From 2014-2016, I was the official Poet Laureate of Los Angeles. I've been a professional writer since 1980 and have worked in daily newspapers, weekly newspapers, news radio, and as a freelance writer. I'm was a script consultant for the FX TV show "Snowfall," co-created by the late great John Singleton. I also teach once a week in two maximum security yards at a California State Prison. I've also written fifteen books in poetry, children's literature, fiction, and nonfiction. And I'm a community activist, having helped create a number of youth and arts related organizations such as Chicago's Guild Complex, Youth Struggling for Survival, the Humboldt Park Teen Reach, the Increase the Peace Network, Tia Chucha Press--and in LA, Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore, Dos Manos Records, and Barking Rooster Entertainment.Specialties: I speak and read around the country -- and internationally -- to colleges, universities, public & private schools, conferences, prisons, juvenile lockups, and more. I'm also a gang expert witness for asylum cases involving Mexicans and Central Americans.In addition I ran for California governor in 2014, endorsed by the Green Party, Justice Party, the Mexican American Political Association, and others. In 2012, I was vice-presidential candidate for the Justice Party with Rocky Anderson for President.