The Poetry Center, San Francisco State University

10/07/2026

09/23/2026

Thursday, September 24th 12:30 pm to 3:00 pm at The Poetry Center on SFSU campus. The Poetry Center is excited to open the Fall season with an afternoon of poetry and conversation with Zhang Er and Leonard Scwartz.

This event is free and open to the public

We hope to see you there Gators 🐊

09/19/2026

Happy Birthday David Henderson
David Henderson (September 19, 1942 – May 14, 2026) was an American writer and poet. He was a co-founder of the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s. Henderson was an active member of New York’s Lower East Side art community for more than 40 years. His work appeared in many literary publications and anthologies, and he published four volumes of his own poetry. He is best known for his biography of rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix, which Henderson revised and expanded for a second edition that was published in 2009.

David Henderson and Ghetto Violence, 1976 at San Francisco State — The Poetry Center
David Henderson, fronting the nine-piece band Ghetto Violence, joins the musicians to sing songs composed for his play of that same name. Here, March 19, 1976, in the U.S. Bicentennial Spring, they deliver “Hail to the Chief” (“agit-rock...dedicated to the next Presidential election”) — Jimmy Carter would replace Gerald Ford, who’d pardoned Richard Nixon for his Watergate crimes, in the recurring cycle of putatively ‘democratic’ debasement. Recorded by a student television crew in Studio One, Creative Arts Building at San Francisco State University, the full-program video features a stunning solo reading by Lorenzo Thomas, as opener, with Henderson and Ghetto Violence turning out their full set of songs following Thomas’s set.


https://youtu.be/aAejYtDoNrQ?si=3eBEEgL_wMDyTmok

09/15/2026

Kim Addonizio is a SFSU graduate alumni. She's currently hosting a 2 hour class called "Five Things I've Learned About The Poem's Process". Classes are hosted live. Check out the website to get your ticket and learn more about this event! 🐊
https://myfivethings.com/class/the-poems-progress/

09/14/2026

As new federal rules push hundreds of thousands of Californians off food assistance, an East Bay nonprofit is growing produce from 10 acres wedged between a landfill, a concrete recycler and the Chevron refinery.

09/13/2026

09/13/2026