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Antmen Pimentel Mendoza: 'Eau D'Bedroom Dancing (I Learn From You)'

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A collage of poet Antmen Pimentel Mendoza with the first two lines of text from his poem.
Poet Antmen Pimentel Mendoza with the first two lines of text from his poem.  (Courtesy of Antmen Pimentel Mendoza/ Collage by Lakshmi Sarah of KQED)

The Sunday Music Drop is a weekly radio series hosted by the KQED weekend news team. In each segment, we feature a song from a local musician or band with an upcoming show and hear about what inspires their music.

Throughout April we are mixing it up in honor of National Poetry Month. We’ll be bringing you one poem each week from a Bay Area poet with an upcoming reading.

Oakland-based poet Antmen Pimentel Mendoza says for him, poetry as an orientation to the world is really earnest.

“That’s like asking me to spend time with something,” said Mendoza. “Spend enough of my limited time on this Earth with something that I sit down and write about it and not just write about it, but think about sound and image. So if I’m doing that, I want it to be worth it.”

He experienced a difficult breakup at the end of last summer and lately has become interested in writing romantic poetry. His poem “Eau D’Bedroom Dancing (I Learn From You)” was originally published in Diode Poetry Journal.

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“In the time since, I’ve been exploring what it looks like to be connected with folks actually, not just connect with people connected to romance,” said Mendoza.

Mendoza identifies as a queer and trans Filipinx American who is also a pop culture enthusiast.

“I think about queerness [in] the way that I love,” said Mendoza. “And queerness as the way that I present myself in public, because that is how I’m signaling how I’d like to be loved and how I hope to love. Queerness is the only framework through which I understand love at this point.”

Mendoza will be reading his poetry live at Medicine for Nightmares Bookstore and Gallery in San Francisco on April 15 at 7:30 p.m.

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