This year is very significant in that it is the 10 year anniversary of the passing of Poet, Al Robles' uncle, Manong Al Robles.  His uncle started, along with Bill Sorro and others, the Manilatown Heritage Foundation, an organization that keeps alive the memory of the International Hotel and Manilatown.  Tony Robles is now traveling to the Philippines on a Journey called, "The Al Robles Express" to Kalinga in the North of the Philippines.  The journey is in dedication to Al Robles and his work as a poet and activist.

 

More info about Tony Robles is on his blog: href="https://tonyrobles.wordpress.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" https://tonyrobles.wordpress.com/

 

Bio: Tony Robles--The People's poet, was born and raised in San Francisco.  He is the author of two collections of poetry/short stories, entitled "Cool Don't Live Here no More--A letter to San Francisco" and "Fingerprints of a Hunger Strike", both published by Ithuriel's Spear Press.  Tony is also the author of children's books, "Lakas and the Manilatown Fish" and "Lakas and the Makibaka Hotel", published by Lee and Low.  He is the recipient of the San Francisco Art Commission Individual Literary Artist Grantee in 2017 and was a short-list nominee for Poet Laureate of San Francisco in 2016.