Spotlight On: San Diego

Spotlight On: San Diego
From Poets & Writers Focus on California Volume IV, Number 2, Spring 2000

An occasional feature of Focus on California, the Spotlight highlights literary activity occurring in different regions of the state. The last Spotlight focused on the North Coast. Future articles will include the Central Valley and the Sierra foothills as well as themes such as cowboy and performance poetry.

In the greater San Diego region a vibrant literary scene has flourished by drawing on the aesthetic of the border while also reaching beyond the confines of the region to interact with literary artists from New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Bilingual literary presenting and publishing has grown considerably, as has a multiethnic audience hungry for the kind of language which reflects their own backgrounds and culture. The annual Border Voices Poetry Project festival presents a focal point for much of this activity, as does the work of the literary presenters in the region. Brent Beltrán, a presenter and publisher (along with his wife, Consuelo Manríquez de Beltrán) of Calaca Press says, "I think that geography does intersect with culture, specifically here in San Diego but also in other cities that have a large Chicano population. Being close to the border has an enormous effect on what we are doing as a press and as a literary presenter."

"Artists on the Cutting Edge: Cross Fertilizations" at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, is perhaps the most high-profile series in the region. Curated by noted poet and teacher Quincy Troupe and now in its eighth season, the annual series of spring events meld literature and music in an artistic conversation that exemplifies the best of a multicultural approach to programming. During this season, for instance, the African-American vocal duo of Vincent Henry and Stephanie McKay is joined with Indian-American novelist Bharati Mukherjee and Japanese-American poet Lawson Inada. Mr. Troupe's catholic tastes often result in surprising juxtapositions (distinguished fiction writer Grace Paley with the San Diego performance poet group the Taco Shop Poets, Nobel-winning poet Derek Walcott with novelist Mona Simpson) and an exciting new vision of how different disciplines speak to and through one another. "We've had so many memorable performances," notes former series administrator Jennifer Yancy. "Toni Morrison and Max Roach together onstage was certainly memorable, and we had a fabulous evening with Amiri Baraka and Gwendolyn Brooks, who performed separately but perfectly complemented each other." The events usually sell out the Museum's 500 seat auditorium, attesting to the popularity of the varied performers with the region's audiences.

Local colleges and universities also play a large part in the literary life of the San Diego community, with San Diego State University, UC San Diego, Southwestern College, and Point Loma Nazarene University all sponsoring literary events. These series present local writers as well as bring writers in from other parts of the state and country. Dean Nelson, who organizes the Writer's Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma, sees the schools as central to the writing community, but adds, "Keep in mind that I work at one of them!" The yearly Writer's Symposium hosts workshops, lectures and readings about the craft and commerce of writing; this year's conference featured a special appearance by Paris Review editor George Plimpton. Nelson's goal as a literary presenter is to "Offer a place where dialogue about writing can occur, to show writers and students (sometimes the same people) that good writing still matters, that storytelling still matters, and that it's harder than it looks."

Smaller presenters can also attract large audiences in the San Diego area. The Porter Troupe Gallery, directed by Margaret Porter Troupe, presents occasional literary events in a gallery setting, once again emphasizing the connections between different arts disciplines. A large number of open-mic nights, café readings, and bookstore events can be found around the city; many small writing groups have sprung up since the summer 1998 demise of The Writing Center, an important literary center offering workshops and a meeting place for writers. Calaca Press's Beltrán says that while they've only produced "three or four" events in their two years as publishers, each event has attracted well over 100 people, and more events are in the works.

Beltrán considers himself a Chicano presenter, and the San Diego region's proximity to both Mexico and Los Angeles's large Latino population informs the publishing and presenting of Calaca. "Being so close to the border and being of Mexican descent is very important to us. That does not mean that people from other ethnic backgrounds don't attend our events-as a matter of fact our crowds are multiethnic people who love poetry," states Beltrán. "Many people who are not bilingual come to our events because they know that there are a lot of outstanding poets in our community." A few of those poets have joined together to form the Taco Shop Poets, whose mission statement reads in part, "We are a group that realizes our community's intangible treasures can be explored through all of the arts." As a recent San Diego Union-Tribune article about the group of six Latino performers put it, the Poets use "prose, poetry, and musical accompaniment [to] explore the 'border dweller' experience." In 1994, founding members Miguel Angel-Soria and Adolfo Guzman-Lopez began reading their poetry in taco shops, a way to bring their work into community spaces away from the usual poetry venues. Since then, the group has performed hundreds of times and added and lost members. The Taco Shop Poets now stand at a core of four writers, including its two founders along with Adrian Arancibia and Tomás Riley, and two musicians, Michael Figgins and Kevin P. Green.

While none of the presenters we spoke with saw a unified "San Diego aesthetic," it's clear that the divergent literary arts community in San Diego shares certain traits including a desire to explore different cultures and a willingness to juxtapose unfamiliar elements. "San Diego is a relatively new, spread out city that's both connected and divided by freeways and canyons," says Ralph Lewin, Associate Director of the California Council for the Humanities and long-time San Diego resident. "Not many people know about the literary history of the city, but there are wonderful writers in San Diego, and lots of different projects for them to participate in. The city hasn't yet found a collective identity."

"Artists on the Cutting Edge"
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego
700 Prospect Street
La Jolla, CA 92037
(619) 454-3541

Writer's Symposium by the Sea
Point Loma Nazarene University
3900 Lomaland Drive
San Diego, CA 92106
(619) 849-2592

Porter Troupe Gallery
301 Spruce Street
San Diego, CA 92103
(619) 291-9096

Calaca Press
P.O. Box 620786
San Diego, CA 92162
calacapress@home.com

Taco Shop Poets
(619) 500-2634