I heard Steve speak at a political rally in City Heights one weekend. He walked up to the mic and began a long expose about the Zionist injustices against the Palestinians and how the Palestinians were the Native Americans of the Middle East. The organizer of the event kept coming up to him and telling him to hurry up and Steve looked at the man and said ok and went back to his indictment. This happened at least five or six times. Then the man said to Steve that his time was up and Steve very innocently said he didn’t get to read his poem. The organizer relented and Steve proceeded to read a long fiery poem in support of the Palestinians. He must have been up there 20 minutes. I was impressed by his tenacity, his skill, and the power of his poem. He was, that day and always, a voice for the voiceless.
—From “Steve Kowit Tribute” in Blue Vortex Publishing (7 September 2015); appears here with author’s permission
created and developed “Cultural Circle Poetry Workshops” as a Language Arts Teacher at the All Tribes American Indian Charter School on Rincon Reservation. He then taught poetry to incarcerated youth in San Diego Juvenile Hall from August of 2005 until the present.
Moreno is the author of Dancing in Dissent: Poetry for Activism (Dolphin Calling Press, 2007) and two CDs: reversing the erased, exhuming the expunged and A Question From Love (Dolphin Calling Press, 2007 and 2011). His next books, Jim Crow Poems: Teaching Poetry to Incarcerated Youth and Songs From Grandfather, will be published later this year.
His website is
www.jimpoet.com; contact
him at “jimpoet [at] hotmail [dot] com” for more information.