What we’re about
Poetry Center San José's mission is to nurture and promote diverse literary expression in our community as a means of exploring, defining, and enriching the human experience.
In furtherance of our mission, we offer programs and services to stimulate passion for the literary arts and to inspire and support emerging and established writers. All programs center the literary arts, particularly poetry, without prejudice to any specific tradition. We celebrate all poetry traditions and collaborate with other organizations to co-sponsor programming in our endeavor to bring poetry to multiple communities in San José to ensure that these programs and services reflect the diversity of our community and to involve people from a wide range of backgrounds as audience and members. The majority of our programs are free, open to the public and offer aspiring poets the opportunity to share their work during the open mic segment of the event.
Every PCSJ team member follows the organization's core values and principles of service, including respect, trust, stewardship, joy in service, and excellence. Our events are safe spaces of sharing and compassion for our membership and general community.
Upcoming events (1)
See all- Beautiful Black Books with Shawn WilliamLink visible for attendees
Join Tshaka Campbell for the next installment of Beautiful Black Books with guest Shawn William!
BBB is recurring program featuring black writers in conversation followed by a Q&A. It is a vessel of exchange as we bring black writers to our communities and our communities to these writers to learn about their sources of inspiration.
Register for your Zoom link at: https://bit.ly/BBBJuly2025
Our Guest
Shawn William is a Grammy-nominated spoken word artist, published author, storyteller, and proud father hailing from Oakland, California. With over 20 years of dedication to his craft, his dynamic writing and captivating performances have taken him to iconic stages such as the Apollo Theater, Radio City Music Hall, and the Essence Festival. His work has been featured on The Arsenio Hall Show and Verses and Flow, and he was honored as one of only five artists selected for a prestigious residency at The Kennedy Center.Shawn William’s book, Tall, Dark and Healing is available at writeaboutnowpoetry.com/shawn.
Santa Clara County Poet Laureate Emeritus Tshaka Campbell has authored four books of poetry and is an internationally recognized artist and performer. He has won grand slam championships in a number of cities across the US. He will publish his next poetry collection, Blood at the Root, with @elmartillopress He currently resides in San José and continues to ask the world to listen different
