Donato Martinez and Julia Gaytan feature at Obsidian Tongues

Donato Martinez and Julia Gaytan feature at Obsidian Tongues at Galeria Yasmin in Pomona!

Galeria Yasmin

250 W 2nd St.

Pomona, CA 91766, USA

Free

13+

About the features:

Donato Martinez was born in a small pueblo, Garcia de la Cadena, Zacatecas, Mexico and immigrated into the USA at six years old. He teaches English Composition, Literature, and Creative Writing at Santa Ana College. He has also taught classes in Chicano Studies. He has been a co-coordinator of the Puente Program for 25 years. In 2022, he was awarded the Creative Expression Faculty Award and the Transfer Advocate of the Year. In 2024-2025, he was recognized as the Distinguished Faculty of the Year, the highest honor bestowed on a faculty member. He is nominated for the Orange County Teacher of the Year, for the year 2026. He is also a cast member of papah!, a YouTube show that features Mexican dads sharing their unique perspectives through candid conversations, food reviews, and reactions. Martinez also hosts and curates many artistic events that feature poetry and music on his campus or in the community. He writes about his family, his barrio experience, his community, his Chicano culture, his love of language and hip hop, and the complexity of relationships. He is influenced by the sounds and pulse of the streets, people, music, and the magic of language. He has a self-published collection with three other Inland Empire poets, Tacos de Lengua. His work has been published in literary journals: City Works, East Side Rose, The Acentos Review, San Diego Poetry Annual, Ofrenda Magazine, Mixtape Literary Journal, Latin@ Literatures, The EAR, Xinachtli Journal (Journal X), La Raíz Magazine and in the anthologies: With Dim Lights & Obsidian Tongues: A Pomona Poetry Anthology, ILL Anthology Vol. 2 and Vol. 3, and Anger is a Gift: An Anthology of Resistance and Response Poems to the 2024 Election. His first full collection of poetry, Touch the Sky, was published by El Martillo Press in 2023. He loves the outdoors and is inspired by books, music, and his children, Gabriel and Abigail.

Julia C. Gaytan is a self-proclaimed math geek who spends her weekdays teaching high school math and her weeknights reading and writing poetry and short stories. Julia grew up in the Nickerson Gardens, a housing project of Watts, and attended innercity K-12 schools until attending UCLA as an undergraduate and graduate student. As an undergrad she majored in Chicana/o Studies and History and minored in African American Studies and Political Science. It is in her studies that she fully began to embrace her identity as a Chicana poet while simultaneously exploring different identities and realities outside of her lived experience. Recently, her work was published in MALCS Chicana/Latina Studies Journal and before that in The Waiting Room, an anthology by Nervous Ghost Press. Her debut poetry collection, Ion Love was published in 2026 by Riot of Roses Publishing House. She currently lives with her two children in southern California.

Obsidian Tongues

Hosted by the second poet laureate of Pomona, Ceasar K Avelar, Obsidian Tongues is a monthly, community-focused open mic for poetry, spoken word, and storytelling, held on the 2nd Saturday of every month at Café Con Libros and the the last Saturday of every month at Lopez Urban Farm. The event provides a welcoming space for diverse voices and celebrates the working class.

El Martillo Press

Founded by Matt Sedillo and David A. Romero, El Martillo Press publishes writers whose pens strike the page with clear intent; words with purpose to pry apart assumed norms and to hammer away at injustice. El Martillo Press proactively publishes writers looking to pound the pavement to promote their work and the work of their fellow pressmates. El Martillo is the builder of bridges and the destroyer of walls.