Join us for an excellent Uptown Fridays featuring readings by Norma Smith and Sofia Lopez, with musical guest Pitta of the Mind featuring Maw Shein Win and Amanda Chaudary. Emceed and curated by Reńe Vaz.
Suggested donations of $5-25 collected at the door, but no one turned away for lack of funds.
Red wine and Red Bay coffee will be available.
Information about the performers:
Norma Smith was born in Detroit, grew up in Fresno, and has lived in Oakland since the late 1960s. She worked in hospitals for more than 40 years. She has also worked as a journalist, a translator, an educator, and as an editor and writing coach. Her writing has been published in literary, political, and academic journals. Norma was the founder and Executive Director of The Edge of Each Other’s Battles Project (2004-2012), which brought together social justice-oriented academics and community-based projects to work toward social change.
Sofia Lopez was born and raised in Puerto Rico. She received her BA in English from Cornell University and her MFA from San Francisco State University. She received the Leo Litwak Award in 2016 and was nominated for a Pushcard by Red Bridge Press. She subsists on a diet of wine, toaster waffles, and books.
Pitta of the Mind is the duo of
Amanda Chaudhary and Maw Shein Win, combining poetry with abstract electronic music. Their highly theatrical performances each center around a theme that is explored via text, sound and visuals.
Amanda Chaudhary is a composer and performer specializing in contemporary and electronic music; a jazz keyboardist, and visual/sound artist. She performs regularly around the Bay Area and beyond, both solo and with various bands and ensembles. Her solo work involves experimenting with innovative sounds via analog synthesis and custom software with computers and mobile devices for new modes of expressive musical performance. She often incorporates folk and toy instruments from around the world, along with jazz, dance music and other idiomatic styles into her visually captivating performances.
Maw Shein Win often collaborates with visual artists and musicians, and her latest poetry chapbook, Ruins of a glittering palace, with paintings by Mark Dutcher, was published by SPA/Commonwealth Projects. She is currently a poetry editor for Rivet: The Journal of Writing that Risks for Red Bridge Press, a freelancer at the San Francisco Writers' Grotto, and a co-publisher for Stretcher.