This edition of POETRY MATTERS – Thursday December 17th at STAY GALLERY- will feature Downey’s own Trista Dominqu and the launch of her new book “So Cali.”
Trista Dominqu was born and raised in Southern California. Her work is influenced by her mixed ancestry and working class roots. She learned to weave stories into poetry from conversations while sitting in a rocking chair with her grandmother.
Sarah Thursday, founder of Cadence Collective and Co-host of the Second Mondays Poetry Party, says “Trista Dominqu’s collection, So Cali, reads like a family photo album … with childhood moments of trolley rides, anthills, avocados, pool dives, and June bugs. It zooms out to a working class neighborhood, with baseball caps and flannels, young mothers and gutter kids, local libraries and Spanish teachers, and sons with protective mothers. … You will close these pages with images so tangible, vibrant, and immediate, you will confuse them with memories of your own.”
Dominqu’s first book, “The Beauty of Muttliness,” debuted in 2013 at Poetry Matters. She has also performed at such venues as the La Puente art walk, Poetry Palooza and the Green Salon. Her work has appeared in Full of Crow and Cadence Collective online poetry magazines, and multiple anthologies by Cadence Collective, Lummox Press and Lucid Moose Lit.
Poetry Matters also features an open mike. We welcome first-time readers and everyone else with a poem to share. Doors open at 7 p.m. The open mike begins at 7:30. Poetry Matters is free and open to the public.
Curated by Lorine Parks.
Stay Gallery is located at 11140 Downey Ave in Downey.