| About Berkeley |
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 [Photo by stephmerry, courtesy of Google Earth]
Poets will not need a car. All our all-ages venues are easy walking distance apart, and a 15 minute stroll from the Host Hotel. Food, services, and any supplies a poet might need are all within 5 minutes’ walk from the Hotel. It is easy and inexpensive to take BART (our subway) from both SFO and OAK airports, with the Downtown Berkeley Station mere steps from our host hotel. Downtown SF is only a 30-minute $7.00 round trip BART ride away. The Bay Area is home to intense geographic beauty, from the rugged coast, to the soaring Redwoods, to the picturesque vineyards of Napa Valley, to the rugged coast, to the Bay itself. Weather changes in Berkeley are less dramatic than SF. Conditions are ideal in October and early November, before our rainy season begins. Cooled by ocean breezes in the summer, warmed by the Bay in winter, we have a mild climate year round. Temperatures in late October average in the high 60’s during the day, and low 50’s at night. Precipitation is minimal (less than two inches) at this time of year.
We are centrally located, both on the West Coast, and in the Bay Area. Over 6 million people are within 1.5 hour drive of Berkeley, and downtown Oakland is only 10 minutes away by BART. San Francisco is only 25 minutes away. Unlike The City, we DO have street and garage parking, especially in South Berkeley, should you choose to drive here. Diversity is a way of life in Berkeley. Our school district was the first on the West Coast to voluntarily integrate students. The East Bay has the most bi-racial married couples per capita in the US. The Bay Area is gateway to the entire Pacific, and sometimes almost feels like a different country! For example, our city council often passes resolutions praising or condemning US Foreign Policy! Walking in downtown Berkeley, you may hear conversations in more than a dozen languages and see people in ethnic garb from around the world. Our audiences reflect this richness, and everyone will benefit from Berkeley’s open-minded, friendly, and tolerant culture. Big audiences and Great Organizers are a hallmark of poetry events in the Bay Area. We host many poetry festivals and events in NorCal each year, attended by thousands. Right here in Berkeley, we’ve had over 1,100 at the National Collegiate Finals. 3,200 people attended the Youth Speaks Finals this year in San Francisco, and the Berkeley Slam itself averages 130 fans every week. With over 12 regular poetry slams in NorCal, we have an abundance of fans to invite, and experienced volunteers, and talented organizers from which to draw. Our goal is not only to present this incredibly talented community of poets to our enthusiastic Bay Area audiences, but also to give poets an experience they will never forget! Planning The Party will be the sole goal of Nazelah Jamison Jeffries (our Director Of Hospitality), and you know Bay Area poets KNOW how to have a good time! Berkeley is big enough to provide all the amenities of a cosmopolitan city, yet small enough to feel like college town.
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