It really shouldn't surprise anyone when the Arts Café Mystic poetry/music series comes up with a stellar presentation. Under the stewardship of Christie Williams, the ACM, which take place in the Mystic Museum of Art, routinely delivers evenings with world-class writers and musicians.

Friday's bill is similarly fine. José B. González, a Fulbright scholar and PhD who went to New London High School and Brown and is an English professor at the Coast Guard Academy, will read from his debut collection, "Toys Made of Rock." Born in war-ripped El Salvador and temporarily separated from his parents, who'd moved to the U.S. to find opportunity, González eventually reunited with them in New London. His experiences as a Spanish-speaking immigrant struggling in an unfamiliar culture gradually shaped his ambitions and accomplishments — through which he navigated via the therapeutic creativity of poetry.

"Toys Made of Rock," which was a finalist for the International Poetry Award, is a stunning, moving accomplishment — at once evocative, striking, brutal, heartbreaking, witty and triumphant — and the rhythms and musicality of the poems will become even more indelible when he reads the work.

Multi-instrumental trio The BeeKeepers will perform their harmony-textured folk-rock, and Julie Paul, Poet-Laureate of Manchester, Conn., serves as the event's Opening Voice.

For more on González, see an interview with the poet in Friday's Daybreak section of the The Day.

José B. González, Arts Café Mystic, 7 p.m. Friday, Mystic Museum of Art, 9 Water St., Mystic; $10, students under 21 free; (860) 912-244