10 March 2010
New Poem Song Project
by Stellar Cassidy
Nick and I are working on a group collaboration and we need your help. We are putting together a song where the lyrics are a combination of everyone's words. We want as many voices as possible, so when you can, a line or stanza etc. can be given to either Stellar or Nick for the project. Some people have already submitted via text messaging or paper, but we need more! The sooner we can put it all together the sooner we can perform it and give credit where it's due.
26 January 2010
LitQuake 2009
by Fog Dance
16th & Mission poets at Muddy Waters coffee shop during LitQuake's 2009 Lit Crawl:
23 January 2010
16th&MissionersCaughtInLightningField
by M.G. Martin
Nicole Alea, Tess Patalano & m.g. martin need yr help. the trio are entangled in a galvinized electrical storm. on monday the 25th of january year 2010, the three will be sore in the rear from making like fireflies at gestalt. s.o.s. them, please.
what: quiet lightning reading when: monday january 25th where: gestalt haus (3159 16th st. btwn guerrero & valencia)
more information: Quiet Lightning.
so, fire up yr oscilloscopes & track the electric gold.
22 December 2009
she said, "shells"
by Nicole Alea
i had to stand on phone books,
to make my knees less bent
so god could hear my broken throat
etching out whispers of one thought
of self hatred to the next.
and i had to stand on tombstones
to retrace the words i had
carved down my arms,
and sometimes
it spelled out: self discovery
through bleeding,
and sometimes
it spelled out: ask questions loudly
because the answers you might receive
could restore thoughts of dysmorphia about your body.

once, i caught her screaming
under bath water,
fossilized sap crystals
mending her dull disorders,
what do you like about your body?
her body,
your body,
i said,
“what do you like about your body?”
she said,
“i like
my collar
where the necklace with the painting of
dos 		lunas magníficas
hangs on silver cord,
it hangs between my breasts”.
she said
she likes her breasts
in the light cast off acrylic moon shadow.

she said,
“i like
the arc of my back
when the sky pulls
like gravity’s mating call
around zodiac themed poetry,
i see the stars line up
and blind my blinking,
i like my bones of severed wings,
i like the view of earth when it pulls me.”

she said,
“i like
the thickness of thighs
and i’d breathe shoulder wide
just to keep you.
my only weapon is to shower you
with rose water
and let it drip off the
vibrations of your vocal cords,
let me show you
what i like about my body,
what i like about
your body
and my body,
let me show you”.

she said,
“i’ve stared at my body,
smashed mirrors to distort 		me,
got no time left for vanity
when i hated me,
and i hated my coffin
and i hated my anatomy
and what did i even like about my body?
because i hated curves and folds of skin
can’t say i liked it
when i let razor cuts
be road maps for growing,

can’t say i liked me.”

and she said,
“what are shells?
but to protect the one thing we’re good for,
i like my body
because it’s the shell of my soul,
it balances itself out perfectly
because of its natural geometry.”

“you ain’t bound to your body,”
she said,
“you ain’t bound to the breaths
of light sparking from your fingertips,
you ain’t bound to your shell,

but you’re bound to your soul.”

she said, “souls, not your shell,”
she said, “souls, not your shell,”
she said, “shells.”
10 December 2009
Poetry Mission @ Viracocha
by J. Brandon Loberg
Mr. Jonathan Siegel informs me that, due to ongoing construction in the back room of Dalva, tonight's Poetry Mission (at 7:00) has been moved to Viracocha, his awesome new space at the corner of 21st & Valencia.

Tonight's featured poet is M.K. Chavez.
27 November 2009
peripheral breathing
by Nicole Alea
peripheral breathing
pəˈrɪfərəl briðɪŋ

i know my body with brush strokes.
i know when my heat be rising.

i know the woman who constructed the moon with two hands,
with two hands she let
enough crescent nails stain her body
with blunt scabs and silver tattoos
that flood up the strength of her neck
and pooled together into phases of eclipses with no meaning.

now she speak in quiet muscles
lifting up tragedies out of concrete cemeteries
and the granite projection of wordless
poured onto this cursive
born out of carbon and opium,
she’s important
like the circumference
of the earth in one heart step,
she is.

sometimes,
she string yards 		of lanterns
across the hallway of lit match sticks
burning down six week old candles
and i’d carve out her biography
into the red wick wax
and then one into her back
so she’d never have to see it,
but inevitably have to feel it.

i know when she liberate wind children from her slant jaw.
i know when cold iris blink from the root of their birthstone.

i taught her to speak to me in perfect tongues
where the petals
preserving imagination
paint their stain glass wings themselves
and themselves i call to her
like a voice in the subconscious
of the universe peeling back layers
of dialect changes,
like a wish for things.

she move rhythmic body to the energy
of flames she been feeding
and unzipped her hips
like the burden 		from her blessing
would spill out from within them
and she would choke on cracked bottles of
surgical needles
and they would take her
unlike a lover
in this framed nighttime
spinning clockwise
like some kaleidoscope deity
patching together each sacred palm
blooming with road maps of soul luck
and swelling of infinity,
so she be quiet.
so she keep silent.
so she let all the secrets
float gracefully
‘til they settle in the
inbetweens,
‘til i can settle with
i is she.

i know she who has a photograph of heaven tattooed on the inside of her eyelids.
i know she who spells beauty with an L for life.
i know she who be daughter of dawn bringer.
i know she who breathes.


word.
17 November 2009
Justin Scales @ The Purple Onion
by J. Brandon Loberg
This Thursday at 8pm, head over to The Purple Onion in North Beach for a raucous evening of comedy with The Scalesman!

If you've been to 16th & Mission, you've definitely seen Scales—his loud, veins-popping, one-normal-eye-and-one-excited-eye style of "hanging ornaments of interestingness on Christmas trees of truth" is an in-your-face salvo that will leave you belly laughing until it hurts, and perhaps feeling a tad guilty for doing so. Definitely don't miss this one.

Thurs. Nov. 19th @ 8pm
The Purple Onion
140 Columbus Ave.
$10
13 October 2009
Monica Storss Benefit TONIGHT!
by J. Brandon Loberg
Come out to Amnesia (19th & Valencia) TONIGHT at 7pm and check out performances from:
Monica Storss
Ginger Murray
Amy Cruz
Pam Benjamin
Dan Lichtenberg
Jonathon Siegel
Tess Patalano
m.g. martin
and music from The Ferocious Few

Most importantly,

this show is in support of our good friend and fellow artist Monica Storss. Monica is battling a serious autoimmune disorder for which she must undergo chemotherapy treatment, however, as one of many of us forced to live without health insurance, she is unable to afford the exorbitant price of the drugs. We're doing what we can to help scrape together some cash for Monica to afford these treatments.

Tonight's event will feature a silent auction, and we have some great items on the block, including two batches of handcrafted beer, a complete box set of The 16th & Mission Review, a customizable dinner party...even a date!

Please show up and help Monica through this difficult time.
6 October 2009
More photos, and props from SFGate
by J. Brandon Loberg
There's a great photo series from Michele Rider recapping several recent nights at the Corner, at Amnesia, and the Make-Out Room. Thanks Michele!

i stumbled upon these while checking out People Meter: Street-corner poetry slam by Trey Bundy at SFGate, which features a few words from some people you might recognise...
24 September 2009
SFGate: 11 Things
by J. Brandon Loberg
In a rather snide but nonetheless amusing commentary from SFGate's 11 Things on "...the city's most colorful open mike every Thursday..." you're encouraged to "Make it a date," and "Don't wear white on Labor Day either," among other dubiously useful advice. This piece showed up in August, while we were on vacation from the internet. Read more »
21 September 2009
...and we're back!
by J. Brandon Loberg
At long last, we're back up and running. Here's what happened: our previous webhost crashed during a server migration, and lost not only all of our content, but also backups, etc. We found another webhost (thanks, Eddie!), and i just rebuilt the back-end databases, so we're good to go.

Sometime in the near future

i'm planning on re-designing the site to better handle the kind of content we ought to have—video, photos, etc. With all of the camera flashes i see any given Thursday, there's no reason it isn't easier to upload that kind of thing to the site easily.

Note: Those of you who had accounts on this site before it

went down, your usernames/passwords should still work. If they don't, or if you would like an account, email me, and i'll set one up for you. Also, if you have any suggestions for features you'd like to see in the next version of the site, i'm all ears.

Thanks for your patience, everybody.
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