On June 29, 2014, Sam “Fish” Vargas, one of the original founders of the Acentos Bronx Poetry Showcase, began a new poetry series, Acentos West, in connection with the Reimagining Progress series hosted at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, California. The event featured performances from Jason Bayani, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Paul Flores, Sandra Garcia Rivera, Josh Healey, Javier O. Huerta, Denise Jolly, Raina J. León, Katelyn Lucas, Willie Perdomo, Patricia Smith, Sonya Renee Taylor, and Alex Ustach. Considering the long history of Acentos, this small section serves to record some of the poems read at that event.
The Acentos Bronx Poetry Showcase was founded by in 2003 by Oscar Bermeo and Sam “Fish” Vargas. La Familia Acentos would grow to include Ed Garcia, Raymond Daniel Medina, Maria Nieves, Jessica Torres, and Rich Villar, among others. The Acentos Bronx Poetry Showcase led to the establishment of The Acentos Workshops, The Acentos Foundation (2008), and The Acentos Review (2008).
Poem samples from