Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center is pleased to present Second Tuesday Poetry featuring Chris Olander, performance poet & poet laureate Nevada County (2017-2019) and Central Valley poet/farmer/educator Kathy Pon. 

Date: Tuesday, May 12, 2026
Time: 7:00 pm PST;  doors at 6:30 PM
Where: Bookish Modesto, 811 W. Roseburg Ave, in the Roseburg Square shopping center

Open mic following featured poets (2-3 min per poet); sign up at the event. Hosted by Gillian Wegener. Event is free and open to the public; refreshments and books available for purchase at Bookish. 

Kathy Pon

Kathy Pon earned a doctorate in education, but in retirement returned to her life-long passion for reading and writing poetry. Her husband is a third-generation farmer, and they live in the middle of a Central California almond orchard with their two dogs. She is a member of two monthly poetry groups, is an avid pickleball player, and enjoys hiking and swimming. Her work has been published in Passengers Journal, Canary, Rock Paper Poem, Wild Roof Journal, The Closed Eye Open, The Gilded Weathervane, Rockvale Review, and in other places including the anthology, Women in a Golden State (Gunpowder Press). She recently received honorable mention for the Bearing Witness Contest (Slingo Creek). Her chapbook, Orchard Language (Finishing Line Press) was published in 2025. You can find her at kathleenpon@gmail.com. 

Chris Olander

Chris Olander, poet, performer, teacher and bio-educator with California Poets in the Schools (CPITS) since 1984, blends performance techniques with spoken word to create an Action Art Poetry: musical image phrasing to dramatize relative experiences—a poetry arising from oral and bardic traditions.  

Chris is the author of 3 full-length collections including this year’s Who Are We, Cold River Press as well as four chapbooks and 8 CDs. His work is included in the anthology Silent Motif: Conference of Poets.  Chris was Nevada County’s poet laureate from 2017-2019 and for over 25 years was an organizer and featured reader in the Berkeley Watershed Poetry Festival, sponsored by Poetry Flash and U.S. poet laureate Robert Hass.

He was the Artistic Director for the Nevada County Poetry Series in Grass Valley from 2000-2013, the Artistic Director for Poets Playhouse Series in Nevada City for 10 years, and the poet coach for Poetry Out Loud in Nevada, Placer, Sacramento and El Dorado Counties. In 2008, his student Roshawnda Bettencourt won the CA statewide POL championship, with numerous other Nevada County POL winners taking 2nd and 3rd place in that competition through the years.