Life & Work with No Pulp Poetry Club of Long Beach

Today we’d like to introduce you to No Pulp Poetry Club

Hi No Pulp Poetry Club, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
No Pulp started in 2022 as a multimedia recording studio. At one point, James and Dan got the idea to have a poetry open mic in their studio in Downtown Long Beach. Abeni found it on eventbrite and helped by posting about the open mic. At this time, there were a lot of people in Long Beach that had just started getting into poetry. No Pulp quickly became a sort of home base for that Long Beach poetry crowd. Tony and Malory were amongst them. In early 2024, James and Dan wanted to expand the open mic and incorporate different poetry projects under the umbrella of No Pulp. They then asked Abeni, Tony and Malory to join the collective. Now, in early 2025, No Pulp is not only a poetry open mic but we also host poetry events, publish a quarterly zine, and host a poetry video series on YouTube and TikTok.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It’s been relatively easy. We’ve hit a few road blocks, mostly interpersonal. Any group of five people will disagree at times. But we always talk it out. Even when we don’t agree, we always work to understand each other. There’s respect and communication, so it works. There’s also a full scope of POVs between the five of us. It usually seems to work out that there are opposite opinions and then a few opinions scattered in the middle. So, we always seem to end up with a good balance.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We are best known for our Poetry Open Mic which we do twice a month in the courtyard behind Recreational Coffee in Downtown Long Beach.

On the 2nd Monday of the month we have a different guest host, someone from the community. And on the 4th Monday of the month, Tony Godino, one of our organizers, will host. The vibe is unique in that it leans toward silly and fun but keeps space for the artistic expression of serious issues. We think both are important and too much of either is a disservice to the crowd and the craft.

We also do a poetry zine and a poetry video series on YouTube. These projects exist primarily to highlight the community in which we’ve been so fortunate to find ourselves. It all circles back to the open mic. That’s where the magic happens. It feels corny to call it magic but if you come by some time you’ll see what I mean.

Individually, all of us are working artists that strive to publish, produce books, and perform our art.

Abeni – Poet – a few books available

Tony – Fiction writer and Poet – books available, currently querying a novel

James – Videographer, director, music producer, musician, and poet

Malory – Photographer, videographer, and poet

Dan – Visual artist and poet

Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
We draw most of our inspiration from our community. The poets that we see every other week at our open mic are enough to fill us up for a lifetime.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nopulppoetryclub/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS-e7FeZHD3JAKC2-4i3zcw
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@nopulppoetryclub?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

Image Credits
Theron James and Malory Padilla