S8: E16 In Celebration of the Muse

Cassandra Bautista, Rachel Huerta, Zoe Ly Sen & Andrea Wilson visit the KSQD studio with host Farnaz Fatemi to talk about the 44th annual In Celebration of the MUSE in Santa Cruz County. Hear some heart-stopping poems this hour! .....And, in addition to talking about this special event, each of the four commanding voices share their experiences with poetry and writing poems. Join us for an episode with these upcoming poets!Cassandra Bautista: Mexican-American poet from Los Angeles who recently moved to Santa Cruz to pursue Literature at UCSC. They are enamored by the way poetry weaves soul into its verse, capable of holding the essence of existence. Cassandra works in co-creation with life to reveal personal truths through writing, sharing experiences of migration, womanhood, magic, queerness, or just straight up living. They write for liberation and for any heart who may resonate with their poems.Rachel Huerta is an English major at Cabrillo College (transferring to Westmont College); she currently works as an English/Spanish tutor. Rachel served as an inaugural Youth Poet Laureate for the City of Watsonville (2023-2025), and her portfolio consists mostly of poetry and half-finished novels. She was once a featured speaker alongside Dolores Huerta – no relation, only wishful thinking. You can find her work in the Porter Gulch Review and Journal X.Zoe Ly Sen is a queer Vietnamese-American writer and painter. Their favorite color is forest green and their favorite painter is Francis Bacon. If they were a Pokémon they would be dragon-fairy type because they are their own greatest strength and weakness. Their life aspirations are going back to Vietnam as a teacher, also finding a warm place to rest their head. They believe in empowering indigenous youth to heal mother earth from settler-colonial violence. They want to live to see Palestine, Sudan, and Hawai’i be free.Andrea Wilson has lived and worked in Santa Cruz County for over 20 years but is originally from Massachusetts. They joined the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz about 15 years ago and volunteers at forays and events, including the Fungus Fair every January. Andrea graduated from Cabrillo, June 2025, with a degree in English. Their pieces can be found published in Cabrillo Watsonville's Journal X.