JCPOFEST Presents: Sunrise at Àbákẹ́

You’re Invited: To Sunrise 🌅 Presented by JCPOFEST in collaboration with

Àbákẹ́ Books & Cafe

Celebrate Pride Month with an intimate morning of connection, community, and the spoken word. We are thrilled to feature Mexican poet José Enrique Medina, bringing the warmth and vibrant spirit of sunny California to our gathering.

Whether you're a seasoned writer or a passionate listener, you are invited to bring your own poems to share during our community open mic circle. Let's welcome the day with fresh verses and warm company.

Event Details

• Featured Author: José Enrique Medina

• What to Bring: An open heart, an appetite for breakfast, and your own poems to share!

• Admission: $10 Suggested Donation at the door

  
  

RSVP Required

Space is strictly limited for this intimate gathering. Please secure your spot as soon as possible.

BIO:

José Enrique Medina earned his BA in English from Cornell University. His poetry collection Haunt Me won the 2025 Rattle Chapbook Prize. His second book Man Without a Skirt, was selected by Ellen Bass as the runner-up in the 2025 Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize. His work has appeared in USA Today Hispanic Living Magazine, Redivider, Best Microfiction 2019, and many other publications. He is a VONA fellow and the founder of the Chickens & Poetry Residency for Writers. @MedinaWrites

José Enrique Medina

“After my mother died, I didn’t feel her presence. Instead, I felt other ghosts—complicated, not always kind ancestors—who stayed close, as if asking to be remembered. Writing these poems became a way to sit with them, to explore the ways even difficult legacies shape us. As I wrote, I began to understand why my mother hadn’t appeared: maybe she had already given me so much of herself, she didn’t need to. Maybe she was in my blood, indistinguishable from my own voice. Haunt Me doesn’t try to resolve grief. It leans into it, allowing memory, contradiction, and longing to coexist. The poems point to the possibility that goodbye isn’t a disappearance but a transformation, something that continues, quietly, in the life that follows.”

Our Featured Author: