What does it take to establish a sustained career as a writer, poet or visual artist?
Brown, Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) form 60% of the San Francisco Bay Area’s population, but they remain overlooked.
To support them, writer, editor and visual artist Shizue Seigel established Write Now! S.F. Bay in 2015 to build multicultural solidarity through affordable creative writing workshops, events and anthologies for people of color. She received a Jefferson Award in 2021 for her work.
For “Uncommon Ground: BIPOC Journeys to Creative Activism,” her fifth anthology. Seigel invited 22 well-established writers, poets, and visual artists, aged 35-78, to describe their artist journeys through prose, poetry and visual art.
Contributors included three poets laureate: Kimi Sugioka (Alameda), Kim Shuck (emerita, San Francisco) and Rafael Jesus Gonzalez (Berkeley). Asian American contributors included artist/production manager C.K. Itamura, visual artist Sama Arastu, poet/educator Tehmina Khan, poet/physician Sriram Shamasunder, visual artist/educator Elizabeth Travelslight, and muralists Twin Walls Mural Company.
More info: https://www.writenowsf.com/uncommon-ground
Seigel’s other projects have included “Getting Real about Race,” an anti-racism workshop series with Kim Shuck; “Essential Truths; Bay Area Artists in Color,” a well-received BIPOC art exhibition at Pacifica’s Sanchez Art Center; “Talking to Strangers,” an ongoing street outreach project; and her in-progress family saga “The Tiger and the Cliff” (see it on YouTube here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H-bw6KnWRk).
She was published in traci kato-kiriyama’s Discover Nikkei poetry column (www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2022/5/19/nikkei-uncovered-66/) and has upcoming presentations at Lit Crawl, the “Redefining Crazy” mental health conference, and more.
Seigel (shizueseigel.com) is a third-generation Japanese American writer. Her work is informed by life experiences in segregated Baltimore, occupied Japan, skid rows, and sharecropping camps; corporate advertising; and needle exhanges.
A VONA/Voices fellow, she has helped tell community stories for over 25 years, working with public housing residents, the unhoused, formerly incarcerated Japanese Americans, and emerging and established BIPOC writers and artists.
Her other books include “In Good Conscience: Supporting Japanese Americans During the Internment,” “My First Hundred Years: The Memoirs of Nellie Nakamura,” and five Write Now! anthologies. Her papers are archived at the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives, UC Santa Barbara.
“At the heart of Shizue’s work is a deep commitment to creating communities of truth-telling, liberation, and connection. She is tireless in creating spaces where creativity and connection can be nurtured and supported.” — Sandra Bass, Ph.D., UC Berkeley associate dean of students and executive director of the Public Service Center
Write Now! S.F. Bay (www.writenowsf.com) builds multicultural solidarity though writing workshops, readings, exhibitions, and publication opportunities for writers and artists of color, bringing together established and emerging writers/artists across race, class, age, and other barriers.
The diversity of its work reflects the complex realities of local people of color. Over 500 writers and artists have participated in Write Now!’s programs through the San Francisco Public Library, community partners, and independent bookstores.
Write Now! anthologies include:
“Essential Truths: The Bay Area in Color” (2021), with 130 contributors reflecting the vitality of Bay Area communities of color.
“Civil Liberties United” (2019), including poetry, essays, street murals and art of 100 writers of color reflecting on the vital necessity of civil liberties for all.
“Endangered Species, Enduring Values” (2018), featuring 70 writers and artists of color with dynamic prose, poetry and artwork reflecting heritage and spirituality.
“Standing Strong! Fillmore and Japantown” (2016), celebrating the enduring spirit of African American and Japanese American communities in San Francisco’s Western Addition.