Tongo Eisen-Martin in 2021

Tongo Eisen-Martin is an American poet and activist.[1] He is the current poet laureate of San Francisco, California.[2][3]

Biography

Tongo Eisen-Martin was born in 1980 in San Francisco, California[4] to a revolutionary mother[5] Arlene Eisen.[6][7] His parents named him after Josiah Tongogara.[8] Muralist Miranda Bergman is his godmother.[7] He has a younger brother named Biko,[6] and they both attended Meadows-Livingstone school in San Francisco as children.[9][6] He earned a bachelor's and master's degree in African-American Studies,[10] all from Columbia University[11][12] where he taught at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies,[4] creating the 2012 curriculum We Charge Genocide Again![2] He has also taught at detention centers, including San Quentin and Rikers Island.[7] He is the co-founder of Black Freighter Press.[3]

Honors and awards

Eisen-Martin's 2017 book Heaven Is All Goodbyes published by City Lights won a PEN Oakland Award,[10] the 2018 American Book Award,[4] 2018 California Book Award,[13] and 2018 National California Booksellers Association Poetry Book of the Year.[4] His 2020 title Blood on the Fog published by City Lights was named a Best Poetry Book of 2021 by Elisa Gabbert of the New York Times.[14][15]

Works

  • Someone's Dead Already. Bootstrap Press. 2015. ISBN 9780988610835
  • Heaven is All Goodbyes. City Lights. 2017. ISBN 9780872867451
  • Waiting Behind Tornados for Food. Materials. 2020.[16]
  • Blood on the Fog: Pocket Poets Series No. 62 Tongo Eisen-Martin. City Lights. 2021. ISBN 9780872868755

References

  1. ↑ Wick, Julia (12 February 2021). "Essential California: Talking San Francisco with the city's new poet laureate". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  2. 1 2 Getachew, Samuel (15 January 2021). "Tongo Eisen-Martin Selected as San Francisco's Poet Laureate". KQED. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  3. 1 2 Darden, Jenee (27 April 2021). "San Francisco Poet Laureate Tongo Eisen-Martin Wants To Give People Power Through Publishing". KALW. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Tongo Eisen-Martin". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  5. ↑ "Essential California: Talking San Francisco with the city's new poet laureate". Los Angeles Times. 2021-02-12. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
  6. 1 2 3 Goldberg, Leslie (5 Feb 1991). "Meadows Out of the Woods". The San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  7. 1 2 3 Feldberg, Sarah (19 July 2020). "Poet Tongo Eisen-Martin's view of San Francisco during pandemic and protests". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  8. ↑ "A Poet's Principles". The San Francisco Examiner. 2018-03-18. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
  9. ↑ Fancher, Lou (13 October 2021). "Blood on the Fog: Tongo Eisen-Martin's latest book of poems challenges whiteness and the status quo with a strong revolutionary practice". East Bay Express. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  10. 1 2 Li, Grace (15 January 2021). "Tongo Eisen-Martin is San Francisco's New Poet Laureate". SF Weekly. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  11. ↑ "About Tongo-Eisen Martin". Academy of American Poets. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  12. ↑ "Alumni in the News: January 25". Columbia College Today. 2021-01-25. Retrieved 2022-01-25.
  13. ↑ "Tongo Eisen-Martin, Poet - Brief but Spectacular". PBS Newshour. 13 February 2020. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  14. ↑ Gabbert, Elisa (10 December 2021). "The Best Poetry of 2021". The New York Times. The New York Times. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  15. ↑ Shein Win, Maw (26 May 2022). "Tongo Eisen-Martin has become San Francisco's premier revolutionary poet". The San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  16. ↑ Eisen-Martin, Tongo (2020-11-30). Waiting Behind Tornados For Food. Materials.


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