Fire, Beauty, and Advocacy: 2025 PPSC Spring Reading feat. Jozer Guerrero Flies and Sings

Las canciones están vivas! After a right-on-time Know Your Rights and Advocacy workshop and refreshments courtesy of Student Experience and Equity and Latino Alliance, the Spring Reading was alive and kicking in three languages at once, thanks to our sign language interpreters and real-time Spanish captions. Several PPSC poets and writers continued the advocacy theme, sharing work standing up for human rights and speaking out against injustice.

Visiting writer Jose “Jozer” Guerrero is a poet, musician, actor, MC/Motivational speaker, and educator who has been featured on HBO, Univision, Ted Talks, PBS, and NPR. He has dedicated his entire career to creating critical art and music that speak on the issues our communities face, seeking to inspire, inform, and mobilize the community. Together, we created a synergy of empowerment and solidarity– and packed the house.

Poets and storytellers from the PPSC community:

Opening remarks/MC: Brook Bhagat

Student readers: Araceli Trujillo Delgato (President of Latino Alliance), Scarlet Gruber, Damon Gallegos

Open mic: Kevin Persaud

Faculty: Amie Sharp, Amber Ridenour Walker

Nearby Universe: M.R. Hyde, Richard Curran Trussell, Brook Bhagat

Next came an incredible performance from Jose “Jozer” Guerrero, who had the audience in the palm of his hand. He spoke powerfully about his friend and mentor Bobby LeFebre and political prisoner Jeanette Vizguerra. When he sang and played “There’s No Freedom Without Freedom for Them All” on the guitar, more than one tear slid down a cheek; then, we were laughing again at a poem about his dogs! Other pieces performed included his famous “You Are Not the Father,” “Stereotypes,” and “Walking Toward Freedom.”

A huge thank you to Latino Alliance, Jozer, Sarah Sheppard Shaver, Madeline Zeikus, Lisa Macedo, Audrey Hartman, Amie Sharp, all our readers, and everyone else who came out and made this night magical, including Mandy Solomon, the editor of Parley, who will be including a special section in the upcoming print issue of the journal celebrating the event. Thanks also to Gaurav Bhagat for filming and Mikey Justiniano from Phi Theta Kappa for the great photos.