission Campus of CCSF, shares the ancient knowledge and the contemporary concerns of the Maya community. It is the only event in the Bay Area that brings together Maya people across various Maya regions, languages, and traditions. The festival aims to unify people across Maya traditions and educate the community. The festival not only offers workshops on Maya weaving and fashion, but also includes presentations on the Maya calendar and their indigenous world view. Today’s pressing issues will be addressed in workshops on earth healing and immigrant rights. In years past, we have had an estimated audience of 600 Yucatec and Mayan people from throughout the Bay Area.
 
The festival is scheduled for Saturday, September 7, 2024, and includes readings by noted poets, writers, professors, as well as a parade of traditional clothing from various Maya villages, an exhibit of Maya art, and workshops on Mayan languages. Festival events are open to community members from young adults to elders.

@sfmayafest Come hear poems in Maya, Spanish, and English and learn about the forthcoming book The Blood of the Jaguar: Anthology of Maya Poetry with Alejandro MurguÍa and PEDRO UC BE, Saturday, September 7, 2024, 10:45-11:45 AM
Bay Area Maya Festival
City College of San Francisco, Mission Campus
1125 Valencia Street, Room 108, https://ccsf-edu.zoom.us/j/81909832038

Bay Area Maya Festival

The Bay Area Maya Festival, a single-day festival on the Mission Campus of CCSF, shares the ancient knowledge and the contemporary concerns of the Maya community. It is the only event in the Bay Area that brings together Maya people across various Maya regions, languages, and traditions. The festival aims to unify people across Maya traditions and educate the community. The festival not only offers workshops on Maya weaving and fashion, but also includes presentations on the Maya calendar and their indigenous world view. Today’s pressing issues will be addressed in workshops on earth healing and immigrant rights. In years past, we have had an estimated audience of 600 Yucatec and Mayan people from throughout the Bay Area.

The festival is scheduled for Saturday, September 16, 2023, from 9AM to 1:30PM, and includes readings by noted poets, writers, professors, as well as a parade of traditional clothing from various Maya villages, an exhibit of Maya art, and workshops on Mayan languages. Festival events are open to community members from young adults to elders. Please see the attached brochure of the 2019 festival for a visual representation of what the festival offers.

Maya Women: Life, Art, Hope
Contemporary Maya Paintings from Guatemala
 
August 25 to December 15, 2023
Featuring: Impressions of the Maya Field, Photographs by Haizel De la Cruz
 
City College of San Francisco, Ocean Campus
Rosenberg Library, 2nd Floor Gallery
50 Frida Kahlo Way
Monday to Thursday 8:00am – 5:00pm, Friday 8:00am – 1:00pm
 
Reception with Maya Dancers & Poets
Thursday, September 14
5:00-7:00 PM

We’re excited to be presenting our paper on a panel at the 70th annual conference of The Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies (SECOLAS) in Antigua, Guatemala on Saturday March 25, 2023!

Bordering Insecurity: How Systemic Violence Affects the Lives of Central American Youth Migrants

Abstract: This study examines the role that structural and pervasive violence plays in the lives of youth migrants fleeing the Northern Triangle. Our research employs comparative case study analysis to better understand the push factors that influence the exodus across Mexico, where, we argue, youth migrants are commoditized by those seeking to profit from their destitution. Once viewed as resources to be exploited, youth migrants suffer worse physical and psychological ruin. For the fortunate who reach American soil, the hardship may diminish somewhat but the distresses remain. The personal narratives that we use in our examination are the voices of those who have made the trek themselves. Our three protagonists – Anderson, Colel, Nuria – provide first-hand accounts of why they decided to migrate and what they encountered along the way. The harrowing, sometimes riveting, portrayals of their experience form the basis of our analysis. We rely heavily on the standards and measures of human security defined by the United Nations Develop Program and others, which we apply to our analysis. This study also utilizes literature on structural violence in efforts to better place youth migration within the context of Sen’s deprivation. Our findings suggest that the lack of human security and the strong prevalence of structural violence push youth migrants from their homes. We learn that during the journey through Mexico the threats associated with structural violence increase greatly. The paper concludes by offering several policy recommendations that aim to reduce the flow of youth migrants from Central America.

Denis Rey, University of Tampa

Steven Mayers, City College of San Francisco, Solito2Solidarity

Jonathan Freedman, Independent Journalist, Solito2Solidarity

Critical Global Citizenship Education Panel Discussion (March 15 at 3:30 pm) at Skyline College

We are pleased to announce Spring activities as part of our PIF-funded project titled Critical Global Citizenship Education which directly relates to our college’s mission and the People’s College Initiative. The project includes the screening of two documentaries, a panel discussion, and an exhibit.

Panelists discuss ways in which the individual, local, national, and global are interconnected and co-produced, and how each of us can recognize and take responsibility for our choices and actions and thus disrupt global inequities. 

Storytelling for Social Justice Workshop with City Dream program at CCSF

Fragile Planet / Sacred Earth

We’re excited to be a part of the “Art and Writing About Climate Justice Solutions” panel at CSU Monterrey Bay on Thursday March 3rd from 4:00-5:20!

Amplifying Sanctuary Voices (ASV) exhibit at CCSF’s Rosenberg Library

What is sanctuary? How can we rethink immigration policy? How can we mitigate the climate crisis and work towards climate justice? Add your voice! Share your story! Be part of the solution!

Join us on Wednesday January 25, 2023, for an opening storytelling event to kick-off the semester-long Amplifying Sanctuary Voices (ASV) exhibit! The exhibit will run from January 25 to May 25, 2023, in Rosenberg Library’s 2^nd floor atrium at the Ocean Campus of City College of San Francisco, 50 Frida Kahlo Way. This multimedia exhibit features a history of the Sanctuary Movement in the Bay Area and an introduction to climate migration—positioning climate change as a major driver in the forced migration of peoples throughout the world. The exhibit focuses on various nuances of climate-induced displacement and migration of the Rohingya people, as well as people in the Northern Triangle of Central America, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Syria, and Pakistan.

The opening event will take place on Wednesday January 25 from 11AM to 1:30PM!

We are calling on the City College community – students, professors, librarians, staff – to engage in this crucial conversation: bring a class to the exhibit, create and share discussion questions and assignment ideas on migration and climate change in your field, from science to anthropology to art to language to literature. We hope to inspire classes from a variety of disciplines to engage in solutions-focused conversations and brainstorms about migration. To get involved, email CCSF English Professor Steven Mayers (smayers@csf.edu) and ASV co-founder Rebecca Gerny (rebecca@eastbaysanctuary.org)!

Amplifying Sanctuary Voices (ASV) is a storytelling initiative led by East Bay Sanctuary Covenant (EBSC), a long-term partner organization of Voice of Witness (VOW). ASV consists of a coalition of community organizations that includes East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, Voice of Witness, the Public Service Center at UC Berkeley, Inside the Living Room, Youth UnMuted, and 1951 Coffee. The project aims to create space in mainstream political conversation for the diverse voices and experiences of those impacted by immigration policy decisions. ASV is a community-based oral history project centering the stories of Bay Area residents who have come to the U.S. seeking sanctuary. ASV stimulates dialogue and creates space in the mainstream political conversation for the diverse voices and experiences of those impacted by policy decisions.

SPONSORED BY: CCSF ROSENBERG LIBRARY, AMPLIFYING SANCTUARY VOICES (ASV), EAST BAY SANCTUARY COVENANT (EBSC), CCSF PUENTE PROGRAM, CCSF CITY DREAM

COLLAGES BY: BRIANNA ADIA DAVIS

Solito2Solidarity presents

The People’s COP27: Voices from the Front Lines of Climate Change

A year ago we joined together on Zoom for the People’s COP26 “Voices from the Front Lines of Climate Change.”  Across ten time zones, we asked how did you experience nature as children?  What has changed in the environment? How has climate change informed you work as activists and defenders of the earth? Many things have happened since last November — floods in South Asia; wars in Ukraine & Tigray; food shortages; fossil fuel energy spikes.  But we resist “doom and gloom” despair and passivity in favor of concrete examples of resilience, adaptation and positive climate action. We believe in the transformative energy of sharing stories of courage, adaptation, resilience. Our theme is From Solito (aloneness, isolation, fear) to Solidarity (joining together to survive, adapt and thrive.) 

How has climate change affected you and your region in the last year? Tell us a story that takes us to your world. What resources could compensate your region’s loss and damage and promote regeneration?

We’re inviting each of you to a new People’s COP27, at the end of the UN conference on climate in Egypt.  This year Steven and Jonathan will be hosting a two-hour session on November 20, 2022 from 10 am to 12 noon (California time), with simultaneous Zoom sessions in your time zone. Simply, at the same time as last year. Ibrahim Tchan is participating in COP27 and will be on the scene in Egypt to wrap up the event. 

We are going to preview an amazing music video: “Solito to Solidarity” co-produced by S2S and Ibrahim Tchan, who you’ll remember playing the guitar from Glasgow. With lyrics created by Steven and Jonathan, original music by Ibrahim and his band was recorded and filmed in Benin, West Africa.

Join the reunion! Bring your stories, your personal challenges and contributions. We can change the Emotion Climate of Fear and Aggressiveness to a Community of Compassion and Positive Action. 

This global people-to-people forum will take place on Zoom, so tune in from wherever you are at your local time zone!

Sunday November 20, 2022

10am in Santa Cruz, California

12pm in Yucatán, Mexico

8pm in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt

9pm in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia

12am in Chittagong, Bangladesh

Zoom Link: https://ccsf-edu.zoom.us/j/84904097917  

Facebook Event: https://fb.me/e/3b9YCEVAn

www.solito2solidarity.org

We’ll be releasing our new music video for our song, “Solito to Solidarity,” tomorrow, November 11, 2022, at the COP27 conference in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. The song’s words were written by Steven Mayers and Jonathan Freedman, and the music was composed and performed by Ibrahim Tchan and his band in Benin. The video was created by Francis Anoum.

The showing will take place at 1pm in Egypt, which is 3am Pacific Time!

You can register for the free event here.

#ArtCultureHeritageCOP27 invites you to a day and night to lift up culture at COP27.

Contemporary climate planning has so far failed to keep 1.5 alive or deliver transformative adaptation, especially for the most vulnerability communities. One basic reason: current climate planning doesn’t dare to dream. It fails to help people imagine practical, desirable low carbon, just, climate resilient futures. It relies too heavily on technocratic solutions at the expense of place-based, people-centered, rights-based and demand side strategies. It favors voices from institutions that have helped cause the climate crisis and excludes those best positioned to critique them.

ArtCulureHeritageCOP27 is an extraordinary day-long convening during COP27 of those committed to unlock the power of culture from arts to heritage to flip this paradigm.

Throughout the day and night of 11 Nov, #ArtCultureHeritageCOP27 offers a joyful, informative, performance filled space that celebrates and unites the diversity of creative climate action:

• Traditional knowledge and heritage buildings and landscapes that pre-date the fossil fuel era can point the way to post-carbon living.
• The worldviews held by Indigenous Peoples and local communities never co-opted by modern take-make-waste approaches offer counterpoints to unsustainable paradigms of ‘progress.’
• Artistic, heritage, creative, and imaginative tools support transformative reinterpretation of inherited mindsets, including the carbonscapes and petrocultures which are the heritage of the Anthropocene.

Attend the daytime programme, the evening programme or both!

Co-Create @ #ArtCultureHeritage COP27

The daytime programme, Co-Create @ #ArtCultureHeritage COP27, is a place to meet, learn, share, collaborate, and act on culture for transformative climate action, featuring artistic performances, discussions, learning events and more.

Doors open at 9am and the programme begins at 10am. A free lunch is offered. Performances will be woven into the day including poets, musicians and cultural voices such as Kathy Jetnil -Kijiner, Poet and Climate Envoy of the Marshall Islands, Cultural Ambassador of Climate Vulnerable Forum; Queen Quet of the Gullah Geechee Sea Island Coalition, and singer and storyteller Sam Lee.

Co-Create sessions include:

• Conversation Starter: Four Perspectives on Culture as a Pillar of Climate Action
• Climate Education for all: Linking Culture, Education, and Climate Empowerment (offered in French and English)
• Culture Networks and Climate Mobilisation: Five leaders of cultural networks discuss their organisation’s approaches to climate action and reflect on the lessons of the morning sessions.
• Multiple Paths/Shared Aims: A conversation about the diverse cultural paths to transformative climate action.

The Puente Program and CCSF is partnering with Amplifying Sanctuary Voices (ASV) and  the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant (EBSC) to host an exhibit on the history of the sanctuary movement and its roots in Berkeley and the Bay Area.
 
When: Thursday 11/10/22 to Monday 1/10/23
Where: In the lobby of CCSF’s Mission campus (1125 Valencia St., between 22nd and 23rd)
 
Please join us for an opening celebration and gathering next Thursday, 11/10, from 10am to 12pm. We’ll gather in the lobby, share migration stories and talk about history of the sanctuary movement and the important role that the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant played and plays in helping people seek asylum.
 
Amplifying Sanctuary Voices (ASV) is a community-based oral history project centering the stories of Bay Area residents who have come to the U.S. seeking sanctuary. ASV stimulates dialogue and creates space in the mainstream political conversation for the diverse voices and experiences of those impacted by policy decisions.
 
Timeline of the Sanctuary Movement: 1951-1992
 
ASV has developed this Timeline to highlight the courage of refugees and activists who have fought tirelessly to protect human rights. Teachers may download the PDF for use in their classrooms. Stay tuned for Part II of the Timeline: 1992 – present. The exhibit is available for display in libraries, museums, and other public spaces.
https://eastbaysanctuary.org/our-work/transformation-education/amplifying-sanctuary-voices/

@ccsf_english @ccsfmissionpuentistas Please join us for a special event at the Mission Center of City College of San Francisco! On Tuesday October 25 from 11am to 12pm, fiction writer Norman Zelaya will be reading from his new collection of short stories entitled Gente, Folks, and discussing his experience writing the book!
 
“Norman Antonio Zelaya characters soar to life in Gente, Folks, prose stories that create a vibrant chorus of voices that illuminate San Francisco’s Mission District, a neighborhood rich in history and culture, violence and loss, love and solidarity. Zelaya shows us a world where everyday survival is foremost, and where family and community come not only from the heart, but from the soul. A wonderful new book by a talented writer.” — Gail Tsukiyama – author of The Samurai’s Garden and The Color of Air.
 
Read more about the book here and order your copy!
https://www.blackfreighterpress.com/catalog/p/gentefolks   
 
This event is co-sponsored by CCSF’s Puente Program, Creative Writing Program, Transitional Studies Program, and Friends of the Mission Center.

Soledad Castillo and Gabriel Méndez have been collaborating with filmmaker, poet, and professor Shabnam Piryaei​ on this film project! Check out the trailer of No Separate Survival here!

In advance of #WorldRefugeeDay, join Voice of Witness and

@BeHIPGive for a book talk featuring narrators from our oral history collection Solito, Solita: Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees from Central America. Register here: http://bit.ly/SolitoSolitaBC

Latin American Studies Association (LASA) 2022 Conference: Polarización socioambiental y rivalidad entre grandes potencias

Saturday May 7, 2022, 4pm

Bordering Insecurity: How Systemic Violence Affects the Lives of Central American Youth Migrants

Abstract:

This study examines the role that structural and pervasive violence plays in the lives of youth migrants fleeing the Northern Triangle. Our research employs comparative case study analysis to better understand the push factors that influence the exodus across Mexico, where, we argue, youth migrants are commoditized by those seeking to profit from their destitution. Once viewed as resources to be exploited, youth migrants suffer worse physical and psychological ruin. For the fortunate who reach American soil, the hardship may diminish somewhat but the distresses remain. The personal narratives that we use in our examination are the voices of those who have made the trek themselves. Our three protagonists – Anderson, Colel, Nuria – provide first-hand accounts of why they decided to migrate and what they encountered along the way. The harrowing, sometimes riveting, portrayals of their experience form the basis of our analysis. We rely heavily on the standards and measures of human security defined by the United Nations Develop Program and others, which we apply to our analysis. This study also utilizes literature on structural violence in efforts to better place youth migration within the context of Sen’s deprivation. Our findings suggest that the lack of human security and the strong prevalence of structural violence push youth migrants from their homes. We learn that during the journey through Mexico the threats associated with structural violence increase greatly. The paper concludes by offering several policy recommendations that aim to reduce the flow of youth migrants from Central America.

Denis Rey, University of Tampa

Steven Mayers, City College of San Francisco, Solito2Solidarity

Jonathan Freedman, Independent Journalist, Solito2Solidarity

Amplifying Sanctuary Voices (ASV) has been developing an exhibit on Climate Migration featuring stories from narrators. We would love it if you could join us for our launch event next Wednesday, April 13th, 2022, at 6pm. We will share a few brief remarks and officially unveil the exhibit on the second floor of the MLK ASUC Student Union (near the sky bridge). Steven and Jonathan have been on ASV’s advisory board and Steven hopes to bring their original exhibit, and timeline of the sanctuary movement, to City College of San Francisco. This will also be the first time our team members, student interns, and partner organizations can meet in person, and we would love to see you there! 

This exhibit is a collaborative effort between migrants, climate experts, and educators to bring to light the stories of those displaced by climate change and encourage collective empathy and action. The exhibit highlights the climate-induced displacement and migration of the Rohingya people, as well as those from the Northern Triangle of Central America, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and Syria. We invite you to visit the exhibit in person starting April 13th, and to share with your friends, family, and networks the importance of learning and taking action with regard to climate change.

Imagining Home: CCSF Oral History Project – CCSF Faculty Flex Day Presentation

Panelists: Steven Mayers, Isabela Nangca, Migue Morales Valtiera

Watch a video of the presentation here.

For the last decade, I’ve been having my students in my English 1A class at the City College of San Francisco conduct oral history research. Our class is focused on listening to and learning from the stories of people who have migrated to the U.S. After reading and writing about US history, the history of immigration law, false myths about immigrants, and personal testimonies of forced migrants who have experienced abuses to their human rights, each student interviews someone who has moved to the U.S. After making audio recordings of their interviews, they then transcribe the interviews, capturing the voice of the narrator.

Imagining Home: Stories of Migration, Exile, and Imagination from the City College of San Francisco Community is a collection of sixteen essays written by City College students and based on oral history interviews they conducted with people in the City College community – classmates, friends, family members – who have immigrated to San Francisco. The narrative essays celebrate the diversity that is San Francisco. They speak of what they go through to get here, what they go through trying to start a life here. They speak as individual and as a whole. In this workshop, we’ll have the chance to speak to a few students about their experiences participating in the project and learn about conducting oral history research with students.

The People’s COP26: Voices from the Front Lines of Climate Change

As the global climate summit in Glasgow concludes, we bring together voices of the people left out: environmentally displaced people and defenders of the earth. How is climate change affecting you in your region of the world? What do world leaders need to know? What can we learn from people on the front lines of climate change?

This international forum will take place on Zoom, so tune in from wherever you are at your local time zone!

Sunday November 14 and 15, 2021

6pm in Glasgow, Scotland

10am in Santa Cruz, California

12pm in Yucatán, Mexico

9pm in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia

12pm in Chittagong, Bangladesh

November 14: https://ccsf-edu.zoom.us/j/96086948879

November 15: https://ccsf-edu.zoom.us/j/93808550912

Dedication of the Jorge Santana Family Mural!

Join S2S & Earth Regenerative Business (ERB) at the dedication of the Jorge Santana Family Mural this Friday @ 12 noon Pacific time. In partnership with Mission Arts 415, and painted by Mark Bode, the Santana Family Mural was commissioned by Annie Rodriguez and the Santanas. The mural will be dedicated to Jorge Santana and the Santana Family, on a wall of the San Francisco’s 24th Street BART plaza. Photo courtesy of Lisa Brewer/The Guardsman Solito2Solidarity stands with migrants and climate refugees around the world.

http://theguardsman.com/8_culture_santana_mural_tobin/

Friday July 23, 2021, 5pm

Santa Cruz Community: Lear Not to Burn

3 Sisters 3 Corners presents a community workshop in Soquel, CA!

East Bay Sanctuary Covenant Spring Reception

Saturday, May 22, 2021, 5-6:15pm

Flip through the program here.

Our themes for this year’s virtual reception are hope and solidarity. As we emerge into spring, a new administration, and a shift in the pandemic, we remain firm in our commitment to immigrant rights and solidarity with immigrant communities.  

We are excited to join together virtually to celebrate our community, hear from some remarkable immigration advocates, and enjoy a free mini-concert from Carsie Blanton!

100% of event proceeds will support EBSC’s programs serving low-income immigrants and asylum seekers.

On Friday at 4pm PST, 2020, our friends Pedro Uc Be and Russell Peba will talk about what the Maya people in the Yucatan are facing during Covid-19, and the work they are doing to protect Maya territory and life. It’s hosted by UC Berkeley’s Latin American Leadership Society and will have English translation.

El viernes a las 4 pm PST, nuestros amigos Pedro Uc Be y Russell Peba hablarán sobre lo que enfrentan los mayas en Yucatán durante Covid-19, y el trabajo que están haciendo para proteger el territorio y la vida maya. Está organizado por la Sociedad de Liderazgo Latinoamericano (LLS) de UC Berkeley.

University of Tampa, Department of Political Science

Monday, September 28, 2020, 8am to 9:50am (EST)

Steven Mayers and Jonathan Freedman will be talking to a Political Science class called Central America and the US, with Professor Denis Rey at the University of Tampa in Florida. 

Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) 

Wednesday, August 5th, 2020, 6:50-8:20pm

“A Toolkit for Researching Migration: Challenges and Opportunities in Studying Refugees/Asylum Seekers/Forced Migrants”

Steven Mayers will be presenting on a panel organized by Melissa Wall, a Professor of Journalism at CSU Northridge. The panel will include Hong Tien Vu, Assistant Professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas; and Danelia Dimitrova, Associate Professor at  Bilkent University, Turkey, and Professor at the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University, and Emel Özdora Akak, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Design at Bilkent University, Turkey. The panel will be moderated by Jéssica Retis, Associate Professor at the University of Arizona.

“Migrant Voices: Compiling and Editing Oral Histories of Central American Youth Migrants.” Steven Mayers’ presentation is about my experience interviewing youth migrants from Central America across the U.S. and Mexico for Solito, Solita: Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees from Central America, emphasizing the importance and practice of oral history research, and sharing some tips about how to access and interview young migrants from Central America.

Steven has also been asked to take part in this second panel on the LGBTQI+ Refugee/Asylum Seeker.

International Communication & the LGBTQI+ Refugee/Asylum Seeker

Friday, August 7, 3:15 to 4:45pm

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & Queer and International Communication Divisions

Steven Mayers will be presenting with Natian Rodriguez, a Professor at the School of Journalism and Media Studies at San Diego State; Melissa Wall, a Professor of Journalism at CSU Northridge; Rae Sweet  with The LGBT Asylum Project; Cristina Ceballos with the The East Bay Sanctuary Project.

This panel will consist of communication professionals and academics who study the nexus of communication, media, and LGBTQI+ individuals. It will explore and address: (1) the role of international communication (both traditional and digital) in communicating with and for LGBTQI+ refugees/asylum seekers; (2) how LGBTQI+ NGOs use strategic communication, including pro- LGBTQI+ rhetoric and narratives, to foster acceptance and aid; and (3) media’s function and responsibility in the representation of LGBTQI+ refugees/asylum seekers.

*Via Facebook Live (if you’d like to watch: this event will appear as a post on this page, under the DISCUSSION tab)

This is a social action literary event that encourages authentic expressions of frustration, solidarity, and hope about the future of a country where we all live, play, write, work, teach, dance, and make art.

Host: Megan Duffy Brown
Featured Readers:

Nina Serrano (Oakland)
Nina is a well-known, international prize-winning inspirational author and poet. With a focus on Latino history and culture, she is also a playwright, filmmaker, KPFA talk show host, a former Alameda County Arts Commissioner, and a co-founder of the San Francisco Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts.

Elijah B. Pringle, III (Philadelphia)
Elijah B. Pringle III is a Philadelphia poet, lyric baritone, composer, actor, and artivist. He is the author of At the Cornerstone, Feeding the Sparrow, Second Saturday at Serenity and Optic Problem & Other Illusions.

Aileen Cassinetto (San Mateo)
Aileen is the Poet Laureate of San Mateo County. Widely anthologized, she is the author of the poetry collections, Traje de Boda and The Pink House of Purple Yam Preserves & Other Poems, as well as three chapbooks through Moria Books’ acclaimed Locofo series.

Kevin Tracy Jr. (Antioch)
Kevin A. Tracy, Jr., from Antioch, CA, is a Leapling, born on February 29th of 1992. He has been writing poetry off and on for the past ten years and experienced a lot of growth as a writer while attending Barclay College in Kansas.

Antonio López (East Palo Alto)
Antonio López, born and raised in East Palo Alto, is a PhD student in Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford University. His debut collection, Gentefication, won the 2019 Four Way Books Levis Prize in Poetry, and is set to be published fall of 2021.

Steven Mayers (San Rafael)
Steven Mayers is a writer, oral historian, and professor at City College of San Francisco. He is co-editor of Solito, Solita: Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees from Central America, an oral history published by Haymarket Books in 2019 as part of the Voice of Witness book series on human rights.

Saramanda Swigart (San Francisco)
Saramanda Swigart has an MFA from Columbia University, with a supplementary degree in literary translation. Her short work and poetry have appeared in numerous magazines and literary journals.

Aimee Inglis (Berkeley)
Aimee Inglis (she/her) is a queer organizer, witch, and writer rooted in California with a decade of experience working in the tenants’ rights movement.

Solito, Solita: Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees from Central America

Peninsula Jewish Community Center

Sunday, June 14 • 3:00-4:30 pm

Join author, PJCC Member, Peninsula Temple Sholom congregant, and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Jonathan Freedman, as well as Dr. Steven Mayers from City College of SF and Soledad Castillo, who fled violence and poverty at age fourteen and is an advocate for youth housing in San Francisco,  for an in-depth look at recent migration from Central America to the US based on their book entitled Solito, Solita: Crossing Border with Youth Refugees from Central America. Presented in partnership with Peninsula Temple Sholom. Takes place via Zoom. Registration required (password: solito).

Steven Mayers and Jonathan Freedman will be presenting stories and talking for a history class at the Salisbury School in Connecticut with Christopher Russell on Wednesday, April 29, at 12:30pm EST. The digital presentation and discussion will be held on Zoom.

Steven Mayers and Jonathan Freedman will be presenting stories  from Solito, Solita and talking at a symposium focused on violence against immigrants and entitled “Querida America: The Stories and Testimonies of Migration,” organized by The Latin American Leadership Society at UC Berkeley.The event will take place on Friday April 24 and our presentation will be between 3 and 5pm on Friday the 24th. We’ll be presenting with Edith Soria, Community Relations Coordinator for Create Purpose, and Ambassador for One Young World. The event will be broadcasted online and open to the public. Log on to join us at https://berkeley.zoom.us/my/llsforum.

Steven Mayers and Jonathan Freedman will be presenting stories from Solito, Solita and talking with narrator Soledad Castillo at Albuquerque International Association‘s Center for International Studies on Friday, April 17, 2020, at 2pm. The event will be held online and open to the public.

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Steven Mayers and Jonathan Freedman will be presenting stories from Solito, Solita and talking with a Philosophy class in the Chican@ and Latin@ Studies Program at Sonoma State University with Professor Griselda Madrigal Lara on Monday, April 6, 2020. The digital presentation and discussion will be held on Zoom.

Solito, Solita Presentation at Puentes de Salud

*This event has been postponed due to the COVID-19 virus*

Tuesday, March 31
6:15 PM to 7:30 PM
Puentes de Salud
1700 South Street, Philadelphia, PA

Solito, Solita is an oral history book project coordinated by Voice of Witness, a nonprofit that amplifies the voices of people impacted by injustice.

Join us at an event with the book’s editors and two narrators, Soledad and Gabriel, as they share their migration stories and explore the role that storytelling plays in social justice work. We will also have a chance to discuss how we can support migrant and refugee youth within our own communities and networks in Philadelphia.

A collaboration between Voice of Witness, Haverford College, and Puentes de Salud.

To learn more about the Solito, Solita book project, visit: https://voiceofwitness.org/solito-solita/

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/135397594316917/

Solito, Solita Presentation at Haverford College

*This event has been postponed due to the COVID-19 virus*

Monday, March 30, 2020
4:15 PM to 6:00 PM
VCAM Screening Room
Haverford College

Solito, Solita is an oral history book project coordinated by Voice of Witness, a nonprofit that amplifies the voices of people impacted by injustice.

Join us at an event with the book’s editors and two narrators, Soledad and Gabriel, as they share their migration stories and explore the role that storytelling plays in social justice work. We will also have a chance to discuss how we can support migrant and refugee youth within our own communities and networks in Philadelphia.

A collaboration between Voice of Witness, The Center for Peace and Global Citizenship, the Haverford College Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Program, and the Haverford College Health Studies Program.

To learn more about the Solito, Solita book project, visit: https://voiceofwitness.org/solito-solita/

Facebook Event page here.

The Amplifying Sanctuary Voices (AVS) Exhibit

Amplifying Sanctuary Voices (ASV) invites you to the launch of a multi-media exhibit featuring a timeline of the early Sanctuary Movement and stories of people who have fled violence and persecution to seek safety in the Bay Area, including voices from Solito, Solita. Visitors to the exhibit will learn more about our collective history and ways to get involved in supporting sanctuary-seekers in the Bay Area.

Location: UC Berkeley, MLK Student Union – second floor near the Sky Bridge

The exhibit will be open to the public from the March 3 reception through May 2020.

More information here.

The Amplifying Sanctuary Voices (AVS) Oral History Project

The Amplifying Sanctuary Voices Oral History Project invites you to a special evening of storytelling, listening, and community building. Through readings and multimedia presentations, we will hold space and share the narratives of people who have fled violence and persecution in their home countries to seek safety and sanctuary in the Bay Area.

This event is a pilot presentation, with educators and activists like yourself participating and giving us feedback and commentary on the experience. Our goal is to eventually share this interactive program in more community spaces and schools throughout Berkeley. We would be grateful for your participation as a thought partner.

Date And Time: Thursday, February 27, 2020, 5:30 PM – 8:30 PM PST

Location: 1951 Coffee Company, 2410 Channing Way, Berkeley, CA 94704

(East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, Voice of Witness, Youth UnMuted, the UC Berkeley Public Service Center, and 1951 Coffee Company)

Friday, December 10, 2019

Forced to Flee: People on the Move Yearning to Breathe Free, hosted by Article 3, Human Rights Watch, ACLA, Voice of Witness and others.

Solito, Solita narrator Soledad Castillo talks about he human rights of youth refugees along with guests including Angela Davis

Human Rights Day 2019 focused on the story of People Forced to Flee and on the Move “Yearning to Breathe Free,” and in search of safe haven in another land.

There may be no other issue in today’s reality that challenges our collective history, our deepest values, and our essential humanity where a rights-based approach offers understanding, moral imagination and a way forward.

Sunday, December 8, 10:30am-12:00pm

Howard Zinn Book Fair: Discovering Our Power: Strike!

The Novel as Counter-history: How fiction can serve truth by departing from fact

Steven Mayers, co-editor of Solito, Solita, a contemporary oral history of youth refugees from Central America, will discuss fiction’s relationship to history with Ben Kostival, author of The Canyons, a novel based on the Colorado Coalfield War of 1913–14.

City College of San Francisco, Mission Campus, Room 322

1125 Valencia Street, San Francisco

Sunday, December 8, 2:15-3:45pm

Howard Zinn Book Fair: Discovering Our Power: Strike!

I’ll be presenting Solito, Solita with Jonathan Freedman, Soledad Castillo, and Gabriel Méndez

Solito, Solita: Fall 2019 Events 

Wednesday, October 30

Solito, Solita: Immigration Issues at the Southern Border

Join Steven Mayers and Soledad Castillo for an engaging discussion of his book Solito, Solita: Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees from Central America, followed by a panel discussion with immigration attorneys Claudia Vetesi and Manuel Ugarte.

Alameda County Bar Association

1000 Broadway, Suite 290 | Oakland, CA 94607

Wednesday, October 16, 6:30-8:00pm

No Human Is Illegal: On the Front Lines of the Immigration War

LitQuake Festval

Wolfman Books, 410 13th St, Oakland

Steven will be presenting in conversation with author and immigration lawyer J.J. Sepulveda.

Tuesday, October 15, 6:00-7:30pm

Notre Dame de Namur University

1500 Ralston Avenue Belmont, CA 94002

Sunday, October 13, 12:00-1:00pm

Words Around the World: Child Immigrants

LitQuake Festival

Steven Mayers will present in conversation with with author Katya Cengel, and narrator Gabriel Méndez.

Sponsored by the Center for the Art of Translation

Hotel Emblem, 562 Sutter St, San Francisco, CA 94102

Tuesday, October 8, 6-8pm

Book Talk: Solito, Solita

Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Public Library, Main Library

2019 ¡VIVA! Latino Hispanic Heritage Month

100 Larkin St., San Francisco, 94102

Causa Justa’s Community Rights Co-Director Kitzia Esteva-Martinez will host a discussion with Co-editors of Solito, Solita, Steven Mayers and Jonathan Freedman, and two of the book’s narrators, Soledad Castillo, and Gabriel Mendez.

Poetry Reading with Leticia Hernández-Linares

Leticia Hernández-Linares Flyer 2 PDF

City College of San Francisco’s Creative Writing Program’s Visiting Writers Series

Thursday, September 26, 2019, 6:30-8pm

City College of San Francisco Mission Campus, Room 109

Wednesday, September 25, 11:10am-12:35pm

Equity Speakers Series: Rise by Lifting

Voices of Witness: Stories to Transform

Diablo Valley College, Pleasant Hill Campus, Diablo Room

321 Golf Club Road, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523

View a video of the event here.

Poetry Reading with Yucatec Mayan Poet Pedro Uc Be

PEDRO UC BE PDF 4

Thursday, September 19, 2019, 6:30-8pm

City College of San Francisco Mission Campus, Room 109

Sponsored by City College of San Francisco’s Creative Writing Program’s

Visiting Writers Series and Asocacion Mayab

Tuesday, September 17, 11am-1pm

City College of San Francisco

Rosenberg Library, Room 305

Ocean Campus, 50 Frida Kahlo Way, San Francisco

Sponsored by CCSF’s Creative Writing Program and the Puente Program

Saturday, September 7, 1-2pm

“Solito, Solita Authors’ Talk @ Claremont.”

Berkeley Public Library’s Claremont branch2940 Benvenue Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705, 510-981-6280 

Editors Steven Mayers and Jonathan Freedman and two interviewees will discuss their experiences creating Solito, Solita, a collection of first-person testimonies, from young Central American refugees, chronicling their journeys to the U.S.

Wednesday, September 4th, 7:00pm

Writers for Migrant Justice

Dominican University

Garden Room in Edgehill Mansion, 75 Magnolia Ave., San Rafael

Featuring: Jane Hirshfield, Raina J.León, Steven Mayers, Jonathan Freedman, Soledad Castillo

This event is part of a number of literary events nationwide raising money for Immigrant Families Together. It is co-sponsored my the Marin Poetry Center.

Spring 2019 Book Launch Tour

Join the editors and two narrators of Solito, Solita for a discussion of this powerful new book from Voice of Witness and Haymarket Books. Solito, Solita tells the stories of youth refugees fleeing their home countries and traveling for hundreds of miles seeking safety and protection in the United States. In an era of fear, xenophobia, and outright lies, these stories amplify the compelling voices of immigrant youth. What can they teach us about abuse and abandonment, bravery and resilience, hypocrisy and hope?

Narrators:

Gabriel, who after surviving sexual abuse starting at the age of eight fled to the United States, and through study, legal support and work, is now attending UC Berkeley.

Soledad, a young woman from Honduras who fled at age 14 after being abused by her stepfather, abandoned by her mother, and forced into child labor. She recently graduated from SFSU.

Josué, who was forced to escape the gangs in El Salvador and leave his vulnerable sister and father to face death threats. He has started his own transportation company, which he names after his late parents.

Editors:

Steven Mayers is a writer, oral historian, and professor of English at the City College of San Francisco.

Jonathan Freedman is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, author, and writing mentor at the City College of San Francisco.

Chicago 

• Wednesday, April 24th. 6-7pm,  Seminary Co-op’s 57th Street Books, 1301 E. 57th St. Chicago, IL 60615.
• Thursday, April 25th. 7-9pm,  Volumes Bookcafe. 1474 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago IL.

New York 

• Monday May 6. McNally Jackson Books. 76 N 4th St Unit G, Brooklyn, NY.
• Tuesday May 7. 7-9:30pm. Bluestockings Bookstore. 172 Allen Street, New York, NY.

• Wednesday May 8. 7-8:30PM. PEN America World Voices Festival. Panel with Dave Eggers and Mimi Lok, co-founders of Voice of Witness. Nuyorican Poets Cafe, 236 E. 3RD ST., New York, NY.

Bay Area

• Tuesday, April 2, 7-9pm. Manny’s, 3092 16th St. San Francisco.
• Wednesday, April 3, 10-11am. Your Call Radio with Rose Aguilar. KALW. 91.7FM.
• Wednesday, April 3, 7:00-8:30pm. UC Berkeley, Latinx Research Center, 2547 Channing Way, Berkeley. Moderated by Sara Campos.
• Thursday, April 4, 7:30-9:30. Pegasus Bookstore, 2349 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley.

• Friday April 12, 6-8pm. Flor y Canto Festival, L’s Caffe, 2871 24th St, San Francisco. Hosted by San Francisco Poet Laureate Alejandro Murguía, moderated by writer and poet Norman Zelaya, and will include a reading Mayan poet Gerardo Pacheco Matus.  http://www.florycantosf.org/friday  https://www.facebook.com/events/808653926168516/
• Monday April 15. 7:30-9. “Lit Night: Immigration,” hosted by City College of San Francisco’s Creative Writing Program. Ocean Ale House. 1314 Ocean Avenue, San Francisco.

• Saturday May 4, 10-11:15am. Bay Area Book Festival. “Us vs. Them: Refugees, Asylum, and the Politics of Borderlands.” Berkeley City College’s Main Auditorium, 2050 Center Street. Panel with journalist Jonathan Freedman, professor Aaron Bobrow-Strain, journalist Eileen Truax and immigration lawyer J.J. Mulligan Sepúlvida, This panel will be moderated by writer and immigration lawyer Sara Campos.
• Monday May 6th, 6-8pm. Berkeley City College, 5th Floor Student Union Building, 2050 Center Street. This presentation will be moderated by writer and immigration lawyer Sara Campos. https://www.facebook.com/events/994937254229306/ 
• Thursday May 23rd, 7:30PM, Green Apple Books on the Park, San Francisco, , 1231 9^th Street. This event will be moderated by Lauren Markham.

Berkeley Immigration Group – Solito, Solita Q&A Session

Monday, March 11, 2019, from 12:45 to 2:00 pm

UC Berkeley Law, 130 Boalt Hall, 225 Bancroft Ave.

Come kick off Berkeley Immigration Group’s BIG week of fundraising for our bond fund! We will have a Q&A session with the editors and narrator of the forthcoming book Solito, Solita, including Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jonathan Freedman and Steven Mayers, narrator Josue, who came to the U.S. as a minor, and one person who sponsored an asylum seeker from Guatemala’s bond.

https://www.law.berkeley.edu/event/berkeley-immigration-group-solito-solita-qa-session/

https://www.facebook.com/events/376021469651612/

Seventh Binational Conference on Border Issues

BEYOND THE WALL: RESISTANCE AMONG BORDER COMMUNITIES

San Diego: Thursday Nov 15, 2018, 1pm, San Diego City College

Tijuana: Friday Nov 16, 2018, 6pm, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California

“Crossing Borders and Boundaries: Oral Histories of Youth Refugees from Central America”

Steven Mayers and Jonathan Freedman will lead panel discussions on Thursday and Friday on their upcoming book, Solito, Solita: Crossing Borders With Youth Refugees from Central America, a collection of oral histories shared by youth refugees from Central America, which is part of the Voice of Witness book series and will be published by Haymarket Books on April 2, 2019. We will be joined by Soledad Castillo and Gabriel Mendez, two narrators in the book.

“At a time in which democracies are failing, in the face of a dehumanizing and predatory system, and as we witness the fortification of the wall between Mexico and the United States, we are interested in discussing and showing the forms of resistance that have arisen from the border and transborder communities. The Trump administration generates tension that directly affects the daily life of Latina/os, especially those from Mexico and from border communities. What are the possible ways to face this new neoconservative order? From what organizational experiences have we begun to create spaces for reflection and transformative action? How do we respond to new and old forms of discrimination and denial of minorities?”

BinationalConferencia.Org

CCSF Creative Writing Program presents: Teachers Who Write, Writers Who Teach

 Wednesday, August 29, 2018 –Rosenberg 305 1:00 to 2:30 p.m.

A panel of CCSF instructors will talk about:

• Why they write,
• What they write, and
• How being a writer influences their teaching of our CCSF Creative Writing classes:
• And whatever you would like to ask!

These instructors are among those who teach Fiction (Eng. 35A/B), Poetry (Eng. 35C/D) and the Forum (Eng. 35 G/H).

Featuring:

• Jen Sullivan Brych; Steven Mayers;  Saramanda Swigart;  Jackie Davis Martin; John Isles, Poet; Jacqueline Berger, Poet; Tehmina Khan

Poet Laureate of San Francisco, Kim Shuck, Reads at City College of San Francisco

The reading will be held in the lower level of the Student Union in the City Café from 2:00-4:00 at City College of San Francisco’s main campus. City College is easily accessible by BART and numerous bus lines. Light beverages will be served. This event is free and open to the public.

On Thursday April 19th, 2018, Steven Mayers and Chante McCormick of the English Department and City College of San Francisco’s Visiting Writing Series hosted a reading and discussion with Cherokee poet Kim Shuck, current Poet Laureate of San Francisco. Shuck’s poems blend the fluidity of time and nature with scenes of modern life and urban living. Her deep roots in—and strong affection for—San Francisco give her poems vivid imagery and a quiet, yet incontestable energy. Her publications include: Rabbit Stories, a work of fiction, two collections of poems, Smuggling Cherokee, Clouds Running In and chapbook Sidewalk Ndn. Kim Shuck is also an acclaimed artisan and educator specializing in Native American themes.

This event is proudly sponsored by the City College of San Francisco’s English Department, Creative Writing Program and CCSF Concert and Lecture Series.

https://www.sfstation.com/san-francisco-poet-laureate-kim-shuck-to-read-at-city-college-of-san-francisco-e2345287

Breathe Free – A Fundraiser for Educators for Fair Consideration

Thursday, December 14^th, 2017, 9pm-midnight

Steven Mayers co-hosts this night of music, storytelling and poetry, benefiting Educators for Fair Consideration! Educators for Fair Consideration (E4FC) transforms lives and fuels broader changes. With resources and support, undocumented young people are able to get an education, pursue careers, and build a brighter future for themselves and their communities. www.e4fc.org

About the artists:

– Novelist and Creative Writing Professor Micheline Aharonian Marcom

– Attorney and writer Sara Campos

– Psychedelic cumbia and Soul of the Andes, Ajayu

– Poet and fiction writer Norman Zelaya

– Writer Rene Vaz

– Clarion Alley Band (Cumbia, Rumba, y un poco de todo de todo bajo del sol)

Salvadoran Poet Javier Zamora Reads at CCSF’s Mission Campus

Tuesday 10/24/17, 6:30-8:30PM

Mission Campus Room 106, 1125 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA

Steven Mayers organized and hosted this reading as part of CCSF’s Creative Writing Program’s Visiting Writers Series.

Poet Javier Zamora was born in the small Salvadoran coastal fishing town of La Herradura and immigrated to the United States at the age of nine, joining his parents in California. He earned a BA at the University of California-Berkeley and an MFA at New York University and is a 2016-2018 Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. Zamora’s chapbook Nueve Años Inmigrantes/Nine Immigrant Years won the 2011 Organic Weapon Arts Contest, and his first poetry collection, Unaccompanied, was released by Copper Canyon Press in September of 2017. His poetry has been featured in Best New Poets 2013 and has appeared in American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Poetry magazine, the Kenyon Review, the New Republic, and elsewhere.

Versal Magazine Release Party

Sunday, June 11th, 2017, 7-10pm

Mezrab,Veemkade 576, 1019 BL Amsterdam, Netherlands

Versal 12’s distinctive gallery-esque pages feature selected contributors from our first VERSO / season, “migrations”, alongside writers and artists from around the world.

Please join us in celebrating with an evening full of music, Versal 12 cocktails and beers, stage appearances by contributors, and most importantly, limited edition copies of Versal 12 for you to take home!

With performances and live works from: Megan M Garr, Clementine Burnley, Sahand Sahebdivani, Marly Pierre-Louis, Kate Foley, Helena Sanders, Nikki Dekker, Laura Alexander, Steve Mayers, Baha,, Görkem Yalım, Judy Kendall, DJ Antidote

Admission is free!

Voice of Witness: Say It Forward: Today’s Stories for Tomorrow’s Courage

A Post-Election Pop-Up Oral History Event with Voice of Witness

When: Thursday, Dec. 8th, 2016 | 12-6pm

Where: Voice of Witness, 849 Valencia St., San Francisco, CA 94110

Who: Bay Area educators and students (field trips welcome!) and VOW staff and advisors

In the aftermath of a difficult presidential election, Voice of Witness wants to create a space for people to come together to share stories that capture this crucial moment in history and reflect on what comes next for our communities.

For one day, we’re opening our doors to educators and their students to process their reactions, their concerns, and their hopes for the future through self-guided, informal mini-oral history interviews.

We’ll provide interview prompts as well as audio/video equipment to record the interviews. We will offer the opportunity for participants to share excerpts from their stories in a second event on January 20th—Inauguration Day. We want this to be a safe space for folks to share their experiences, so we will assist participants in making their stories anonymous if they wish.

Drop in any time between 12 and 6pm. Snacks and refreshments will be provided.

http://voiceofwitness.org/say-it-forward-todays-stories-for-tomorrows-courage/