National Poetry Month @ POETRY DAILY

During National Poetry Month, Poetry Daily commissions poets to choose and comment on a favorite poem, usually by a deceased poet from previous centuries. Among those poets selected to take part this year are: 

Francisco Aragón

William Archila 

Brenda Cárdenas 

Carmen Giménez Smith

C. Dale Young 

and many others.

In order to read these poems and commentaries, one has to suscribe to Poetry Daily's FREE newsletter. For more information, and to suscribe, click here:

http://poems.com/about_newsletter.php

The fun begins tomorrow, April 1.

A Chicano Poet Returns to the Midwest of His Imagine-Nation

March 25, 2010

9:33pm


 Minneapolis Haiku

I read poetry
to a raza studies class
with one Chicano









March 24, 2010

9:19pm (central)

I am at the Wilson Library at the University of Minnesota in the computer lab, and it turns out my campus log-in info still works! I'm face-bookin' and g-mailing y todo, and I'm so glad because I didn't know what I was going to do if I could not put an entry for today's log. I could've waited until tomorrow when I would run into former colleagues and friends, "Orale Ray, let me bum a squat on your computer!" I don't think Mr. Gonzalez would like that very much. I would deserve any and all reprucussions if I approached my former mentor like that--hell I would probably lose my U of M library account, the one I haven't used in four years. Has it been that long?

Minneapolis and I presume, St. Paul is still in tact. I tell you this much, this is still a city of lots of lakes and brick, brick and yes, more brick, and the kind of downtown that my hometown Fresno has been dreaming about for a long time. Different from Fresno: no Chicanos. I know there are Chicanos and Latinos here, but today, I didn't run into a Chicano. The last brown man I ran into was in Phoenix. That's the Minneapolis I remember. It's easy to feel isolated among so many non-Chicanos (grant it, the Twin Cities are diverse), but it's not like running into the familar homeboys in my neighborhood, walking there trained, or not so trained, pit bulls. Chicanos are everywhere in Fresno. They are like the Norwegians and the Swedes that have pre-occupied the Upper Midwest for many generations; except they do it in Fresno!

1,800 miles. That's a long ways from Don Pepe's Taqueria and ice cream at La Reina de Michoacan. Nobody's sportin' a fade or wearing their Raiders or Niners jersey, I haven't swatted my neck once, like I usually do when the Ghetto Bird buzzes through my block. Don't get me wrong, I am happy to be back; happy to talk the kids in their Chicano Studies classes tomorrow, happy to read poetry for the creative writing program in the evening, happy to hang out with friends I haven't seen in years. It's all good--I'm slowly taking it all in--Minneapolis and the U of M in particular, thank you for welcoming me back: you didn't delete my log-in tag--I'll take this as your quiet, unassumming way of welcoming me back.

Michael Medrano



March 23, 2010
11:36pm (pacific)



When I left Minneapolis after receiving an MFA in creative writing  in 2006 I knew I would return. At the time I couldn't tell you when or in what capacity. But here I am, a new author of a book of poems, Born in the Cavity of Sunsets; a collection that was my thesis, poems that are a partof me much like the Twin Cities--memories of attending readings at the Loft, taking long walks through the campus of the University of Minnesota, across the Washington Street Bridge where the poet John Berryman took his life--I couldn't tell you how many times I looked down onto the Mississippi, only to imagine the jump and then quickly walk away as the idea of it all would begin to shake me a little.

But Minneapolis wasn't necessarily an easy city to live in. Famous are the long winters; you spend a lot of time inside, and if you're left outside during January too long you could die from frostbite. Okay, I confess, the weather is harsh, but it's bearable.  I'm mean, you've got poetry and great poets; James Wright used to teach at the U and Robert Bly has a legacy that will be hard to top (he belongs to the Twins as much as Levine belongs to my Fresno), today you'll see Ray Gonzalez as one of the few, or perhaps, the only Chicano in charge of a creative writing program in the United States, and all of these great poets are or were forever connected to that cold ass place--let me tip my hat to these poets, to Minneapolis/St. Paul, in the style of another revered poet, Gerald Stern, who visited the program during my tenure there and placed his fedora, literally, atop the bust of a statued John Berryman; it sits warmly in the programs office. Minneapolis, I look forward to blow my poetry Thursday night, to mix it up a little, to reclaim the spirit of that place.

Michael L. Medrano


Michael Luis Medrano was born and raised in Fresno, California, the heart of the San Joaquin Valley. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and he has performed his work at Stanford University, The Loft Literary Arts Center in Minneapolis, and the University of Colorado, Boulder. He served as poetry editor for the literary journal Flies, Cockroaches, & Poets, is featured on the spoken word CD "The Central Chakrah Project" (Metamorfosis Productions), and has taught writing workshops in Fresno and Minneapolis. Once again based in Fresno, Medrano is teaching, hosting a literary radio show, and writing a novel and a second collection of poetry.

GOOD NEWS DEPARTMENT:

Cardenas named Milwaukee's next poet laureate

By Jim Higgins of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: March 16, 2010 |(1) COMMENTS

Bilingual poet Brenda Cardenas will be Milwaukee's next poet laureate.

Milwaukee Public Library director Paula Kiely announced Cardenas' appointment in a statement Tuesday afternoon. Cardenas will be inducted as poet laureate at a ceremony at 7 p.m. April 20 in Central Library's Richard E. and Lucile Krug Rare Books Room, 814 W. Wisconsin Ave. The event is free and open to the public.

Cardenas' most recent book of poetry, "Boomerang," was published by Bilingual Review Press in November 2009. She is an assistant professor of English at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.

Local poet laureates serve a two-year term to promote poetry at library and community events. Previous laureates have included Susan Firer, Peggy Hong, Marilyn Taylor, Antler and John Koethe.

The laureateship is sponsored and organized by the Friends of the Milwaukee Public Library.

WANTED: Executive Administrator, San Antonio, TX

JOB OPENINGS AT THE MACONDO FOUNDATION

Executive Administrator, San Antonio, TX


CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

Dana Gioia to receive Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal

Dana Gioia, poet and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, will receive the University of Notre Dame’s 2010 Laetare Medal, the first poet to receive the most prestigious honor given to American Catholics. The medal will be presented during Notre Dame’s 165th University Commencement ceremony May 16 (Sunday).

“In his vocation as poet and avocation as arts administrator, Dana Gioia has given vivid witness to the mutual flourishing of faith and culture,” said Notre Dame’s president, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. “By awarding him our University’s highest honor we hope both to celebrate and participate in that witness.”

A native of Hawthorne, Calif., Michael Dana Gioia was educated in Catholic elementary and secondary schools before, as he has joked, he “traded down” for Stanford University, from which he was graduated in 1973, and Harvard University, from which he earned a master’s degree in comparative literature in 1975, studying with the classical translator Robert Fitzgerald and the poet Elizabeth Bishop. He returned to Stanford to earn a master’s of business administration degree in 1977.

Even while pursuing a business career from 1977 to 1992 with the General Foods Corp. in New York, where he served as vice president of marketing, Gioia wrote and published widely. He also served as poetry and literary editor for numerous magazines and won recognition for his own poems, including the Frederick Bock Award for Poetry in 1986 and the 1992 Poet’s Prize. He left General Foods in 1992 to begin writing full time.

Gioia has published three full collections of poetry, including “Interrogations at Noon,” which won the 2002 American Book Award. He also has published eight smaller collections of poems, two opera libretti and numerous translations of Latin, Italian and German poetry. In addition to editing more than 20 literary anthologies, he also writes essays and reviews in such magazines as The New Yorker, the Atlantic, the Washington Post Book World, the New York Times Book Review and Slate. His 1992 volume “Can Poetry Matter?” – which was widely discussed in both the United States and abroad – often is credited with helping revitalize the place of poetry in American public life.

From 2003 to 2009, Gioia served for two terms as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. He is credited with revitalizing an agency through which he sought to strengthen bipartisan support for public funding of arts and arts education, to champion jazz as a uniquely American art form, to promote Shakespeare readings and performances nationwide, and to distribute NEA grants more widely.

In a lecture in 2000, Gioia argued that art and Catholicism mutually flourish because “the Catholic, literally from birth, when he or she is baptized, is raised in a culture that understands symbols and signs. And it also trains you in understanding the relationship between the visible and the invisible. Consequently, allegory finds its greatest realization in Catholic artists like Dante.”

Gioia divides his time between Sonoma County in northern California and Washington, D.C., where he is a parishioner at the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament.

The Laetare (pronounced Lay-tah-ray) Medal is so named because its recipient is announced each year in celebration of Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent on the Church calendar. “Laetare,” the Latin word for “rejoice,” is the first word in the entrance antiphon of the Mass that Sunday, which ritually anticipates the celebration of Easter. The medal bears the Latin inscription, “Magna est veritas et prevalebit” (“Truth is mighty, and it shall prevail.”)

Established at Notre Dame in 1883, the Laetare Medal was conceived as an American counterpart of the Golden Rose, a papal honor which antedates the 11th century. The medal has been awarded annually at Notre Dame to a Catholic “whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the Church and enriched the heritage of humanity.”

Among the 131 previous recipients of the Laetare Medal are Civil War Gen. William Rosecrans, operatic tenor John McCormack, President John F. Kennedy, Catholic Worker foundress Dorothy Day, novelist Walker Percy, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, labor activist Monsignor George G. Higgins, and jazz composer Dave Brubeck.

More information on Gioia is available on his Web site at http://www.danagioia.net/.

"AQUI ESTAMOS": ACENTOS at Split This Rock

Sponsored by 

Letras Latinas

photos courtesy of Peter Montogery and Dan Vera

Courtesy of Dan Vera's Photo Album and Peter Montgomery

Split This Rock: Day 2

9:30-11 am   PANELS & WORKSHOPS 

The Peace Shelves: Essential Books and Poems for the 21st Century
(Sarah Gridley, Jeff Gundy, Fred Marchant, and Philip Metres)
Busboys and Poets, Langston Room

What are the books and poems that you think absolutely essential to our understanding of the causes of violent conflict, of the nature of dynamic peace-building, and of alternate visions of a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world? Four award-winning poets from different backgrounds, but with a common thread of peace-activism among them, will discuss what they think are the essential items needed on any Peace Shelf and invite audience members to offer their recommendations as well.
The Public Role of Poetry: How to Build a Poetry Reading
(Dan Wilcox and Toni Asante Lightfoot)
Thurgood Marshall Center-S 
This workshop will address the public role of poetry in the community. Participants will return to their home communities with the tools and knowledge to immediately organize a poetry reading or open mic. They will have identified venues, community organizations with which to partner, local community issues, and will have in-hand practical guidelines and checklists that will enable them to successfully stage their event.

Writing from the Margins: Life, Survival, and Healing for Women of Color(Alison Roh Park and Vaimoana Niumeitolu)
Thurgood Marshall Center-2 

Too often women of color exist at the margins. With a higher likelihood of poverty, low wages, single parenthood, violence, and sexual violence, many women’s lives follow a trajectory of pain and survival without healing. Creative Writing, however, offers tremendous power to heal, by sharing our respective stories and creating dialogue. In this workshop, we will use freewrites, prompts and writing exercises specifically created to elevate the experience and realities of a ethnically, sexually, generationally, and otherwise diverse community of women of color.

The Care and Feeding of the Rural/Small Town Poet-Activist
(Heather Davis, Kristin Camitta Zimet, José Padua, and JoEllen McNeal)
True Reformer Building-1

Where do we most need the poetry of witness—the city or the country? Some might argue that small towns and rural communities are in desperate need of progressive poetic voices. What does it mean to live and write outside the liberal urban environment? We’ll discuss how poets in “homelander” territory can survive and thrive while using poetry to bring about social change. Together, panelists and the audience will create a “Rural Poet-Activist’s Toolkit.”

Where the Island Sleeps Like a Wing: A Conversation with Cuban Poet Nancy Morejón
(Shani Jamila, Nancy Morejón)
True Reformer Building-2

One of the foremost Cuban poets, translators, and thinkers of her generation, Nancy Morejón has not visited the United States in years. Here is a rare opportunity to hear her perspectives on Cuban poetry, the writing life in Cuba today, and prospects for the future. Moderated by journalist and poet Shani Jamila.

11:30 am-1 pm   PANELS & WORKSHOPS

The War is Not Over: Writing About Iraq and the Case of the Mutanabbi Street Coalition (Persis Karim, Zaid Shlah, and Sarah Browning)
Busboys and Poets, Langston Room

This panel seeks to explore how writing about a particular moment (the Mutanabbi Street bombing) can illuminate for readers the idea that literature, poetry, the mere use of words to mark a tragic event, can foster some connection between cultures and between writers. The Mutanabbi Street Coalition sees its work—not just in terms of the event itself—but as a way to understand the very necessity of books, ideas, and the sacred spaces where books and writers gather.

Cross-Discipline Collaboration: How Writers and Artists are Working Together to Push Boundaries and Engage the Public
(Fred Joiner, Anne Becker, Sally Brucker, and Lucinda Dugger)
Thurgood Marshall Center-S 

This panel will highlight two different initiatives that produced collaborative projects among poets, visual artists, and dancers. It will explore how cross-discipline collaborations produce exciting, fresh works, lasting partnerships, and engage the public in viewing art differently. After briefly sharing their collaborative initiatives, panelists will engage the audience in a discussion about how cross-discipline partnerships can be used to spur public involvement in community issues, give a voice to both artists and writers, and encourage the creation of innovative works and ideas.

Giving Voice to the Silence/d(Patricia Monaghan, Annie Finch, Judith Roche, Patricia Spears Jones, and Richard Cambridge)
Thurgood Marshall Center-1 

Poets help us hear the world’s unheard voices. This includes the voices of men, women, and children who are denied the right to speak their own truth because of economic, political, and/or other oppressions. It also includes the voices of the natural world: animals, plants, and other beings who share the earth with humans and who are endangered by human indifference to their rights and needs. Participants in this panel will explore the challenges that they, as poets, face in serving as interpreters of the lives of human and non-human others.

Let Us Work Together: A Practical Guide & Discussion on Creating Community-Based Writing Projects
(Adriana Sánchez Alexander and Xelena González)
Thurgood Marshall Center-2

In this interactive session, we will share our experience and give examples of how poets can engage in public practice, using their craft to create powerful, transformative art and explore what it means to create work in partnership with community members not typically seen as “literary.” Ultimately, participants will gain the tools to set up their own creative writing projects that will engage their communities and support their work as poets and activists.

Gay and Lesbian Poetry in the 40th Year Since Stonewall: History, Craft, Equality
(Francisco Aragón, Jericho Brown, Reginald Harris, Janet Aalfs, Joseph Ross, and Dan Vera)
True Reformer Building-1

Forty years after the Stonewall riots, the beginning of the modern GLBT Civil Rights Movement, we will discuss the roots, craft, and witness of Gay and Lesbian poets today. We will discuss the inspiration we receive from our Gay and Lesbian ancestors: how being gay and lesbian affects our writing, and the hope that our writing witnesses to the Gay and Lesbian civil rights movement today.

1-2 pm        LUNCH BREAK

2-3:30 pm   FILM & PERFORMANCE

Split This Rock 2010 Film Program
Busboys and Poets, Langston Room

A screening of cutting-edge short films that showcase how poets, writers, and activists are collaborating with visual media artists to explore critical social issues. Edited by poet, filmmaker, and Director of the Poetry Center of Chicago Francesco Levato.

Reclamation, Celebration, Renewal, and Resistance: Black Poets Writing on the Natural World
(Camille T. Dungy, Gregory Pardlo, E. Ethelbert Miller, Remica L. Bingham, Thomas Sayers Ellis, and Mark McMorris)
Thurgood Marshall Center-S 

Reading their own poems and other poems collected in Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, DC-area African American poets will explore their beliefs about how claiming a stake in the natural world is a form of social and political activism.

7 & 7: 7 Poets Celebrate Kundiman's 7th Year
(Hossannah Asuncion, Ching-In Chen, Jai Dulani, Janine Joseph, Chi Lam, Joseph O. Legaspi, Soham Patel, Alison Roh Park, and Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai)
True Reformer Building-1

Kundiman poets gather to showcase a provocative range of voices and aesthetics engaging in a poetic conversation about building the imaginative capacity of our communities. Kundiman is dedicated to nurturing emerging Asian American poetry. In a culture where the lives and voices of Asian Americans are often marginalized or excluded, Kundiman works to overturn this inequality by creating a community where Asian American poets can articulate our struggles, possibilities, and liberation.

Beltway Poetry Quarterly Tenth Anniversary Reading
True Reformer Building-2

Reading by select guest editors featured in the Tenth Anniversary Issue of Beltway Poetry Quarterly: Naomi Ayala, Andrea Carter Brown, Sarah Browning, Regie Cabico, and Toni Asante Lightfoot. Introduced by editor Kim Roberts.

4:30-6 pm    POETRY IN THE STREETS (Upper Senate Park)

The United States has now spent $1 trillion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, our public schools and universities are facing massive cuts, millions of Americans are without health care, the earth is desperate for loving attention. Clearly, our lawmakers need the poets to tell them how to spend the next $1 trillion.
Bring your vision for the country and the planet to the Capitol! On Thursday, March 11, we will create and read aloud a collaborative Cento poem at Upper Senate Park.
Please bring a line from a poem (up to 12 words), by you or by someone else, that articulates this vision. Write or type your line on a piece of paper. Include the name of the poet, your name (if different), and your home town.
Feel free to bring signs, but no poles bigger than 3⁄4" around and no signs offering anything for sale.
The Cento will begin with these lines sent to us by Adrienne Rich, from “An Atlas of the Difficult World”:

I know you are reading this poem listening for something, torn between bitterness and hope
turning back once again to the task you cannot refuse ...

We will meet at Upper Senate Park, near Union Station, on Metro’s Red line (Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter on the Green/Yellow lines). The #96 bus leaves from the northwest corner of U and 14th Street NW and goes right to the park, stopping at the corner of D Street NW and Louisiana Avenue NW.

8-10 pm       FEATURED READING (Bell Multicultural High School)

Francisco Aragón

Lillian Allen

Mark Nowak

Nancy Morejón

10:30 pm-Midnight      OPEN MIC & FILM PROGRAM

Split This Rock 2010 Film Program
Busboys and Poets, Langston Room

A screening of cutting-edge short films that showcase how poets, writers, and activists are collaborating with visual media artists to explore critical social issues. Edited by poet, filmmaker, and Director of the Poetry Center of Chicago Francesco Levato.

Open Mic featuring Sulu DC
Marx Café

Hosted by Regie Cabico and featuring Sulu DC. Speak your mind, speak your truth, split some rocks. Bring a 3-minute poem and sign up at the door.
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Split This Rock: Day 1

2-5:30 pm    REGISTRATION/CHECK-IN OPENS (Busboys and Poets, Langston Room)

Online registration is open through March 5, 2010. If you register online, you will receive an email confirmation, but registration packets will not be mailed. Pick up your packet and festival badge at check-in. Student rates and scholarships are available.
Registering online will guarantee your spot!

6-7 p.m.       OPENING CEREMONY FEATURING YOUNG DC VOICES (Busboys and Poets, Langston Room)

Featuring young DC voices, including the Young Women’s Drumming Empowerment Project, the Shakti Brigade, winners of Split This Rock’s World & Me Youth Poetry Contest, and members of the DC Youth Slam Team. With readings of poems by Dennis Brutus, Lucille Clifton, and Mahmoud Darwish, plus the inspiring words of Howard Zinn.

8:00 pm       FEATURED READING (Bell Multicultural High School)

Andrea Gibson

Wang Ping

Cornelius Eady

Poets-in-Residence of Busboys & Poets: Holly Bass,Beny Blaq, and Derrick Weston Brown

10:30 pm-Midnight      OPEN MIC featuring mothertongue (Busboys and Poets, Langston Room)

Hosted by Regie Cabico, featuring mothertongue. Speak your mind, speak your truth, split some rocks. Bring a 3-minute poem and sign up at the door.

 

March 10 - 13: Washington, D.C.

FEATURED POETS

Panels, Discussions, Readings:

Wednesday, March 10

Thursday, March 11

Friday, March 12

Saturday, March 13

A sampler:

Thursday, 11:30 AM – 1:00PM

 Let Us Work Together: A Practical Guide & Discussion on Creating Community-Based Writing Projects 
(Adriana Sánchez Alexander and Xelena González)
Thurgood Marshall Center-2

In this interactive session, we will share our experience and give examples of how poets can engage in public practice, using their craft to create powerful, transformative art and explore what it means to create work in partnership with community members not typically seen as “literary.” Ultimately, participants will gain the tools to set up their own creative writing projects that will engage their communities and support their work as poets and activists.

Gay and Lesbian Poetry in the 40th Year Since Stonewall: History, Craft, Equality
(Francisco Aragón, Jericho Brown, Reginald Harris, Janet Aalfs, Joseph Ross, and Dan Vera)
True Reformer Building-1

Forty years after the Stonewall riots, the beginning of the modern GLBT Civil Rights Movement, we will discuss the roots, craft, and witness of Gay and Lesbian poets today. We will discuss the inspiration we receive from our Gay and Lesbian ancestors: how being gay and lesbian affects our writing, and the hope that our writing witnesses to the Gay and Lesbian civil rights movement today.

 Friday, 9:30 – 11 AM

Women & War/Women & Peace: International Voices
(Naomi Ayala, Elen Awalom, Kim Jensen, Lisa Suheir Majaj, and Pireeni Sundaralingam)
Thurgood Marshall Center-S

Even though women are rarely involved in launching wars—we bear the brunt of war’s nightmarish consequences; and then to further the assault—we are often silenced when we most need to speak. In this session we will expand our understanding of women’s solidarity—across national, ethnic, class boundaries. We hope to enlarge the context of our own creative work and engage in a dialogue about the role of women’s poetry in social movements. We will each share a few poems, and then engage in a moderated discussion with attendees and panelists.

 Saturday, 11:30 AM – 1 PM

Poesia Para la Gente: Writing to Save Lives
(Lorna Dee Cervantes)
Thurgood Marshall Center-2

We will write as much as we can using exercises. This workshop will cover the many ways poetry can fly off the page and infiltrate the hearts and minds of the people by remaining relevant. We will pay close attention to craft, voice, and ecopoetics so that getting poetry to fly off and on the page will happen seamlessly.

Fire and Ink: A Social Action Writing Anthology, and the Rewards of Teaching Activist Writing (Martín Espada, Alicia Ostriker, Patricia Smith, Diana Garcia, Melissa Tuckey, and Frances Payne Adler)
True Reformer Building-2

Martín Espada, Alicia Ostriker, Patricia Smith, Diana Garcia, Melissa Tuckey, and Frances Payne Adler, discuss Fire and Ink, a groundbreaking new anthology of 100 activist writers (University of Arizona Press) that marks the emergence of social action writing as a distinct field within creative writing and literature. Panel focuses on the rewards, rather than the trials and tribulations of teaching social action writing. Writers and teachers of political poetry are too often on the defensive.

 Saturday, 2 – 3:30 PM

AQUI ESTAMOS: A Sampling of Poetry From the Inaugural Acentos Poetry Festival
(Richard Villar, Martín Espada, and Marie-Elizabeth Mali)
True Reformer Building-1

This reading from the festival's inaugural lineup will be followed by an uncensored discussion involving the festival's organizers, keynote speaker, participants, and the audience. Among the range of topics for discussion: the continued necessity for a festival of this kind; the mission behind the festival's sponsor, The Acentos Foundation; the presence, or lack thereof, of Latinos and Latinas in U.S. letters; and matters of language, politics, and craft, as well as how/where/why these topics intersect. Cosponsored by Letras Latinas, the literary program of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

http://splitthisrock.org