Unfinished Portrait: Author Reading and Book Signing

Unfinished Portrait
Author Reading and Book Signing
with Luivette Resto
Tía Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore
Saturday, March 26, 2011
from 1pm to 3pm

Tía Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore is proud to present author Luivette Resto and her book Unfinished Portrait on Saturday, March 26th, 2011 from 1pm to 3pm. She will be reading from her book and signing afterward. Copies of the book will be available for sale. The event is free.

Unfinished Portrait is a collection of poetry focused on bilingualism, codeswitching, and the importance of documenting people, places, and events that haven't been documented or discussed enough.

Luivette Resto was born in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, but proudly raised in the Bronx. She received her BA in English Literature with a concentration in Latino Studies from Cornell University in 1999. In 2003, she completed her MFA in Creative Writing with a focus on poetry at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Her first book of poetry Unfinished Portrait was published in 2008 by Tia Chucha Press. Her book was named a finalist for the 2009 Paterson Poetry Prize. For more info on the author Luivette Resto check out: www.luivetteresto.com.

A unique bookstore, art and cultural space that began in 2001 in the Northeast San Fernando Valley, Tía Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore continues to make the arts, dance, music, writing, theater, indigenous cosmology, and literacy the centerpiece of an on-going economic/cultural revival for the largely neglected Northeast Valley communities. Tía Chucha’s artistic and educational resources are a much-needed creative stimulus in the midst of these hard economic times. “In fact, it’s precisely in hard times that the arts become the engine for community renewal and regeneration—the only way through today’s chaos and uncertainties is with creativity,” asserts Luis Rodriguez, co-founder and author of the best selling memoir, Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in LA.

Tía Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides arts/music/writing/dance/theater workshops with a bookstore, internet access, art exhibits and performance space. Activities include Open Mics, film nights, author readings, writing circles, musical events, healing circles, and community dialogues. Tía Chucha’s also houses Tía Chucha Press, which in January 2009 celebrated twenty years of publishing quality cross-cultural poetry from around the country; a CD production project, Dos Manos Records; and Young Warriors, an arts-based youth empowerment project. Tía Chucha’s new location as of March 2009 is off the 210 Freeway, Hubbard Street exit, left at the Gladstone Avenue signal light, in the new yellow structure (across from the Fresh & Easy).