Mike Sonksen
Equally a scholar and performer, Mike Sonksen, also known as Mike the Poet, is a 3rd-generation L.A. native acclaimed for published essays, poetry performances and mentoring teen writers. Mike teaches at Woodbury University.
This week L.A. Letters salutes Leimert Park's the World Stage, reinforces its importance, and draws the connection between other community arts organizations like Tuesday Night Café, Sunday Jump, Punk Hostage Press and Espacio 1839.
The common bond between the two books is that they both take place in Los Angeles and offer an alternative vision, pregnant with hope and what really could be.
This week L.A. Letters discusses the idea of street poets, two new books and a new venue on L.A.'s historic Central Avenue.
This week L.A. Letters highlights a few writers, events and organizations on the frontlines, battling censorship and fighting for the freedom to read.
This week L.A. Letters explores three recent L.A. books and pays tribute to 15 years of the seminal music venue, Firecracker.
This week L.A. Letters takes a look their new album and takes a cruise around Long Beach and Southern California with one of its most prolific hip hop artists of the last generation.
This week L.A. Letters celebrates the spirit of collaboration and a few local ambassadors doing interdisciplinary work uniting poetry, performance, theater, education, and activism.
This week L.A. Letters reflects on the ever changing landscape of San Francisco, some different perspectives by several authors, as well as a brief glance at the city's literary tradition and contemporary poetry scene.
As the vision behind some of L.A.'s most iconic buildings -- City Hall, Union Station, Memorial Coliseum, Bullocks Wilshire -- why isn't he as celebrated as many of his peers?
This week L.A. Letters highlights a few game-changing scribes from the literary underground as well as a few key sites within the landscape where the magic happens.
This week L.A. Letters features eight literary lions of Leimert Park, chosen because they have each put in over 20-plus years of work in Leimert as a poet, writer, and community activist.
This week L.A. Letters spotlights a historic Eastside punk rock venue making a return, a travelling poetry festival, and neighborhood activists sharing the same ethos to improve local public policy.