music.wikisort.org - Poet

Tongo Eisen-Martin is an African-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^{[citation needed]} 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

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