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BIPOC Reading Series – August
This monthly reading series is intended to prioritize the safety, creativity, and stories of Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Color.
Come listen to our featured readers, or sign up to share your work in our open mic. Readings will be followed by a short community discussion. Hosted by Kyle Yoshioka and Jessica Meza-Torres. The featured reader for August is Abel Valladares Flores.
This event is open to everyone, but only people who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color will be invited to read. If you have any questions, please contact Jessica Meza-Torres at jmezatorres24@gmail.com or Kyle Yoshioka at kyle.yoshioka@gmail.com.
Jessica Meza-Torres
Kyle Yoshioka
Kyle Yoshioka thinks and writes a lot about belonging. He is the founder and editorial director of Provecho, a publication about the intersection of food and identity, and co-hosts the BIPOC Reading Series at Literary Arts. His writing projects have been supported by the Independent Publishing Resource Center, the McCormack Writing Center Workshop (formerly the Tin House Workshop), and the Andy Warhol Foundation's Precipice Fund. Kyle is working on his debut novel about a multigenerational Japanese American family that explores whether inheritance is destiny.
Abel Valladares Flores
Abel Valladares Flores was born in Queretaro Mexico, raised in Salem Oregon and embraced by Portland Oregon. Abel is an activist, artist, story teller, poet, brother, friend, student and amateur gardener. He writes about flowers, parties, love, and the pain that we get used to living with. His literary interests are magical realism, speculative fiction, unreadable poetry, docu-poetry and comics.

