Poet and PASJ Professor Wins American Book Award

Flores said he was surprised to win the award previously bestowed on authors including Toni Morrison and Jimmy Santiago Baca.

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We Still Be is a love letter to San Francisco’s Mission District, specifically 24th Street, where Flores found home and became a professional artist, he said. Designed to be performed, the book is a blend of poems, memoir, and musical calls to social-justice activism. Flores explores multiculturalism and marginalization, with special attention to the impact of U.S. border militarization on people with family on both sides of the border.

Josiah Luis Alderete, a poet and co-owner of the Medicine for Nightmares bookstore in the Mission, introduced Flores at the awards ceremony on Oct. 27 at the SFJAZZ Center.

Flores said that he appreciated hearing Alderete “tell folks that when he hears or sees me perform, he sees the neighborhood. You don’t see Paul Flores the poet, you see a member of the Mission District artist community. You hear who informs my work. You hear the influences, the stories, the vibes of the neighborhood, you hear the memory of the neighborhood."

Flores has been writing since he was 9, and has been a professional performer for almost 30 years. He graduated from UC San Diego with a degree in literature and writing, and moved to San Francisco to pursue an MFA — and a place in the city’s poetry scene.

At USF, Flores teaches theater in the Performing Arts and Social Justice department. He views his teaching as an extension of his work as an artist activist, and he wants students to care about the city community as much as he does.

“USF is not an ivory tower,” Flores said. In all of his courses, he takes students to cultural events and cultural centers in San Francisco.

“In my Latin American Performance and Culture class with Paul, reading plays was just scratching the surface, as he would have every one of his students step out of the classroom and explore the beautiful city around us,” said Gulal Singh ’26, a performing arts and social justice major.