Dreams, OMENS, and Language

Public Programs

Dreams, OMENS, and Language

Presented by Small Press Traffic & YBCA |

Wednesday, June 3, 2026, 6–8 PM

Dreams, OMENS, and Language: Writers respond to The Prince of Homburg

Small Press Traffic and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts present an evening of poetic texts in dialogue with the dream-like video installation The Prince of Homburg: A Solo Exhibition by P. Staff.

Four Bay Area writers—Marcel Pardo Ariza, Snowflake Arizmendi-Calvert, Mara Hassan, and willow wilderness hour—respond to the exhibition through newly commissioned texts which move between reflection, resistance, and reimagination.

The program celebrates the launch of Small Press Traffic’s “The Back Room” summer folio, OMENS, featuring all four writers.

The audience is invited to view the immersive film installation before or after the program. Entrance to the gallery is free.

Tickets

Grand Lobby, YBCA

Tickets: Free with registration

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is fully accessible.

Small Press Traffic is a Bay Area seedbed for poets who push boundaries in the arts. They present programs, publications, and curatorial opportunities with an ethos of radical inclusivity. Committed to this mission since 1974, they highlight diverse, multidisciplinary, and intergenerational practitioners in our public programs, and prioritize equity, accessibility, and collaboration in our working model. SPT also stewards an archive of small press material produced and circulated in the Bay Area over the last half century.

Marcel Pardo Ariza

Snowflake Arizmendi-Calvert

Mara Hassan

willow wilderness hour

Lead image: still from P. Staff, The Prince of Homburg, 2019. Courtesy the artist and Commonwealth and Council.

YBCA programs are made possible in part by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Blue Shield Of California, Bob A. Ross Foundation, City and County of San Francisco, Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), Malia Simonds, Mayor Daniel Lurie, National Endowment for the Arts, The Ron Conway Family, Salesforce, San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, The Svane Family Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Yerba Buena Gardens Conservancy, Yerba Buena Partnership, and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Board of Directors and Members.