In this episode of The Storykeeper on Words on a Wire, host Tim Z. Hernandez sits down with poet, performer, and educator Darren J. de Leon to explore his new collection The Hoops and Crosses of Mt. Vernon (Hinchas Press, 2025). Blending poetry and fiction, de Leon’s debut offers vivid portraits of life in San Bernardino’s working-class neighborhoods and the formative tensions of growing up between danger and possibility.

De Leon reads from his stories “Kmart” and “This Street Does Not Go Through,” weaving memories of skateboarding under the glow of a department-store sign with reflections on inheritance, family, and survival. He discusses how his years teaching youth “in risk” shaped his desire to write for young adults—those on the edge of choices that can determine their futures. For de Leon, language itself becomes liberation: “There are no laws in poetry, only the word.”

The conversation traces his journey from the Mission District classroom to San Francisco’s electrifying 1990s spoken-word scene, where he co-founded the avant-garde ensemble Los Delicados. With Hernandez, de Leon revisits that era’s fusion of poetry, politics, punk energy, and Afro-Cuban rhythm that redefined Latinx performance art.

The episode closes with de Leon’s powerful reading of a coming-of-age poem about youth, desire, and self-discovery—an echo of the book’s central themes: voice, risk, and the freedom to define one’s own story.