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J. K. Fowler founded Huerto de Osos Perezosos to offer a safe and rejuvenative home-away-from-home for the reflective, creative mirrors of our troubled world: writers and artists.

He is also the founder of Public Planter Publishing Podcast and Consultancy, Nomadic Foundation, and Nomadic Press, a national award–winning community–focused non–profit publisher that was in operation from 2011–2023 and headquartered in Oakland, California, with additional nodes in Xalapa, Mexico, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the owner of Bundo, a café–pizzeria–librería–community event space in the heart of Xalapa, the capitol of the Mexican state of Veracruz, featuring artwork, writing, and performance from artists from all over Mexico and the world.

In 2021, he co founded Medicine for Nightmares Bookstore and Gallery in the heart of the Mission District in San Francisco with Tân Khanh Cáo and Josiah Luis Alderete. He has spoken to classrooms and organizations on small publishing and the art of making space all over the nation. He sat on the City of Oakland’s Cultural Affairs Commission where he spearheaded the launch of the first Oakland Poet Laureate Program in 2021 and from 2020–2023, acted as Co–chair on the board of North Atlantic Books and Secretary on the board of the Oakland Peace Center, and previously sat on Cogswell College’s English and Humanities Professional Advisory Board. He has taught anthropology and sociology at Rutgers University Newark and has guest lectured at Mills College. He has been published in a wide range of publications, including Poets and Writers, KALW, KQED, San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland Magazine, SF Weekly, Oaklandside, Oakland Voices, Datebook SF, Bay Area Reporter, and elsewhere, has performed across the Bay Area, Egypt, Mexico, and New York, and has been featured in a number of radio shows and online podcasts, including shows on KPFA, KPOO, StoryCorps, and others. He is the recipient of the 2016 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award and travels the world with a Kelpie named Stella.

For three years, he has working on a book titled Making Space, which is a wide–ranging nuts–and–bolts and how to publish creative nonfiction text paired with the aesthetic philosophy of literally and figuratively making space on the page and stage.

One day, he will finish.

You can read more about J. K.’s various projects on his website here.