This Place Called Poetry

WritersCorps 15^th Anniversary Exhibition

Presented by the SFAC Gallery and WritersCorps

Dates: November 7, 2008 – January 24, 2009

Reception: Thursday, November 13, 2008, 5:30 – 7:30 pm

Location: SFAC Gallery, 401 Van Ness Ave (at McAllister), San Francisco, CA

Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 12pm – 5pm

Lead Artists:

Katharine Gin and Kjell Nordeson

Featured Poets:

Jorge Aburto, Robin Black, Antonio Caceres, Dubb, Eric Foster, Shahid Minapara, Antoinette Osborne, Indiana Pehlivanova, Sandra Pulido, Lateefah Simon, and Annie Yu.

October 20, 2008 ― What happens when poetry comes into your life? Can poems make a difference? In celebration of the 15^th anniversary of WritersCorps, the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery presents This Place Called Poetry, a multimedia exhibition about young people finding and claiming their place.

Multimedia artist Katharine Gin and sound artist Kjell Nordeson lead this installation along with 11 young San Francisco writers who developed their poetic voices in WritersCorps, a creative writing program serving urban youth. Since its inception in 1994, WritersCorps has helped more than 15,000 young people from neighborhoods throughout San Francisco improve their literacy ― and inspire them to learn.

For the past year, Gin and Nordeson worked with these 11 writers to create a bold collection of short film and audio portraits. These portraits introduce visitors to an eclectic group of San Francisco poets, diverse in their artistic visions and life experiences, but connected by their love of poetry and their belief in art’s transformative ability. Visitors can view short films, listen to audio recordings, respond to writing prompts, and even exhibit their own writing.

Sponsored locally by the San Francisco Arts Commission, WritersCorps ― with additional chapters in the Bronx and Washington, D.C. ― places professional writers into communities often underserved by the arts. WritersCorps’ in-depth programs provide rich opportunities for thousands of young people whose voices are often shut out and disenfranchised from mainstream society’s traditional media and culture.