The long-awaited sequel to the nationally-touring spoken word artist David A. Romero's full-length poetry debut Diamond Bars: The Street Version, Diamond Bars 2 is a novel in verse—a semi-autobiographical year-in-the-life of a poet protagonist working through grief, dealing with alcoholism, and coping with the fact that being a professional poet might not be all it's cracked up to be. Poems blend fact with fiction, serving up picaresque tales with recurring characters living out their own kind of limbo in Diamond Bar and its neighboring cities. A love letter to his hometown, Diamond Bars 2 paints vibrant portraits and landscapes of people and places known by the author; some long gone. 
 
Diamond Bars 2 features advance reviews by Rachel Khong (Real Americans: a novel), Gustavo Arellano (Orange County: A Personal History), Michael Torres (An Incomplete List of Names: Poems), John Brantingham (Life: Orange to Pear), Margaret Elysia Garcia (Graft), and gabor g. gyukics (detoxification of the body). Cover art by Julio Labra. Foreword by Kenneth Kirkeby. 
 
 
Copies ordered from this store are signed by David A. Romero. 
 
Diamond Bars 2 is published by Moon Tide Press. We encourage you to support his fellow Moon Tide Press authors.
 
 
Advance Reviews:
​
"Diamond Bars 2 is honest and kinetic. David A. Romero is the outspoken bard of the inland empire." 
—Rachel Khong, Author of Real Americans: a novel and Goodbye, Vitamin
 
"Who the hell writes about Diamond Bar?? David A. Romero does. Hilarious, lyrical, bare-knuckled, and brilliant, these are words all Southern Californians will think of next time they're stuck on the 57—and all other times, of course!"
—Gustavo Arellano, Author of Orange County: A Personal History
 
"Back with the follow-up to his 2010 Diamond Bars: The Street Version, David A.Romero maintains his focus on the Southern California landscape in Diamond Bars 2. The speaker in these poems confesses as much as he proclaims, with internal struggles that burst from the edges of lines. In some ways, this collection is a quest for comfort within one’s own city and culture; in others, Romero’s speaker's attempts arrive at his own story, both within and outside his Diamond Bar, upbringing, and everything else he’s inherited. In these poems, Romero extends himself. Creative and muscular—Romero’s is a hand reaching across the stage toward the audience."
—Michael Torres, author of An Incomplete List of Names: Poems, Creative Writing Fellow: National Endowment for the Arts, 2019
 
“Those of us who have lived in greater Los Angeles will identify what David A. Romero is talking about immediately in Diamond Bars 2. In some ways, these towns are unlike anywhere in the world, and Romero captures the energy and tedium and difficulty there with beauty. In other ways, Diamond Bar, CA is like every other city in the United States, and Romero captures the inherent contradictions and pains and joys of that too. Romero brought me back to the Pomona Valley with each poem. His work moves me.”
—John Brantingham, author of Life: Orange to Pear, poet laureate of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks
 
"David A. Romero's Diamond Bars 2 is a phenomenal seasonal cycle--a memoir of poetry that simultaneously delivers the raw honesty of the outsider while doing a deep dive inside the geography of the heart and culture of place and history."
—Margaret Elysia Garcia, author of Graft, Burn Scars, and the daughterland
 
“Romero's poetry produces rumbling musical and emotional effects capable of bringing out previously unknown volcanoes of ideas, images, and makes us rethink our past, present and future.”
—gabor g. gyukics, Beat Poet Laureate of Hungary, literary translator
 
 
About the Artist
 
Julio Labra is a painter living in Atlanta, Georgia. Julio was born in Idaho Falls, Idaho, the first born of three children. He grew up traveling around the US and spent most of his youth with his head in the clouds and his hands in a coloring book. Julio graduated from The Art Academy of Cincinnati as Valedictorian and moved to California to earn his MFA from Laguna College of Art and Design. Once he finished his education, he founded the gallery B Minus Studios and took on the role of Gallery Director. Working as a gallery preparator and professor he developed a strong connection to art education. In 2016 he moved to Qingdao, China to build the art department of an international school. Julio is currently a Foundation studies professor at Savannah College of Art and Design. 
 
Julio’s work utilizes a full color spectrum to form dynamic light. He utilizes fragmented shapes to create colorful and volumetric paintings that focus on the human form and nature. Julio’s paintings are covered in layers of geometric shapes that are filled with intense color. Placing each fragment in key locations, he creates the effect of kaleidoscopic form. The flat stacks of paint combine to create visual unity and movement. Julio primarily works on wood and paper, but any surface that is smooth and has a hard backing works best for his technique. Julio’s paintings bring together his love of color and volume, and his interest in the surreal and abstract.