Being named a Poet Laureate is among the highest honors a poet can achieve. The San Francisco Bay Area is fortunate to be the home of numerous Black poet laureates. In this celebratory reading, AfroSolo, in collaboration with the African American Center, proudly features San Francisco’s 8th and current Poet Laureate, Tongo Eisen-Martin, San Francisco’s 3rd Poet Laureate, devorah major and Oakland’s first Poet Laureate, Dr. Ayodele "WordSlanger" Nzinga. We highlight these artists in our ongoing endeavor to champion artists who give voice to the human spirit that reigns within us all.

Featuring: Tongo Eisen-Martin is the author of poetry collections Someone’s Dead Already, Heaven Is All Goodbyes, Waiting Behind Tornados for Food, Blood on the Fog and the curriculum on extrajudicial killing of Black people, We Charge Genocide Again. He co-founded the Black radical publishing group Black Freighter Press. He is San Francisco’s 8th poet laureate.