WAVEMACHINE is a poetry and performance series in San Francisco, CA. It began in New Haven, CT in 2012 and took place briefly in Brooklyn, NY in 2019 before resuming in the Bay Area in 2024.

WAVEMACHINE25—featuring Gabrielle Bates, Rhoni Blankenhorn, Hieu Minh Nguyen, Camille Ralphs, and sam sax—will take place on Saturday, October 11th, at 4 pm.

This machine will let us celebrate the recent publication of Rhoni's Rooms for the Dead and the Not Yet and the USA release of Camille's After You Were, I Am. It will also celebrate the beginning of our second season in the Bay—and it's a joy to be doing it with such a dream team.

We will also be fundraising for The Sameer Project, an initiative led by Palestinians in the diaspora to supply emergency shelter and aid to displaced families in Gaza. We'll focus our support on the Refaat Alareer Camp initiative, which provides shelter and care to families with critical medical issues. You can learn more about the initiative and donate here.

Mark your calendars also for WAVEMACHINE26, which will happen on November 22nd at 4 pm, with readers tba.

The address for our upcoming events will be sent out via our mailing list in advance and on the day of the event. Sign up for our mailing list below.

You can read more about us in The New Yorker and The Yale Daily News. See a recording of Keston Sutherland and Geoffrey G. O’Brien reading for the series at the Boston Review.

Black-and-white posters by Adam Douglas Thompson. Color posters by Chika Ota.

Unless otherwise specified, our events take place in the backyard of our home in Bernal Heights. The yard is wheelchair accessible and there’s a first floor bathroom, but the house is on a steep slope, and if it is raining the event will need to move up one flight of stairs to our living room. If you have questions about accessibility or need help with accommodations, please send me an email or a DM on Instagram. Bring drinks and snacks for friends.