Paul S. Flores

Paul S. Flores is one of the most influential Latino performance artists in the country and a nationally respected youth arts educator. He creates plays, oral narratives, and spoken word works about transnationality and citizenship that spur and supports societal movements that lead to change. Flores' work has played all across the United States and internationally in Cuba, Mexico, and El Salvador. His commissions have come from the California Arts Council, Creative Capital, La Peña Cultural Center, MACLA, MAP Fund, Pregones Theater, National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, National Performance Network Creation Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, the San Francisco Arts Commission, the San Francisco International Arts Festival, and the Yerba Buena Arts Center among many others. Flores is also known for playing professional baseball for the Chicago Cubs before moving to San Francisco and becoming co-founder of the Latino poetry performance group Los Delicados, co-founder of Youth Speaks/Brave New Voices: National Teen Poetry Slam, an HBO Def Poetry Slam poet, a PEN award-winning novelist, and a 2015 Doris Duke Artist.

Flores’ ability to paint a vivid picture of the bi-cultural Latino experience is shaped by his personal background and experience growing up in Chula Vista, California, near the Mexican border. His full body of work touches on the immigrant story in all its complexities: from the violent—forced migration, gang life, war, incarceration, and separated families—to zooming in on intergenerational relationships and the struggle of preserving important cultural values. As a San Francisco artist of Mexican and Cuban-American heritage, Paul S. Flores has built a national reputation for interview-based theater. He integrates Latino and indigenous healing practices to tell the stories of real people impacted by immigration and systemic inequalities. From “Along the Border Lies,” “Brown Dreams,” to “Representa!,” “YOU’RE GONNA CRY,” “PLACAS,” “ON THE HILL: I AM ALEX NIETO,” to “We Have Iré,” his most recent play, Flores dives deep into his themes.

“We Have Iré” explores the real lives of Afro-Cuban and Cuban-American transnational artists living in the United States, and their influence on and experience with American culture. “On The Hill: I Am Alex Nieto” brought San Francisco communities together divided by gentrification and police violence. “PLACAS: The Most Dangerous Tattoo” was based on testimonies of members of MS-13 in California barrios as they attempted to rebuild their lives through laser tattoo removal and therapy. “YOU’RE GONNA CRY” documents the demographic shift of The Mission District after the "dot-com" boom. “Representa!,” chronicles what happens when Chicano spoken word poet Flores and Cuban rapper Julio Cardenas meet in Cuba at the Havana Hip-Hop Festival.

Flores moved to San Francisco in 1995. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, San Diego; and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. He teaches Hip-Hop Theater and Spoken Word at USF, San Francisco State University, and the Prison Arts Project at California Medical Facility in Vacaville State Prison. He lives in San Francisco with his children.