the estuary beyond, static hiss of a distant island
–from “[Cali]For[Nia]”
Alemany Bay Window / Redwood Coast Record Crate is David Maduli’s dual poetry collection rooted in the physical, cultural, and emotional geographies of a shifting San Francisco Bay Area. Side A tracks the textures and reflections of his family home in the Outer Mission District, a space of history and memory for multiple generations since the migration of ancestors from the Philippines. The B-side speaks through this DJ’s affinity for vinyl grooves, record sleeves, liner notes and samples to intone the musicality of living in and moving through the world. Segueing within and between both works, Maduli charts displacement and knowing, rhythm and resistance—a testament to what we hold dear and what legacies we carry.
Available Now
and at these independent bookstores and more:
- E14 Gallery, Oakland
- Chapter 510, Oakland
- Spectator Books, Oakland
- Pegasus Books, Berkeley
- Medicine for Nightmares, San Francisco
- Green Apple Books, San Francisco
Paperback / 86 Pages / ISBN: 978-1-965439-00-5
Published by Sampaguita Press / Distributed by Ingram
Listen to the exclusive audio companion mixtape.
“Sometimes the most profound assertions in poetry are the ones made of the smallest gestures. We exist in a world where poetry is often written with a capital P and yet David Maduli crafts a poetry devoid of such trappings and reliant on the quietude of the everyday life.
—TRUONG TRAN, author of book of the other: small in comparison
“A gift of poetic oral histories…Maduli has a beautiful yet painful reflexive way of pursuing ‘poetic justice’ by weaving his memory with ours and those of the times.”
—ALLYSON TINTIANGCO-CUBALES, Professor of Ethnic Studies, San Francisco State University
“This isn’t just a book: it’s an art object. You will read, you will rotate, you will sift through… Stylistic shifts and forms mirror the thematic exploration of memory and identity and music across the A side and B side, where fragments of experience become a more complex whole.
—KEVIN DUBLIN, author of Eulogy and founder of The Living Room SF
“Here is a thoroughly rigorous Filipino American hip hop poetics in full effect, in full affect, a heavily gorgeous feat of language that happens only inside the bass-booming quiet of witness”
—JASON MAGABO PEREZ, San Diego Poet Laureate 2023-24
“Alemany Bay Window is tangled histories and foggy memories of a city, a youth, a family, a home. Feels like one long dream; feels like life.”
—ROGER BONG, owner of Aloha Got Soul record label and record store in Honolulu
“For Redwood Coast Record Crate, David Maduli spins forth his own liner notes for 16 key albums from his personal audiobiography. Each poem is a wild-style mix of prose and layout that capture the kinetic pulse of hip-hop classics just as well as the modal vibe of a deep-groove jazz pressing.”
—OLIVER WANG, author of Legions of Boom: Filipino American Mobile DJ Crews in the San Francisco Bay Area