Poetry Center Kicks Off First Event of Semester

GOLDEN GATE XPRESS -- Tongo Eisen-Martin’s powerful voice captivated students and faculty Thursday Night at the poetry center’s first event of the semester. Attentive faces listened and nodded along to his expressions of life, love and frustrations against an unjust criminal justice system. “One of my goals in programming poets for the poetry center is to bring to the school what the school doesn’t have,” said Steve Dickison, director of the poetry center at SF State. “I’m not so interested in presenting people just because they’re well known. These two people are activists and are aware of what’s going on in the world at this time.” In 2015, Eisen-Martin released his book of poetry, “Someone’s Dead Already.” His poem “We Charge Genocide Again” lists the names of Black people who have been killed by police.