Please join us for an evening of music and poetry with Jimmy Santiago Baca, Jack Hirschman & Ronald Rosario to support the cause of the Cuban Five. Refreshments will be served.

Jimmy Santiago Baca: Born in New Mexico of Indio-Mexican descent, Jimmy Santiago Baca was raised first by his grandmother and later sent to an orphanage. A runaway at age 13, it was after Baca was sentenced to five years in a maximum security prison that he began to turn his life around: he learned to read and write and unearthed a voracious passion for poetry. During a fateful conflict with another inmate, Jimmy was shaken by the voices of Neruda and Lorca, and made a choice that would alter his destiny.

Jimmy emerged from prison a writer. Baca sent three of his poems to Denise Levertov, the poetry editor of Mother Jones. The poems were published and became part of Immigrants in Our Own Land, published in 1979, the year he was released from prison. He earned his GED later that same year. He is the winner of the Pushcart Prize, the American Book Award, the International Hispanic Heritage Award and for his memoir A Place to Stand the prestigious International Award. In 2006 he won the Cornelius P. Turner Award. The national award recognizes one GED graduate a year who has made outstanding contributions to society in education, justice, health, public service and social welfare.

Baca has devoted his post-prison life to writing and teaching others who are overcoming hardship. His themes include American Southwest barrios, addiction, injustice, education, community, love and beyond. He has conducted hundreds of writing workshops in prisons, community centers, libraries, and universities throughout the country.

In his new and first novel, A Glass of Water, Baca’s rich imagery and moving narrative of a Mexican family’s migration and experience in southern New
Mexico highlight the struggle of millions of immigrants who strive for a better life. He will be reading poems of his own as well as those of one of the Cuban Five, Antonio Guerrero.

Listen to him read a sample of his work below.

Jack Hirschman is a San Francisco poet, translator, and editor, and former poet laureate of San Francisco. His powerfully eloquent voice set the tone for political poetry in this country many years ago. Since leaving a teaching career in the ’60s, Hirschman has taken the free exchange of poetry and politics into the streets where he is, in the words of poet Luke Breit, "America’s most important living poet." He is the author of numerous books of poetry, plus some 45 translations from a half a dozen languages, as well as the editor of anthologies and journals. Among his many volumes of poetry are Endless Threshold, The Xibalba Arcane, and Lyripol. Hirschman's last book of poems is All That's Left.

Ronald Rosario has been a singer, songwriter and poet for almost 30 years. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Ronald was a student leader there in the 1980s, and he remains a committed Independentista. He studied classical guitar, as well as poetry, collaborating closely with renowned poets Angela María Dávila and Clemente Soto Vélez, one of the Nacionalista political prisoners.

Sponsored by: National Committee to Free the Cuban Five and Middle East Children's Alliance
For more information or to purchase tickets in advance: 415-821-6545 or click the button below:

Watch a sample performance by Jimmy Santiago Baca:

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