Small Press Traffic

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Small Press Traffic We are a Bay Area seedbed for poets who push boundaries in the arts. We publish The Back Room✺. Small Press Traffic is proudly a W.A.G.E. certified organization.

HISTORY
Small Press Traffic is a Bay Area seedbed for poets who push boundaries in the arts. We present programs, publications, and curatorial opportunities with an ethos of radical inclusivity. Committed to this mission since 1974, we highlight diverse, multidisciplinary, and intergenerational practitioners in our public programs, and prioritize equity, accessibility, and collaboration in our working model. SPT also stewards an archive of small press material produced and circulated in the Bay Area over the last half century. VALUES
Small Press Traffic is committed to self-determination, accountability, accessibility, and racial equity. We defend movements on the ground in resistance to violences inflicted upon those, nationally and globally, who face historic and ongoing oppression. We stand in solidarity with movements led by and for these groups. We prioritize people over production, appreciating the slow work of ground-setting, and movement building in collaborative efforts with partnering organizations, community groups, and individuals. We resist functioning in the hamster wheel of business with no time, space, or capacity for engaging in conversation, having time to think, strategize, and process. In our exchanges and general practices we emphasize a commitment to alternative conflict-resolution, empathy, and care. As an arts nonprofit, we have no illusion that the system in which we operate is perfect or emancipatory. We look for the places of possibility within it, thinking experimentally about what we do and how we work. We encourage others to imagine new ways of working and living that both get their needs met and offer something other than total dependence on validation and support from these systems. We value interpersonal connection, interrogate our own internalized biases, and empower poets to flourish as artists in their practice, as people in the world, and as participants in a network of reciprocity with others. LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Small Press Traffic is based in the Bay Area, on the unceded land of the Ohlone people. The majority of our programs take place in Yelamu, San Francisco, land of the Ramaytush Ohlone people, as well as Huichin, the East Bay, of the Chochenyo-speaking Lisjan Ohlone people. We acknowledge those who have stewarded this land for thousands of years β€” in the face of systemic violence and forced displacement β€” who continue to resist and protect their traditions today.

Opening the Sugar Bag: A Poets Theater Workshop with Lindsey Boldt & Steve OrthOct 17, 1-4PM, $15-30 NOTAFLOFIn preparat...
10/01/2026

Opening the Sugar Bag: A Poets Theater Workshop with Lindsey Boldt & Steve Orth

Oct 17, 1-4PM, $15-30 NOTAFLOF

In preparation for the 2027 Small Press Traffic Poets Theater Festival, we invite you to a generative Poets Theater Workshop. Discover the joys and mayhem of acting in and writing your own Poets Theater performance. In this workshop, San Francisco Poets Theater veterans Lindsey Boldt and Steve Orth will offer a brief background of the art form, guide you in casting, rehearsing, and performing a short Poets Theater play, brainstorming, and writing your very own performance text.

We encourage pairs and groups of friends to sign up with the intention of writing collaboratively. Solo writers are also welcome! No previous experience required.

πŸ”— Link in bio to register

Join us to honor Red Jordan Arobateau (1943–2021) β€” writer, artist, activist, and crucial yet undersung figure in San Fr...
09/29/2026

Join us to honor Red Jordan Arobateau (1943–2021) β€” writer, artist, activist, and crucial yet undersung figure in San Francisco trans q***r cultures. Red worked extensively across mediums and genres, producing a voluminous body of work: life-writing, q***r erotica, and portrait paintings reflecting his life centered in the Tenderloin.

We gather in celebration of Time Also Will Make It Interesting: Selected Journals (), edited by poet and scholar Cameron Awkward-Rich, who will be joined by Sam Mireles, Diana Cage, and poets Bee Morris and Elias Gonzalez.

SPT will have facsimile copies of Red’s self-published work on hand to view. Books will be for sale, and you are invited to bring flowers and offerings for an altar envisioned by Sam Mireles.

🎨 by Red Jordan Arobateau
πŸ“ Et al. Gallery, San Francisco
πŸ”— Link in bio to register

OMENS 4 _ Snowflake Arizmendi-Calvert on π–œπ–Žπ–‘π–‰π–“π–Šπ–˜π–˜ 𝖆𝖓𝖉 π–™π–π–Š π–‹π–Žπ–ˆπ–™π–Žπ–”π–“π–˜ 𝖔𝖋 π–ˆπ–”π–‘π–”π–“π–Žπ–†π–‘ π–˜π–žπ–˜π–™π–Šπ–’π–˜β€œThe body that refuses to be bound...
06/12/2026

OMENS 4 _ Snowflake Arizmendi-Calvert on π–œπ–Žπ–‘π–‰π–“π–Šπ–˜π–˜ 𝖆𝖓𝖉 π–™π–π–Š π–‹π–Žπ–ˆπ–™π–Žπ–”π–“π–˜ 𝖔𝖋 π–ˆπ–”π–‘π–”π–“π–Žπ–†π–‘ π–˜π–žπ–˜π–™π–Šπ–’π–˜

β€œThe body that refuses to be bound has always been a threat.

In Chiapas, my TΓ­a remembers a Tzotzil man, who had never left his ancestral territory, taking a trip to the capital city, Tuxtla-Gutierrez. He was curious. He wore little clothing and only spoke Tzotzil. Most of Chiapas is a tropical rainforest and wearing little clothing is normal to stand the humid heat. He was arrested immediately for the crime of being β€˜wild’ in the city. Not wild in behaviour but for being Indigenous, both in appearance and in traditional living. Wild because he lived outside of the colonial way of living.”

Small Press Traffic x YBCA commissioned new work written in response to P.Staff’s The Prince of Homburg

image courtesy of Commonwealth and Council

OMENS 3 _ Mara Hassan on π–šπ–‘π–™π–—π–†π–˜π–”π–šπ–“π–‰, π–˜π–”π–“π–”π–Œπ–—π–†π–’, 𝖆𝖓𝖉 π–™π–—π–†π–“π–˜ π–‹π–—π–Šπ––π–šπ–Šπ–“π–ˆπ–Žπ–Šπ–˜ 𝖔𝖋 π–‰π–Šπ–˜π–Žπ–—π–Šβ€œI’ve witnessed, with little understanding...
06/11/2026

OMENS 3 _ Mara Hassan on π–šπ–‘π–™π–—π–†π–˜π–”π–šπ–“π–‰, π–˜π–”π–“π–”π–Œπ–—π–†π–’, 𝖆𝖓𝖉 π–™π–—π–†π–“π–˜ π–‹π–—π–Šπ––π–šπ–Šπ–“π–ˆπ–Žπ–Šπ–˜ 𝖔𝖋 π–‰π–Šπ–˜π–Žπ–—π–Š

β€œI’ve witnessed, with little understanding and empathy, the great lengths men have gone to turn my flesh into territory; and I’ve felt, with all those accompanying symptoms, this body’s chronic summons to appear again and again without fault; and those reflexes towards danger that have often left my muscles sore in confusion are equally reminders that I have yet to lose this body, and that my nature can still hear my heart.”

Small Press Traffic x YBCA commissioned new work written in response to P.Staff’s The Prince of Homburg

image courtesy of Commonwealth and Council

OMENS 2 _ willow wilderness hour on π–˜π–‘π–Šπ–Šπ–• π–‹π–†π–“π–™π–†π–˜π–Žπ–Šπ–˜β€œYou were smoothing the skin back behind my eyes. We were in the hous...
06/10/2026

OMENS 2 _ willow wilderness hour on π–˜π–‘π–Šπ–Šπ–• π–‹π–†π–“π–™π–†π–˜π–Žπ–Šπ–˜

β€œYou were smoothing the skin back behind my eyes. We were in the house in Maryland. You said: we usually find what we are searching for in this life. So I had to be careful about what I looked at. My fantasy of a lover was the fantasy of a hundred years sleep.”

Small Press Traffic x YBCA commissioned new work written in response to P.Staff’s The Prince of Homburg

image courtesy of Commonwealth and Council

OMENS 1 _ Marcel Pardo Ariza on π––π–šπ–Šπ–Šπ–— 𝖆𝖓𝖉 π–™π–—π–†π–“π–˜ π–™π–”π–Œπ–Šπ–™π–π–Šπ–—π–“π–Šπ–˜π–˜β€œRemember when we couldn’t go out during the pandemic? I tho...
06/09/2026

OMENS 1 _ Marcel Pardo Ariza on π––π–šπ–Šπ–Šπ–— 𝖆𝖓𝖉 π–™π–—π–†π–“π–˜ π–™π–”π–Œπ–Šπ–™π–π–Šπ–—π–“π–Šπ–˜π–˜

β€œRemember when we couldn’t go out during the pandemic? I thought that was it. I had so much energy that I started running for the first time. Me and my roommate Juan would drive to Golden Gate Park and run like our lives depended on it. Then I saw the girlies from the club running too. We had found another outlet. Music playing, sweating, wearing sunglasses. A different type of dancing in plain sight.”

Small Press Traffic x YBCA commissioned new work written in response to P.Staff’s The Prince of Homburg

image courtesy of Commonwealth and Council

YBCA x Small Press Traffic’s summer folio OMENS is live today ✨ Visit The Back Room to read commissioned work by Marcel ...
06/08/2026

YBCA x Small Press Traffic’s summer folio OMENS is live today ✨ Visit The Back Room to read commissioned work by Marcel Pardo Ariza, willow wilderness hour, Mara Hassan, and Snowflake Arizmendi-Calvert with an introduction by Jeanne Gerrity, Christa Cesario, and Maxe Crandall

Last night, writers Marcel Pardo Ariza, willow wilderness hour, Snowflake Arizmendi-Calvert, and Mara Hassan read commis...
06/04/2026

Last night, writers Marcel Pardo Ariza, willow wilderness hour, Snowflake Arizmendi-Calvert, and Mara Hassan read commissioned work inspired by P. Staff’s film The Prince of Homburg. The authors performed inside the film installation for an immersive experience.

Next week, SPT will publish their work in a summer folio for The Back Room! Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate these writers and to the YBCA staff for making this collaboration possible.

Small Press Traffic is a 2026 general operating grant recipient of the Literary Arts Fund. We are honored to be recogniz...
06/04/2026

Small Press Traffic is a 2026 general operating grant recipient of the Literary Arts Fund. We are honored to be recognized alongside the extraordinary first cohort of awardees. Thank you !

Snapshots from MOVING AND WRITING, a workshop with David Buuck and Abby Crain presented in collaboration with Winslow Ho...
06/03/2026

Snapshots from MOVING AND WRITING, a workshop with David Buuck and Abby Crain presented in collaboration with Winslow House Project ( )

Fifteen writers, artists, and dancers moved through sensory, kinesthetic, and imaginative prompts β€” indoors and on the grounds of this historic landmark in Vallejo β€” with a catered lunch and group performances to close. We love when poets and dancers dream / work / warp together

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