"Serendipity is a wonderful thing."
But tonight I sat in my room (I'm at Ragdale for a fortnight), put on some headphones so as not to disturb the other residents, and listened to the whole thing:
But I want to ask Rich Villar a favor: please post the full names and brief bios of all the people who took part in that fluid discussion. I was sad I didn't hear the whole thing, but what I heard was great. I won't attempt to highlight it. Except to say yes: it is uncanny that while being completely unaware that this podcast project was in the works, Latino Poetry Review made its first tentative steps over at Blogtalkradio. Listening to ACENTOS' debut in this arena will serve as inspiration and incentive to slate another LPR audio segment: we create these creatures, we have to feed them. And thank you, Rich, for mentioning PALABRA PURA's effort in Chicago. We're already thinking about 2009.
Although I can only speak for myself, this podcast tonight, coupled with thoughts about the soon-to-be Acentos Literary Review; and reflecting upon the lively launch LPR has had, provoking a healthy dose of "inquiry and dialogue" thanks, in large part, to Huerta/Santos Perez/Selinger; and thinking about Gabe Gomez's and John Michael Martínez's soon-to-be Breach Press, which will showcase experimental verse; and thinking about poet/doctoral candidate John Chavez at the University of Nebraska, whose area of inquiry is Latino experimental verse; and thinking about the fact that The Wind Shifts tour is gearing up for its next installment at The Loft in Minneapolis on May 31st, where Urayoán Noel (a podcast participant tonight), will be reading, along with Emmy Pérez, Adela Najarro, and Carl Marcum; and thinking about how Letras Latinas will be underwriting Ura's appearance in DC in mid-June at a Spanish language series called "Para Eso La Palabra"---all of this, and other things I'm surely forgetting (what am I missing?) has me posing the question:
Is Latino poetry living a particular moment right now?
2 comments:
Francisco, the bios (cobbled together, to be sure) are up at my blog.
As far as particular moments go...well, in New York right now, we are reeling over this Sean Bell verdict, so you might say we're living another kind of moment: and for me, the question is, are poets, particularly those of us who were "raised" on DeBurgos, Pietri, Lorna Dee Cervantes and Martin Espada, et. al., ready and/or able to tackle injustices like this, or do we shrink behind the excuse that stuff like this is somehow beyond poetry? We pay much lip service to the intersection of poetry, community, politics, etc., but I think perhaps now is the time we actually started doing some intersecting.
Sorry if that's less than a direct answer to your question, but I'm afraid that's where I am right now.
That, and the campaign. Did you read Alice Walker's piece on BO, which Silliman linked a few days ago?
Thank you for posting those bios. I was especially struck with learning about your two features that night, as well as the professor at Fordham.
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