This is Day One of our four-day festival! Check out the complete list of events that are part of the 10th Annual San José Poetry Festival! Our festival pass will get you into all live events and online events.

This event is free to all youth aged 19 and under and to those with a festival pass. $20 for general public and $15 for PCSJ Members. Admission may be purchased at the door.

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We want to open this year's festival with a barbershop quartet of local performance poetry legends. We are so lucky to feature Jason Bayani, Jamie DeWolf, Lorenz Mazon Dumuk and Wonder Dave. Each one of them is a headliner, comedian, poetry slam veteran, and an integral part of the Bay Area performance community.

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Jason Bayani is the author of the Northern California Book Award nominated Locus (Omnidawn Publishing 2019) and Amulet (Write Bloody Publishing 2013), and creator of the solo theater show "Locus of Control". He’s also the co-director of Kearny Street Workshop in San Francisco, the oldest multi-disciplinary Asian Pacific American arts organization in the country. jasonbayani.com

Wonder Dave is a comedian, writer and performer from Minneapolis, MN, living in California. He has toured the country performing at comedy clubs, colleges, cabarets, comic and science fiction conventions, burlesque shows, theaters, strip clubs, and bowling alleys. Wonder Dave hosts and produces Safe Words Showcase - Queer Sex Positive Comedy and SMILF - Straight Men I’d Like to Friend with producer Jonah Price, hosts Hysteria: Open Mic for Women and Queers, hosts and produces Mental Health Comedy Hour with comedian Kristee Ono, and Co-Hosts Ruckus and Rumpus Revival with Jamie DeWolf. He is a frequent commentator for acclaimed independent wrestling show Hoodslam, has been a featured storyteller on the Risk podcast, and was a producer for the podcast Nerd Rage The Great Debates. Find Wonder Dave on instagram, twitter and facebook as @teamwonderdave. teamwonderdave.com

Lorenz Mazon Dumuk is a poet, spoken word artist, and curator. He is a VONA alumni, and a MALI (Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute) alumni. His two book collections of poetry are Ay Nako: Writing Through the Struggle, and I Think in Poetry. Lorenz has curated various events such as ReWrite Open Mic, Glowing with the Moon, and the Eastridge Open Mic. His wish to create a nourishing experience at his events pushes his desire to connect communities and their people. instagram.com/lorenzdumuk/

Jamie DeWolf is a performer, filmmaker, writer, live event producer, arts educator and circus ringmaster from Oakland, CA whose films have won over 35 international awards. He’s written and performed with inmates at San Quentin Penitentiary, won “Performance of the Year” by NPR’s Snap Judgment, was voted “Best Poet” and “Best Filmmaker” from the East Bay Express, and has lead writing workshops at over 90 universities, high schools and juvenile detention facilities nation-wide, also coaching the Youth Speaks slam team two years in a row to the Brave New Voices Finals, also featured on HBO. As one of the most in demand variety show hosts in the Bay Area and beyond, he’s a regular emcee and curator for circus troupes, vaudeville showcases and music festivals across the U.S. jamiedewolf.com

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Want more poetry? Check out the rest of the San José Poetry Festival lineup.

Follow Poetry Center San José on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for announcements about other amazing South Bay poetry events happening throughout the rest of the year. Help support Poetry Center San José by becoming a member.

San José Poetry Festival 2024 is presented by Poetry Center San José and is sponsored in part by: Festival and Cultural Affairs grants from the City of San José; a grant from SVCreates, in partnership with the County of Santa Clara and the California Arts Council and also supported in part by a SVCreates National Endowment for the Arts American Rescue Plan grant; Literary Arts Emergency Fund supported by the Mellon Foundation; and with support from Anne & Mark's Art Party, and Brandenburg Family Foundation. Many thanks Four Points by Sheraton for hotel accommodations and Robertino R. Ragazza for his guidance and hospitality. We would like to acknowledge and offer our deepest gratitude to past and current venues worthy of your support: San Jose Stage, Central Park Library Santa Clara, Convergence Arts Center, SJZ Break Room, Art Boutiki, Books Inc., Caravan Lounge, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, First Unitarian Church of San José, History/San José, MACLA, Mama Kin, Recycle Bookstore, The School of Arts and Culture at Mexican Heritage Plaza, Tabard Theatre (R.I.P.), Willow Glen Public Library and Works/San José. Please support these spaces however you can. And we thank all our volunteers whose time and effort make this festival possible.