Blast Bones Zine Launch + Dead Poets Open Mic & Costume Contest

Inspired by horror movies and sexual awakenings, Blastbones Zine is a wailing skeleton on fire. Join us for the launch, featuring poetry sets from poets in Bakersfield and Los Angeles including Mateo Perez Lara, Shelby Pinkham, Mylo Lam, CJ Wheelan, and you! In addition to the main features, we’re having a horrific open mic! We encourage you to come dressed up as your favorite dead poet/author and read a piece from them or in their poetic style or simply come as you aren't! The winner of the best costume will receive a treat from the bookstore!

Limited copies of Blastbones Zine will be available at our bookstore! Featuring 20 contributors and the winners of the Bakersfield Poetry Contest, 2025.

Doors Open: 7:00 PM I Readings: 7:30 PM

About Blast Bones Zine

Blast Bones zine is meant to foster smut, kink, punk, horror, art. We are a collective of creatures from all over the U.S. reminding you it is okay to love yourself, love others, and fight. We believe in a Free Palestine. Fuck ICE. Write Poems. Kiss Bisexuals. We aim to be revolutionary, together, and not be afraid to face your deepest fears.

The name is also taken from a spell from Elder Scrolls Online in which a necromancer summons bodies from the ground to do their bidding. They raise the dead, set them on fire and have them rush towards their enemies to explode on impact.

About the Authors

Mylo Lam: Mylo was born in Vietnam and lives in Los Angeles. He and his family are refugees from Cambodia. Mylo’s work has been published in The Margins, Beloit Poetry Journal, Nightboat Books, and elsewhere. His multimedia work won Palette Poetry’s Brush & Lyre Prize, his poetry won Blood Orange Review's Emerging Writers Contest, and his chapbook AND NOT/AND YET was published by Quarterly West. He has a Master’s in Education from Harvard and is currently pursuing his MFA in Poetry at Randolph College.

Shelby Pinkham: is a non-binary bipolar cancer survivor. They have received fellowships from Lighthouse Writers Workshop, Brooklyn Poets, Lambda Literary, and CantoMundo. Their work can be found in Honey Literary, ctrl + V, The Offing, and elsewhere. They teach at Clovis Community College, and they are currently working on their single-subject teaching credential.

CJ Wheelan: is a writer hailing from sunny streets of Bakersfield. Writing to process and reflect on their lived experience, sincerity and objectivity are at the core of CJ’s work. Drawing inspiration from storybooks and screenplays, CJ crafts narrative landscapes that invite readers to explore new perspectives on relativity and acceptance. Through their writing, CJ hopes to connect and inspire, with the hope of sparking curiosity in the minds of others. Ultimately, CJ believes it’s best when readers are left with questions to digest. Favorite movie: “Babe: Pig in the City”

Mateo Perez Lara: (they/them/theirs) is a queer, non-binary, Latinx poet from California. They are the editor and creator of Blastbones Zine. They have a pamphlet titled Glitter Gods, showcased with Thirty West Publishing House. They have an MFA in Poetry from Randolph College. They run Blastbones Events in Bakersfield, California. They are a Tin House Summer 2024 Residency recipient. Their work has been published in The Maine Review, The Acentos Review, The Normal School, and elsewhere. Their current favorite movie is I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.

About Beyond Baroque

Beyond Baroque is one of the United States' leading independent Literary | Arts Centers and public spaces dedicated to expanding the public's knowledge of poetry, literature and art through cultural events and community interaction. Founded in 1968 as an experimental literary magazine, Beyond Baroque is based out of the original City Hall building in Venice, California. The Center offers a diverse variety of literary and arts programming including readings and workshops. The building also houses a bookstore with a large collection of new poetry books for sale.

Livestream: If you can’t join us in person the event will be livestreamed on Beyond Baroque’s YouTube channel at the scheduled time of the event. If you are tuning in this way, no ticket purchase is necessary.

If you are attending in person, ticket purchase is required. Tickets will be available at the Beyond Baroque bookstore on the day of the event, but we recommend registering in advance through Eventbrite. Masks are encouraged while inside our center. Please arrive early.

Event attendees are expected to behave in a respectful and considerate manner while in our space. Beyond Baroque reserves the right to remove individuals from our events, virtual or otherwise, if they are not respecting the space, staff, fellow attendees, or performers.