The production, which was directed by “Manai” Alleluia Panis, featured six performances between April 17 and April 26.

“Burden of Proof” is inspired by the true story of Perez’s mother, Leonora, who – along with a second Filipina nurse named Filipina Narciso – was wrongfully convicted and incarcerated for the 1975 deaths of patients at a Veterans Administration hospital in Michigan. A judge later ordered their release due to the prosecutor’s “overwhelming prejudice.”

According to the website, the production “delves into the generational trauma inflicted by the American justice system and how traumatic experiences blur the line between memory and nightmare, told through the lens of the fictional Calinao immigrant family.”

The original score includes text drawn from the diary of Leonora Perez and the writings of Jason.

Perez has been on the faculty at CSUSM since 2019. In 2023-24, he served a two-year appointment as the poet laureate for the City of San Diego.  

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist
bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

Perez, who’s also the poet laureate emeritus for the City of San Diego, will read some of his poetry on the main stage Saturday from 2:30-3 p.m. at the University of San Diego. He will appear alongside Paola Capo-Garcia, San Diego’s current poet laureate, and award-winning poet Karla Cordero.

The festival, which runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., is a free event featuring panel discussions with award-winning authors, activities, live entertainment and exhibitors including local authors and independent booksellers.

Hired in 2019, Perez is entering his seventh academic year at CSUSM. In January 2023, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria selected him as the city’s poet laureate, a two-year appointment to write poems, hold workshops and add to the cultural richness of the region.

Also in 2023, Perez was awarded a $50,000 poet laureate fellowship by the Academy of American Poets. He helped launch a youth empowerment poetry project that included youth mentorship and workshops on poetry, performance-making, filmmaking and video art.

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist
bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

The event is at 6 p.m. on April 23 in the USU Ballroom. Reserve tickets online via the Arts & Lectures website. 

This lecture by Dr. Robert R. Alvarez Jr., a professor emeritus of ethnic studies at UC San Diego and the son of the lead plaintiff in the case, will review the specific struggle by the Mexican families of Lemon Grove in the greater context of the Mexican challenge to U.S. school desegregation. 

The case established the rights of children of Mexican immigrants to equal education, despite local, regional and national sentiment that favored not only segregation, but the actual deportation of the Mexican population in the United States. Current educational equity issues for Mexican immigrant and Latino communities will be contextualized through regional data compiled by the National Latino Research Center at CSUSM. 

CSUSM’s Arts & Lectures series offers a diverse lineup of artistic, cultural and scholarly events every semester based on input and proposals from students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members. 

What: Arts & Lectures event, “Educational Equality Now!” 

Who: Robert R. Alvarez Jr., a professor emeritus of ethnic studies at UC San Diego and the son of the lead plaintiff in the case Roberto Alvarez v. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District.  

When: 6 p.m., Wednesday, April 23 

Where: USU Ballroom 

Tickets: Visit the Arts & Lectures ticket webpage 

Cost: Free for CSUSM students; $5 for faculty, staff and alumni; $10 for community members 

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Interim assistant director of editorial and external affairs
ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

The project, San Diego Poetry Futures 2024, invites San Diego communities, educators, artists and civic leaders to collaborate in poetry and performance. It was launched on March 27 at the San Diego Central Library.

“San Diego Poetry Futures 2024 will be a collaborative space for ongoing expansive poetic experimentation,” said Perez, an associate professor and program director of ethnic studies at CSUSM. “Exploring poetry as a form of intergenerational community empowerment, this initiative will include various programs and projects to bridge communities.”

Perez will host writing workshops, film screenings and poetry readings at schools, libraries, bookstores and other community spaces, and will experiment with poetry and performance through community gatherings such as chalk poetry, protest poetry and pop-up open mic events. Activities and events will be free and open to the public in neighborhoods across San Diego.

SDPF24 will culminate at the end of the year in an intergenerational, community-responsive poetry forum. In its commitment to social and transformative justice, SDPF24 will promote safe and inclusive spaces for families and communities.

“As poet laureate, Jason continues to tell stories of our great city,” said Jonathon Glus, executive director of Arts and Culture for San Diego. “With this signature poetry project, we look forward to inspiring San Diegans and enjoying their shared expressions of spoken work and performance art.” 

Perez was named poet laureate by San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria in January 2023. His two-year term concludes at the end of this year.

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist
bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

Perez was announced Tuesday as one of 23 individuals nationally to be named 2023 Poet Laureate Fellows by the AAP, which handed out a total of $1.1 million. They all serve as poets laureate of states, counties and cities across the United States and will be leading public poetry programs in their respective communities in 2023–24.

“I am grateful for the affirmation and honored by the support and encouragement from Academy of American Poets in helping us continue to build upon the empowering histories and brilliant communities of poetry and art in San Diego,” Perez said. "I look forward to dreaming up possibilities for such work in San Diego, at CSUSM, and beyond."   

For his fellowship, Perez, an associate professor and the director of ethnic studies at CSUSM, will help launch a youth empowerment poetry project that includes youth mentorship and workshops on poetry, performance-making, filmmaking and video art. The project will feature collaborations with Pacific Arts Movement, local high school ethnic studies and English teachers, and the development of open-access poetry curricula, grassroots publishing initiatives and a culminating youth poetry summit in San Diego.

Hired in 2019, Perez is entering his fifth academic year at CSUSM. In January, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria selected him as the city’s poet laureate, a two-year appointment to write poems, hold workshops and add to the cultural richness of the region.

He is a poet, essayist, fiction writer, performer, educator, community organizer and the author of the full-length collection of poetry and prose titled “This is for the Mostless.” He blends poetry, prose, performance, film/video, ethnography and oral history to explore the lived histories, contemporary experiences and futures of Filipino American communities. He also serves as a community arts fellow for the Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies at UC Davis.

Through its Poet Laureate Fellowship program, the Academy of American Poets has awarded $5.45 million in fellowships to 105 poets laureate since 2019. The AAP also has helped encourage the creation of more than 40 new poet laureate positions across the nation since launching the program. The fellowships are made possible by the Mellon Foundation, which awarded the academy two grants to fund the program. 

“The Academy of American Poets celebrates the unique position poets laureate occupy at state and local levels, elevating the possibilities poetry can bring to community conversations and reminding us that our national spirit can be nourished by the power of the written and spoken word,” said Ricardo Maldonado, president and executive director of the academy. “We are inspired by these projects … that the 23 fellows will carry out, and grateful to the Mellon Foundation and the nonprofit organizations supporting this life-affirming work.”