San Diego Poet Laureate 2023-2024

Jason Magabo Perez is the author of Phenomenology of Superhero (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2016), This is for the mostless (WordTech Editions, 2017), and I ask about what falls away (Kaya Press, 2024). Blending poetry, prose, performance, film/video, and oral history, Perez's body of work explores Filipino American histories, colonialism, state violence, solidarity, migration, memory, and intimacy. Perez's writing has appeared in publications such as Interim, Witness, The Feminist Wire, Faultline, The Operating System, Kalfou, Marías at Sampaguitas, The San Diego Union-Tribune, Poets.org (Academy of American Poets), and NPR's Here & Now. Perez has also written and performed three staged multimedia performance works: The Passion of El Hulk Hogancito (KULARTS, 2009); You Will Gonna Go Crazy (KULARTS, 2011); and Blue Bin Improvisations: Performing Yonie's Archive (MexiCali Biennial & Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, 2018). Recipient of a Challenge America Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Perez has been a Featured Artist at New Americans Museum, Community Scholar-in-Residence at the San Diego Public Library, and Artist-in-Residence at the Center for Art and Thought. Perez has performed at notable venues such as the National Asian American Theatre Festival, International Conference of the Philippines, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Asian Art Museum, Sunshine Brooks Theater, and La Jolla Playhouse. A VONA Writing Workshops alumnus, Perez holds an M.F.A. in Writing and Consciousness from New College of California and a dual Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies and Communication from University of California, San Diego. Perez works as Associate Professor and Director of Ethnic Studies at California State University San Marcos, Associate Editor at Ethnic Studies Review, and is a core organizer with The Digital Sala. Perez is a current Poet Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets.

Photo Credit: Alicia Lores/CSUSM

Media Coverage 

• UC San Diego Today 11/2/2023: "Power to the Poet"
• San Diego Union-Tribune 7/28/23: "San Diego's poet laureate awarded fellowship from Academy of American Poets"
• The Academy of American Poets Awards $1.1 Million to 23 Poets Laureate Across the United States
• San Diego Union-Tribune 4/16/23: "San Diego's poet laureate brings community with him, in his work"
• NPR's Here & Now 2/8/23: "San Diego’s poet laureate Jason Magabo Perez invites you to think toward the future" 
• KPBS Midday Edition 1/30/23: "San Diego’s new poet laureate sees poetry as a tool of empowerment"
• San Diego Union-Tribune 1/21/23: "San Diego has a new poet laureate..." 

Sample Works 

• "Dear Kasama" (Poets.org/Academy of American Poets) 
• "I ask about what falls away" (Poets.org/Academy of American Poets)
• "We Draft Work Songs for This City" (UC San Diego Today) 
• "Sweet Manong, Sweet Fish" (Marias at Sampaguitas)
• "Mighty Quiet" & "The Pressing Honesty of the Dead" (TLDTD Journal) 

Signature Public Project 

San Diego Poetry Futures 2024 (SDPF24) 

San Diego Poetry Futures 2024 invites local communities, educators, poets, artists, activists, and civic and nonprofit leaders to collectively envision, mobilize, and sustain collaborations in poetry and performance. SDPF24 will serve as a collaborative space for ongoing expansive poetic experimentation. Exploring poetry as a form of intergenerational community empowerment, this initiative will include various programs and projects to bridge communities. SDPF24 will host writing workshops, film screenings, craft talks, teacher trainings, and poetry readings at schools, libraries, bookstores, and other community spaces. Experimenting with poetry and performance, communities will gather to chalk poetry on sidewalks, travel together across the City for a multi-site pop-up open mic, and explore the possibilities of protest poetry. SDPF24 will culminate in an intergenerational community-responsive poetry celebration. In its commitment to social justice, SDPF24 will labor for safe, inclusive, healthy, affirming, accessible, and dignifying spaces for all families and communities. Ultimately, SDPF24 will build on past and present momentum and capacity for the many brilliant and dynamic futures of poetry and culture in San Diego.

Sponsors: City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture and Academy of American Poets

For information on upcoming collaborations and events, follow @SDPoetryFutures on Instagram.