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exquisites 💫

@exquisitesbay

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queer poetry series
sibling to @exquisitesbk ✨🍉
readings on hiatus till spring 2027

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We can't imagine a better way to welcome the Autumn Equinox than with queers in a garden. Come here some poems Sun Sept 20th @bancroftcommunitygarden 11-1pm. @slyouxng will be cohosting for the last @exquisitesbay for the 2026 summer season!

Poets Include:
Stephanie Young @slyouxng
KB Brookins @earthtokb
Sophia Dahlin @sophiadahlin
Briana Grogan @brianagrogan by @exquisitesbay

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a month ago

What better way to close out @exquisitesbay 2026, than with a reading by KB Brookins @earthtokb 🔥 Join us @bancroftcommunitygarden Sun Sept 20th 11-1pm!

KB Brookins is a writer, educator, and cultural worker from Texas. KB’s poetry collection Freedom House (2023) won the American Library Association Barbara Gittings Literature Award and the Texas Institute of Letters Award for Best First Book of Poetry. KB’s memoir Pretty (2024) won the Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Nonfiction, the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award, and the Dorothy Allison/Felice Picano Emerging Writer Award. Their writing is published in The New Republic, Newsweek, Poetry Magazine, and elsewhere. KB is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Santa Clara University. Follow them online at @earthtokb. by @exquisitesbay

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a month ago

We're excited to introduce you to the September co-host of @exquisitesbay @bancroftcommunitygarden, Stephanie Young @slyouxng 🍁

Stephanie Young lives and works in Oakland. Her books of poetry and prose include Pet Sounds and Ursula or University. Crowd Control: The Racial Ordering of Literary Reward, written with Claire Grossman and Juliana Spahr, is forthcoming from Columbia University Press. She is a member of Krupskaya Books editorial collective and teaches writing at Mills College at Northeastern University. by @exquisitesbay

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a month ago

Celebrate the Autumn Equinox with a reading by Sophia Dahlin @sophiadahlin @exquisitesbay in @bancroftcommunitygarden ✨🍂

Sophia Dahlin is a poet in the East Bay. She is the author of two collections of poetry, Glove Money (Nightboat) and Natch (City Lights). She leads generative poetry workshops, teaches youth creative writing, and, with seven other poets, curates the weekly reading series at Tamarack, Oakland. by @exquisitesbay

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a month ago

Briana Grogan @brianagrogan is on the mic @bancroftcommunitygarden Sunday Sept 20th for the last @exquisitesbay of 2026! 💫

Briana Grogan (she/they) is a Black queer femme poet and birthworker from Southern California. She received her MFA in Poetry from Mills College and was a 2025 Lambda Literary Fellow and Rosemary’s House Fellow, as well as a grant recipient of the San Francisco Arts Commission. Their poetry explores the silence in grief and rejoice in healing. Slowing down, liberation, and joy are central to her praxis with the Black body. by @exquisitesbay

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a month ago

We're excited to be hosting Ambient Flow workshop as part of @batherslibrary 's 2026 Summer Symposium @g_o_o_d_h_o_t ! ✨$15 | NOTAFLOF ticket link in @exquisitesbay bio.

Ambient Flow is a 2hr trans & queer centered workshop that intertwines sound bath, yoga asana, and concrete poetry in relationship to modular synth theory and a sprinkling of luminary astrology. (allies welcome)

Your ticket also gets you into the closing party for the symposium dj'd by @eternalnow.space!

Ambient Flow's live synth sound bath will be performed @way_way_way_way_way_way_way_.

Remote synth contributions include the asana flow's synth score by @squareminussine & the welcoming soundscape will be a recording of Alzena Bell Gilbert's sound bath from Ambient Flow 2024 @baby.cobra.yoga BK.

All asana postures are beginner friendly. Limited yoga mats will be provided, byo mat if you have your own. This workshop is outside, if you have accessibility needs please let us know! A handmade collage of joshua trees and desert nicht, water ways, a wolf howling at the moon, a fern leaf, setting sun, embers, a picnic area with 3 figures walking, a pink oceanic creature, a dolphin, beluga whales and jelly fish. Overlayed on top is digital text on the August 30th Ambient Flow workshop at Good Hot for Bather's Library Summer Symposium 2026. by @exquisitesbay

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2 months ago

@blkvenusian's words floated through @bancroftcommunitygarden with the same grace as the monarch butterflies which flit-from flower to flower during their reading on August 16th. We are excited to share ry's words will also land in volume 6th of exquisites anthology series, stay tuned for more!

ry. is a multidisciplinary artist, activist & baby rootworker based in the bay. as a child of the south they use ancestral creativity to fuel their work. with a deep passion of advocacy for Black femme feelings, bodies, & protection, their area of focus is to give a voice to a community silenced by many. A handmade collage of mushroom fruit, white rose, sky, a painting three turtles, two snakes, and a library. Overlayed on top is digital photo of ry. in a draped yellow top, organe sunglasses and chunky necklace. Behind ry is a red staircase and soft tan stucco building. by @exquisitesbay

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2 months ago

Rosehip, bud, & thorn @pleasure.as.compass embodied the whole at August 16th's @exquisitesbay reading @bancroftcommunitygarden. Their words will also blush the pages of exquisites volume 6th, which drops later this year!

Nnenna Loveth (they/she) is an Igbo lesbian poet, dancer, and facilitator who tells stories of liberated Black matrilinieal futures. Nnenna holds a B.A in Women’s and Gender Studies from Wellesley College (2020), where they focused on Black and Latina Feminisms, and they’re expected to receive their M.F.A in Poetry with Randolph College (2027). Nnenna utilizes the relationship between dance and poetry to explore themes of Black sapphic intimacies, mother-daughter connections, Odinala, and healing from christian-colonial missions. She is the author of of Already Knew You Were Coming, a chapbook published with Game over Books. She has been featured with Button Poetry, Voicemail Poems, Beestung Magazine, ALOCASIA, etc. and performed widely. When Nnenna is not writing or performing, she is somewhere being romanced by life. A handmade collage of mushroom fruit, two snakes, a library, the cosmos, and water. Overlayed on top is digital photo of Nnenna Loveth in a tan long sleeve shirt under a draped slick dress and dark pendent necklace. Nnenna sits in front of a flowering bush and soft pink house. by @exquisitesbay

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2 months ago

The garden was warm and the poems were blooming when @ashiainbloom read for @exquisitesbay! We are excited to announce that her words will also grace the pages of exquisites anthology volume 6!

Ashia is a sunshower, a glass bead, a carnivorous plant, an overripe nectarine. They are the author of Heirloom (Write Bloody Publishing, 2023) and Tending the Vines (Timber Press, forthcoming Fall 2026). Her writing is a kaleidoscope of their work as a eco-griot and abolitionist. A handmade collage of mushroom fruit, a white rose, sky, a painting, three turtles, two snakes, a library, white wings. Overlayed on top is digital photo of Ashia Ajani in a white dress with long braids looking over her right shoulder at the camera, she stands in front of a palm tree. by @exquisitesbay

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2 months ago

Alexis Garcia @loveloaf_ was such a good co-host or rather such, ~ a good boy ~, at exquisites's August 16th reading @bancroftcommunitygarden. Stay tuned for volume 6 of the exquisites anthology to see which of their amazing poems will be included!

Alexis N. Garcia is a t-boy poet & educator dreaming against the state. Their cross-discipline experiments glitch traditional poetic form to construct trans time & non-linear meaning-making. Their first book, TIME IS A SILLY BOY, is forthcoming from Host Publications in Spring 2027. Alexis is a proud bully of tech bros, Tesla owners, & AI advocates. A handmade collage of two snakes, a library, the cosmos, a running dog and water. Overlayed on top is digital phot of Alexis N. Garcia in a black muscle tank and sunglasses backdropped by the ocean and hailo'd by the sun. by @exquisitesbay

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2 months ago

A leo ♌️ & a cancer ♋️ walk into @bancroftcommunitygarden on August 16th to co-host @exquisitesbay - obviously it's going to be a queer ol'time. Join us! 11-1pm come for the banter stay for the poems, byo n/a brunch.

Readers include:
@loveloaf_
@ashiainbloom
@pleasure.as.compass
@blkvenusian A handmade collage of mushroom fruit, three turtles, two snakes, a library, the cosmos, a white rose, white wings. a running dog and water. Overlayed on top is digital text about the August 16th exquisites bay reading with poets Alexis Garcia, Ashia Ajani , Nnenna Loveth, and ry. by @exquisitesbay

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3 months ago

Come for the garden, stay for the wilderness, willow windreness hour that is! willow will be reading Sunday 7/26th @exquisitesbay @bancroftcommunitygarden 11-1pm 🧸

willow wilderness hour is a TS spiritualist, poet and performer working in the gay DIY. She grew up in the Midwest.” A handmade collage of desert landscape, birds flying at sunset, a living room, cacti, and ambient gradient light. Overlayed on top is a portrait of willow wilderness hour in denim jeans, a white and camel diamond shaped sweater vest hugging a giant teddy bear.
Annabel Reed, Peach Kander,
willow wilderness hour by @exquisitesbay

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3 months ago