No Poetry No Peace™

Join us and a selection of poets – some local, some far flung - to explore how "poetry provides pathways for creative and cathartic human expression and peace." The No Poetry No Peace™ title comes from a collection written by Sheryl J. Bize-Boutte and her daughter Dr. Angela Boutte.

Poets' Biographies

Aileen Cassinetto is a Filipino American poet and 2021 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. The author of two poetry collections, her work has appeared in American Poets, Anthropocene, Poetry magazine, and West Trestle Review, among others. She co-edited the award-winning anthology, Dear Human at the Edge of Time: Poems on Climate Change in the United States, a companion to the congressionally-mandated Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5), and wrote the lyrics to “Wide American Earth” which premiered at Carnegie Hall in June 2023.

Lisa DeVuono is a poet living in Philadelphia. She was one of the founders of It Ain’t Pretty, a women’s writing collective that performed locally. She produced multi-media shows incorporating song, music, poetry, and dance, including Rumi in Song at the Sedgwick Theater; and Whole Heart Home, and Breaking Open Breaking Free, part of the IceHouse Tonight series in Bethlehem. She has led creativity and poetry workshops and has worked with teens in recovery and cancer patients. She wrote a peer-based curriculum Poetry as a Tool for Recovery: An Easy-to-Use Guide in Eight Sessions for facilitators working with persons living with mental health challenges. In addition to the full-length manuscript This Time Roots, Next Time Wings, her poetry has appeared in Mad Poets Review, Paterson Literary Review, and the anthology Grit Gravity & Grace: New Poems about Medicine and Healthcare. She is the author of the chapbook Poems from the Playground of Risk published by Pudding House Press and was the recipient of an honorable mention in Passaic County Community College’s annual Allen Ginsberg Contest. Recently retired, she enjoyed a career as a librarian.

Benjamin Gucciardi was born and raised in San Francisco, California. His first book, West Portal (University of Utah Press, 2021), was selected by Gabrielle Calvocoressi for the Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry and was named a finalist for the Northern California Book Award and the Julie Suk Award. He is also the author of the chapbooks Timeless Tips for Simple Sabotage (Quarterly West, 2021) and I Ask My Sister’s Ghost (DIAGRAM/New Michigan Press, 2020). His poems appear in 32 Poems, AGNI, American Poetry Review, Harvard Review, POETRY Magazine, and elsewhere, and have been featured in On Being’s Poetry Unbound, Poetry Daily, and Verse Daily. He has received the James Dickey Poetry Prize from Five Points, the Booth Prize for Unexpected Literature, the Milton Kessler Memorial Prize from Harpur Palate, the Long Story Prize from Iron Horse Literary Review, and a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg prize, as well as awards from the Sewanee Writer’s Conference, Jentel Foundation, PLAYA, and Artsmith. In addition to writing, he works with newcomer youth in Oakland, California through Soccer Without Borders, an organization he founded in 2006.

Lucille Lang Day is the author of four poetry chapbooks and seven full-length collections, including Birds of San Pancho and Other Poems of Place and Becoming an Ancestor. She has also edited Poetry and Science: Writing Our Way to Discovery, coedited Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California, and Red Indian Road West: Native American Poetry from California, and authored two children’s books and a memoir, Married at Fourteen: A True Story. Her many honors include the Blue Light Poetry Prize, two PEN Oakland – Josephine Miles Literary Awards, the Joseph Henry Jackson Award, and eleven Pushcart Prize nominations. The publisher of Scarlet Tanager Books, she lives in Oakland, California.

O'Cyrus is an award-winning author and independent book publisher, writing/publishing poetry books such as Sacred and childrens' books such as Goodbye John. In 2023, he launched his podcast Ocyrus Ink. O'Cyrus' goal is to utilize his platform to tell stories that will positively impact people's lives, help them identify their own gifts, and live in their purpose to add true value into the world. He is actively serving in the military.

Noah Warren is the author of The Complete Stories (Copper Canyon, 2021) and The Destroyer in the Glass (2016), winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets. His poems appear in The Nation, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, POETRY, The American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. A PhD candidate at UC Berkeley, he teaches at Claremont McKenna College and lives in Los Angeles.

About the Host

Award-winning author and Pushcart Prize nominee Sheryl J. Bize-Boutte is an Oakland multidisciplinary writer whose autobiographical and fictional short story collections, along with her lyrical and stunning poetry, artfully succeed in getting across deeper meanings about the politics of race and economics without breaking out of the narrative. Her writing has been variously described as “rich in vivid imagery,” “incredible,” and “great contributions to literature.” Her first novel, Betrayal on the Bayou, was published in June 2020 and a poetry collection she has written with her daughter Dr. Angela M. Boutte, titled No Poetry No Peace™, was published in August 2020 and is the namesake of the No Poetry No Peace™ series at the Mechanics Institute of San Francisco. Her in progress novel first chapter, “The Burden Keeper,” was the 2021 fiction category winner for the San Francisco Writers Conference writing contest anthology. An inaugural Oakland Poet Laureate runner-up, she is also a popular teacher, literary reader, presenter, storyteller, curator, and emcee/host for literary and poetry events.

Cancellation Policy

We reserve the right to cancel at any time and issue a full refund. If you are unable to attend this event, please email programs@milibrary.org or call 415-393-0103 by Friday, April 26, 2024, to receive a full refund less any non-refundable ticketing fees which may be applicable. All fees must be paid at the time of registration. After Friday, April 26, 2024, no refunds will be issued.