“Enter the park at 25th and Lincoln, and you’ll soon see a huge fallen tree on your right,” the Instagram post reads. The “location reveal” also includes details such as a nearby Golden Gate Park landmark (George Washington Grove Picnic Area), a paved path and a grassy field.
In the post’s photo is the huge fallen tree, on which Amy Berkowitz sits, smiling.
“We always try to give really clear instructions, but people sometimes get lost,” says Berkowitz, who uses “she” and “they” pronouns.
Berkowitz and Erick Sáenz are the creators and hosts of the Light Jacket Reading Series, an outdoor poetry reading series in Golden Gate Park. Its 11th event is at 3 p.m. Saturday in a grassy field near 25th Avenue and Lincoln Way.
Four poets—Lourdes Figueroa, Lauren Levin, Lora Mathis and Terra Oliveira—will read their work.
“They’re very free and DIY [do it yourself],” says Berkowitz about the readings, which are open to the public.
Since the series’inception in March, she and Sáenz have focused on creating a welcoming, supportive space for the writing community.
Sáenz initially posted online his interest in a new San Francisco reading series. He later approached Berkowitz with the idea over a beer at their local spot in the Inner Sunset, where they both live.
“I made a joke like, ‘Hey, I want to start doing a reading series in weird places in San Francisco. I know you did an awesome series [several] years ago, so we should team up.’ And we both immediately agreed to it,” says Sáenz.
From 2014 to 2020, Berkowitz hosted the eponymous “Amy’s Kitchen Organic Reading Series”—the title a take on Amy’s Kitchen, which sells organic gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan frozen foods. The series took place monthly in her apartment’s living room.
Due to health concerns, Berkowitz, who is chronically ill, discontinued Amy’s Kitchen when COVID-19 settled in. Having thought about a “COVID safer” reading series that would be accessible to more people, she was enthusiastic about Sáenz’s proposal.
“I was like, ‘Oh. Are you serious? If you are, I want to do it, because I’ve been thinking about doing something outdoors as well,’” she says.
Sáenz originally pitched the title “SF Is Doomed”—an ode to the SF punk rock band Crime’s song “San Francisco’s Doomed,” released in 1978 on their same-titled album. Deciding it was a tad dark and that not everyone would make the connection, they went with Berkowitz’s “Light Jacket.”
Says Sáenz, “You always need a light jacket in San Francisco, so it’s really the perfect name. I’m glad we didn’t go with ‘SF Is Doomed’ in retrospect, although I would still think it would be funny if I saw that on flyers and on the internet.”
“I liked the punk reference for sure, but I think it’s just so antithetical to the good vibes experience of coming to one of the readings,” adds Berkowitz with a laugh.
Both Berkowitz and Sáenz are published writers. Berkowitz wrote “Tender Points” (2015) and the poetry collection “Gravitas” (2023), and Sáenz’s books are: “Susurros A Mi Padre” (2018), the poetry collection “Lucid Traversal” (2021) and the fiction collection “This Is My Exit: Stories” (2021).
Their backgrounds also have DIY components. Sáenz self-published chapbooks and zines, is the founding editor of the DIY imprint Lilac Press, and was involved in Southern California’s punk scene, booking bands. Berkowitz’s writing has appeared in publications like “Bitch: A Feminist Response to Pop Culture,” which started as a zine in the late 1990s. She founded Mondo Bummer, a DIY-oriented poetry chapbook press.
Each Light Jacket event involves putting together a lineup of poets, finding a location, and promotion including detailing how exactly to get to the site. LJRS Instagram posts include an image of a light jacket, the series number, the writers’ names, date and location, in typewriter-reminiscent Courier New font. Berkowitz created the logo featuring the backside of a jacket with a tree illustration at center.
Participating writers are also welcome to bring copies of their books to sell at the readings.
“It feels good to help people, to promote people and to allow people to share their work, and to let it be really organic,” says Sáenz.
Many writers are from the Bay Area, either living here or returning for a brief period, with ties to the local writing community. For now, the readings are poetry focused, though the hosts say they could evolve to include fiction and nonfiction.
There’s also the possibility of holding the series in other places. But the park, with its general accessibility and bathroom availability, has its advantages.
Sáenz says, “There’s just endless places to be able to host a reading, and it’s very easy for most people that are in the city to get to the park…”
Plus, the park itself is a sublime setting. Berkowitz, who planned to return to Brooklyn, New York, to live among family when her daughter turned 1, found herself unexpectedly smitten with it.
“I fell in love with Golden Gate Park—that’s what happened. That is basically the deciding factor of why I didn’t go home,” she says, adding that LJRS is “sort of a love letter to Golden Gate Park.”
With sunny weather forecast for San Francisco over the weekend, a good-sized crowd is expected on Saturday.
Berkowitz and Sáenz recommend bringing a blanket or a folding chair. Or listeners can find a spot along the huge fallen tree to lean against. And, of course, don’t forget to bring a light jacket.
Light Jacket Reading Series #11 is at 3 p.m. March 16 in a field near 25th Avenue and Lincoln Way in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. For details, visit instagram.com/lightjacketreadingseries.