Stanford Humanities Center
Antonio López (he/him/él) is a poet and scholar from East Palo Alto, California. He holds degrees from Duke University (BA in Literature and African & African American Studies), Rutgers University–Newark (MFA in Creative Writing), and the University of Oxford (MPhil in Modern Middle Eastern Studies), where he studied as a 2018 Marshall Scholar. His master’s thesis, Come Come Wherever You Are, offered an ethnographic study of a Turkish mosque in North London affiliated with the hizmet movement following the 2016 failed coup in Turkey.
Currently a PhD candidate in Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford University and recipient of the Stanford Humanities Center Dissertation Prize Fellowship, López’s research lies at the intersection of ethnic studies, oral history, urban planning, and critical race theory. His dissertation draws on archival film, photography, performance, and oral testimony to examine the afterlives of redevelopment in majority-minority cities, with a particular focus on East Palo Alto, California. Through a methodology grounded in sonic ethnography and community memory, his work contributes to interdisciplinary conversations about race, place, and the poetics of resistance.
López is the author of Gentefication (Four Way Books, 2021), winner of the 2019 Levis Prize in Poetry selected by Gregory Pardlo, and a forthcoming second collection. His writing has appeared in venues such as the Poetry Foundation, Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology, and The Slowdown. He previously served as councilmember and mayor of East Palo Alto (2020–2024), and continues to serve on the boards of several cultural and educational organizations across the Bay Area.
SHC Project
Hood Playin' Tricks on Me: Gentrification, Grief, and the Ghosts of East Palo Alto
Hood Playin’ Tricks on Me is a hauntological history of my hometown, East Palo Alto—the “most expensive hood in the world.” Structured as a Netflix-style docuseries, the book blends memoir, oral history, archival research, and autohistoria-teoría to examine how gentrification haunts communities of color. Each “episode” subverts the voyeuristic media gaze that has long caricatured EPA, reclaiming narrative authority through counter-archives and spectral storytelling. As a former mayor, son of immigrants, and scholar, I trace how residents confront erased pasts, mourn disappeared landmarks, and turn grief into resistance—because no place disappears if those who remember still speak.
- Books:
– Gentefication (Four Way Books, 2021): Winner of the Levis Prize, selected by Pulitzer Prize recipient Greg Pardlo. This debut poetry collection explores cultural memory, gentrification, and Latino urban grief through formal innovation and sonic lyricism.
– The Right to Remain Violets (Forthcoming): A hybrid manuscript of poetry and civic elegy, this work addresses racial hauntings, state violence, and collective mourning from the perspective of a poet shaped by community trauma and public service. - Anthology Contributions & Features:– Poetry Foundation, Poetry Daily, The Slowdown (podcast hosted by Ada Limón, U.S. Poet Laureate)– Over 50 poems, essays, and interviews published in journals such as Tin House, Lunch Ticket, Colorado Review, and Puerto del Sol
- Honors and Fellowships:
– Stanford Humanities Center Dissertation Prize Fellow (2025–26)
– Poet Laureate of San Mateo County (2025–2027)
– Pushcart Prize (2024) for “Our Lady of the Westside,” Poetry Magazine
– National Book Critics Circle Emerging Critic Fellow (2021)
– James Merrill Poetry Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center
– Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference Bakeless Nason Award in Poetry
– Martha’s Vineyard Institute for Creative Writing Award - Civic Literary Engagement:
– As Poet Laureate of San Mateo County, leads public poetry programs, workshops, and place-based literary initiatives amplifying historically marginalized voices across the Peninsula.
– Serves on boards of Mannakin Dance Theater (as president), Catalino Tapia Scholarship Fund, and El Concilio of San Mateo County, supporting the arts, education, and immigrant advocacy through a literary-humanities lens. - Selected Speaking & Public Appearances:
– Featured speaker or guest poet at UC Merced, Menlo School, The Harker School, College Track, College Success Conference, Utah Humanities Book Festival, and Bay Area Book Festival.
