Tag: North Long Beach

Events · Feature Readings

Uptown Word Reading & Arts Series

Sarah ThursdayLeave a comment

12572979_10153964841439382_1946487265694198183_n On Sunday, February 14th, I will be living a dream. What a better way to start off a romantic Valentine’s Day than with poetry and art? Not only will I be co-featuring with two of the most love filled poets I know, Boris Ingles and Karineh Mahdessian, but it will take place in the brand new North Long Beach Public Library in the neighborhood where I spent all my teen years and first began my journey as a poet. Hosted by the lovely liz gonzález, the Uptown Word Reading & Arts Series brings authors and artists to Northtown. The reading starts at 1 pm and includes an open mic. There are also rumors of chocolate cupcakes! RSVP on Facebook

North Neighborhood Library – Long Beach Public Library
5571 Orange Ave
Long Beach, CA 90805

The event is FREE, but donations are accepted

All the Ways I Love You, Long Beach
2010s · 2014 · Poetry · Publications

All the Ways I Love You, Long Beach

Sarah ThursdayLeave a comment

Check out my poem on Cadence Collective, about my home city, Long Beach. I moved literally more than 20 times before I was ten and started my eighth school in 5th grade. I always felt out of place because we were really poor and pretty much homeless (not one of our own) for a few years. Then in 1984, we moved to Long Beach to a duplex in an alley off 7th and Junipero. It wasn’t a nicer place, but our tornado lives just blended in with the rest of my surroundings. (Which is what Child of the Alleyway is about.)

I moved to North Long Beach for middle school and high school. It felt more like a normal life than anything I’d know before then. After high school, I moved back to the South Bay area for a while, but it never felt like home. I returned to Long Beach in ’98 and have lived in almost each corner of it. It still makes sense to me. It’s diverse and messy and cultured and poor and familied and wealthy and gangster and ghetto and historic and avenued and civic and artsy and we all mix together in this beautiful stew.

All the Ways I Love You, Long Beach