CANTO A SAN FRANCISCO: An interview

One of the pleasures of directing Letras Latinas is forging all manner of relationships in various literary spaces. Some years ago, in San Antonio, TX, I had the pleasure of meeting Sara Campos at the Macondo Writers Workshop. In 2012, Sara was designated the Letras Latinas Residency Fellow.

Recently, I learned that Sara, along with Leticia Del Toro—both Bay Area natives—have embarked on a project that resonates with me: the curation of an anthology of Latino writing, whose working title is Canto a San Francisco.

—FA

What are you attempting to do in this collection?

Our intent is to showcase contemporary Latino writers, both established and emerging, in a multi-genre collection that evokes a deep sense of place and leaves readers with the lived experience of Latinos in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Why are you doing this?

The Bay Area consists of approximately 7 million people, approximately 23% of which identify as Latino. Yet, despite the rich historical imprints left by Latino ancestors and the significant contributions Latinos are currently making in the Bay Area, our community remains largely invisible. When we are seen, it is often as Hollywood stereotypes -- migrants, drug dealers, nannies, and gardeners. We want to tear down clichés and feature stories that present the vast experiences of our community – we are lawyers, dancers, bankers, curanderas, vaqueros, tech moguls, abuelitas, teachers, punk poets, playwrights, sex workers, stockbrokers, santeros, cholos, queer parents, nuns and more. We want to the world to see the vibrant tapestry that makes up our community.

What was the impetus for this project? 

Over the past two decades, the Bay Area has undergone major demographic shifts. An influx of tech money and other wealth has changed the face of San Francisco and its surrounding cities. Streets that had been thoroughfares for low-riders are now dedicated for valet parking. Uptown Oakland is one of hippest foodie hoods in the nation. As hipster economies thrive, families that have lived here for multiple generations are being pushed out. From 2009-2013, the Mission District, one of San Francisco’s historic Latino neighborhoods, shrank by 27 percent.  A recent report from the San Francisco City Budget Analyst projected that the number of Latino households with children would drop from 21% in 2013 to 11% in 2025, with the overall population of Latinos dropping from 48% in 2009-2013 to 31% in 2025.

We feel these demographic changes intensely and personally. We are both Bay Area natives -- Sara was born and raised in San Francisco and Leticia is from Vallejo, California. We both now live in the East Bay, but maintain strong ties to San Francisco. We have seen the Bay Area shift in unprecedented ways.

Why focus on the Bay Area as a place?

Place goes beyond the setting – it is a character that shapes us and helps mold our identities. As Dorothy Allison so aptly says, “Place is not just what your feet are crossing to get to somewhere. Place is feeling, and feeling is something a character expresses…Place is emotion.”

Since its earliest recorded history, the Bay Area has demonstrated an open and rebellious spirit, its westernmost port open not only to people from all parts of the world, but to an abundance of ideas. It has birthed movements – from labor to free speech, Beats to Hippies to refugees of Central American wars and sexual minorities seeking freedom and acceptance. It has been a left-leaning area, often on the vanguard of change, a bellwether for the rest of the nation. It is also place of unparalleled physical beauty, wealth and poverty, and innovation. How has this magnificent tierra inspired us and given us our Latino identity? This anthology seeks to answer that question.

How might this collection differ from previous anthologies of Latino literature?

 

The last Latino anthologies appeared over a decade ago. Since then, new writing deserving national attention has emerged. We aim to showcase some influential pioneers as well as emerging contemporary voices. We want to curate a range of work that reflects the multitude of sensibilities and experiences that are unique to San Francisco and its surrounding communities. Readers are familiar with Jack London, Dashell Hammett, Mark Twain, Armistead Maupin, Ferlinghetti and the Beats, but can the average reader comment on the Latino literary landscape?  It definitely exists! Cultural centers and galleries offer readings featuring Latino talent year-round. We want to celebrate that talent and capture the pulse of the city, particularly now that gentrification forces are attempting to force us out.

The Librotraficante movement, the We Need Diverse Books campaign and the VIDA count are all manifestations of communities clamoring for more representation in distribution and publishing. Have any of these movements influenced your project?

Absolutely. At the start of the Librotraficante movement, many Latino scholars, writers, and educators felt that the works they had studied at universities, classics of ethnic studies courses and books that gave voice to Latino identities were being targeted. It was a battle cry. We realized we not only had a literary heritage to protect, but also have a responsibility to find and publish more Latino literature. By seeking out emerging voices we are sustaining a vision for the newer generation of readers. Both of us are mothers who are strongly invested in our young readers. We are constantly asking ourselves, “What kinds of stories and poems are not out in the world and still need to be told?”

Do you think your focus on one geographic area will have a limited regional appeal?

San Francisco is a world-class city and the Bay Area remains a place of infinite imaginative possibilities. We believe U.S. and international readers are curious about the region, its inhabitants, the movements it has birthed, and the cultural forces that shape it.

What are you looking for?

We are seeking fiction, poetry, and nonfiction that speak to the richly textured experiences that make up Latino experience today. We welcome experimental language and poetry in Spanish. We are especially interested in how Latinos navigate changes amongst the mélange of cultures and class differences that currently inhabit the Bay Area.

Who are some of your influences and Latino literary heroes?

Leticia: I love the poetry of Lucha Corpi, Alejandro Murguia and Juan Felipe Herrera. For fiction, I turn to Helena Maria Viramontes, Julia Alvarez, Luis Alberto Urrea, and of course, Junot Diaz. From Mexico, Elena Poniatowska and Juan Rulfo remain my favorites.

Sara: I second all of the above-mentioned writers and add Gloria Anzaldua, Sandra Cisneros, Richard Rodriguez, Cristina Garcia, Francisco Goldman, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Daniel Alarcon, and too many others to name.

Where should people send in their pieces? 

Writers should send their best work to cantosf2016@gmail.com. 

Please review the submission call here: 

                                      CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Canto a San Francisco – An anthology of Latino Writing (working title): A call for poetry, fiction, and essays by and about Latinos in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Who are we as Latinos in the Bay Area? This anthology aims to showcase our stories and impressions of beloved characters, barrios, movimientos, coastal hangouts, quinceañeras, street fights, business negocios, victories and sorrows. We are busboys, lawyers, dancers, bankers, curanderas, vaqueros, tech moguls, abuelitas, teachers, punk poets, playwrights, sex workers, stockbrokers, santeros, cholos, queer parents, nuns,  sci-fi nerds and more. Tell us about the Bay Area city that has cradled you, called you, exalted or abandoned you. We welcome triunfos, tragedias and everything in between as long as your work involves Latino characters who are rooted in the locales of the greater San Francisco Bay Area. We want our lives present on the page.

Submission Guidelines: We are calling for submissions of fiction (up to 4000 words), poetry (up to 5 poems), and prose (up to 3000 words). All prose and poetry must be written by Latinos and must connect to the Bay Area. We want your most vibrant prose, poetry, and fiction. Spanish submissions welcome in poetry. Please submit a cover letter, specify the title of your piece, the genre, and any writing credits. Submit in rtf. doc., or pdf. Deadline: March 31st, 2016

Please send any inquiries and submissions to cantosf2016@gmail.com.

About the editors:

Sara Campos is a writer, consultant, and immigrant rights attorney with an MFA in creative writing from Mills College. She has published fiction, poetry, and nonfiction in a number of publications including, St. Anne’s Review, Rio Grande Review, Great River Review, Platte Valley Review, Cipactli, Colorlines, AlterNet Media, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Review of Books. She is also the recipient of the Letras Latinas Residency Fellowship, an Elizabeth George Foundation grant, residencies with Hedgebrook and the Anderson Center, and has been a Voices of Our Nation (VONA) and Macondo fellow. She is currently writing a novel of historical fiction set in Spain and Guatemala.

Leticia Del Toro is a Xicana writer, arts activist and teacher from Northern California with roots in Jalisco, Mexico. Her work has appeared in Zyzzyva, Mutha Magazine and  Palabra, among others. Her awards include a Hedgebrook Residency for Women Authoring Change, a fellowship from the New York State Writers Institute and other prizes. She holds degrees from UC Berkeley, UC Davis and is a VONA Voices fellow. She is currently producing a short story collection, Café Colima, which was a finalist for the Maurice Prize in fiction from UC Davis.


 

Christopher Soto (aka Loma): An Interview

Katy:  Hello Loma! Recently you visited the University of Notre Dame on your “Tour to End Queer Youth Homelessness” and gave a really fantastic reading. You spoke very passionately and sincerely about the struggles of queer youth, homelessness, police brutality, etc., and then, before reading your poems, you seemed to put on a different mask. You became poet-Loma, making jokes with your audience, playfully requesting a cup of water, and chiding with guest poet, Nate Marshall. Really you were just as lovely and funny as I had expected you to be. With lines like “Somewhere / There is a zine / I want to write / Called “Gay Daddy / Loves / Cum Dumpster,” “I wonder if heaven got a gay ghetto,” and “I’m the donkey clanking down the hall,” it’s obvious that wit and humor are important to you as a poet and person. Can you speak to how humor plays a role in your writing? In your everyday life?

Loma: A few years ago, I heard Anne Carson read at NYU. She was asked this question about humor in her work. She said, “50/50.” Anne was saying that she used humor 50% of the time. I feel similarly, I use it about 50% of the time. I’m thinking now about Morgan Parker, who during one of her readings had talked about a friend who said, “You seem like the kind of person that laughs after saying something very serious.” This resonates with me too. I am talking about very serious subject matters and want to laugh in between (and within poems) so that the pain doesn’t weigh too heavily. Now Maya Angelou “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” is in my head. I also am thinking about the use of wit and sarcasm in punk music. I am thinking about the campiness and queerness of my work. I think maybe its just pain. I laugh so hard and joke so often because I have been through hell and back, so I just want to smile whenever possible, whenever I have a chance because the opportunity may not come again soon (or so it feels).

Katy: There comes a certain anguish with writing about real-life things that have deeply hurt us and our psyches, perhaps past any chance of rehabilitation, for the sake of elusive, often flippant, catharsis. And yet sadness can be so beautiful:

“Broken-boys can’t / Make a proper home. / Just listen to my chest. / One-thousand lovers are stuck inside me / Beating--thud, thud, thud, thud, thud”

This particular moment in Sad Girl Poems strikes me with its slow, quiet nature. Vulnerability functions throughout this chapbook as a pulsing memory choking slowly on trauma. As a poet who writes as autobiographically courageous as you do, how does poetry function for you? How do you practice self-care while confronting loss?

Loma: The autobiography in this work is often distorted and not always me. The narrative is bent. Poetry, for me, functions as an attempt at making people think and feel deeply. I am not intentionally trying to capture moments or preserve memories. I want people to think and feel and act and live. And pertaining to how I confront loss, within my life and within my work. In creating this chapbook, I would cry and convulse and re-trigger myself and become a complete emotional mess in order to finish the poems. I wish I didn’t do that. I don’t believe in poets re-traumatizing themselves for a poem anymore. There are ways around this. Pertaining to my personal life, when I encounter loss I do a lot of things. I stop writing and allow myself to just experience the world and hurt and heal. I’ll take notes for this time but I won’t write intensely. I just need to heal. I spend time talking to friends and family. I exercise and watch my diet, sometimes I travel. I cry and paint and journal and listen to music. I pray… My junior / senior years of high school a handful of my friends passed away all of a sudden. I started taking hikes up a mountain by my house and writing letters to them at the top of that mountain. It’s a day long hike (to the top of Cucamonga Peak). I would sit at the top of the mountain, above the clouds and valley and I would write letters to them. Along the hike, I would feel all of their spirits walking with me and I would talk to them. This will probably sound insane to anyone who hasn’t experienced deep loss. I still hike up that mountain and talk to them once a year, in August. I want my ashes scattered there when I die. My family knows this. I’ve brought other friends with me on this hike before, when they were going through hard times.

Katy: In a collection of poetry so detail-oriented with pomegranate seeds, pigeon-shit, various sea creatures, etc., I have a very technical question to ask. What is happening in/to the poem when instances of ellipses occur? How does silence function in Sad Girl Poems, an otherwise screaming text?

Loma: It depends on where I use the ellipses. In “Home: Chaos Theory” I use the ellipses to break up different sections of the poem, as a bullet point might be used. In “Ars Poetica” I use the ellipses to pause because, as an author, I have no clue what I’m going to write next. So it functions as an internal pause in the middle of an urgent poem. Also, I completely destroy and disobey grammar in a lot of these poems. [Standard American English] Grammar is a tool of white supremacy which is used to disavow the vernaculars of brown and black communities. I love how my communities talk and I think grammar needs to be broken in order to capture the spirit of how folks actually talk and live and feel. I’m thinking about this quote that I read in Eduardo C Corral’s book, Slow Lightning. The quote is by Lorna Dee Cervantes, “only symmetry harbors loss.”

Katy: You’ve said before that punk is the music genre that you feel breathes life into your poetry. With as much wit, bluntness, and political anarchy that lives in your chapbook, I’m not surprised to learn that you love punk music. I’m interested to learn if there are other sources of meditation/personal interest that inform your writing. What’s your writing process?

Loma: Other interests that inform my writing are queerness, latinidad, Catholicism, police, immigration. If my poems could be food, they would be pupusas. Susan Sontag once wrote something like “An author is someone who is interested in everything.” My writing process is paused at the moment, as I am touring and healing from experiences earlier in this year. But when I am writing, I usually have two poems that I am working on at once. I start with an idea and take notes. I read widely and do research and meditate. I will work on a single poem for months, a year, longer. I will abandon poems and recycle lines or ideas that I like. I write in a quiet atmosphere with snacks nearby.

Katy: Are you a good mosher? What’s the difference between a punk show and a poetry reading?

Loma: Haha! I used to love the pit. In my hometown there were cliques that followed different bands and would “dance” together in the pit. I remember going to hardcore shows and waiting for the breakdown. I remember there are different “dances” from the breakdown, to the stomp, to the two-step, to the circle pit, to the wall of death. At hardcore shows, growing up, some people were really skilled and doing “windmill kicks” and backflips in the pit but I was never that cool. I was always kind of tactless and awkward in pits at hardcore shows. I used to like the pit at grindcore and power-violence shows more because you could just be closely pressed against and falling over other people while not having too much attention paid to your haptics. I hated crowd surfers above me but I loved to crowd surf. I remember people jumping off balconies and into the pit too. Sometimes I would wear neon-green booty shorts to shows and a headband and dance really faggoty in the middle of all the bros. Now, I’ve become the old guy that just stands in the back, bobbing my head to the music. And the difference between a punk show and a poetry reading is sweat. People sweat more in punk.

Katy: You do amazing activist work. I was thrilled to learn that as part of your “Tour to End Queer Youth Homelessness,” you’re conducting workshops on several social justice issues, as well as on literary issues of racism, transphobia, and structural oppression. Reading your political lines like “[When will we stop defining people / In terms of property ownership]? [This is about the criminalization of poverty],” I found myself grunting positively and in solidarity. In another excerpt, you write, “Let’s talk about queer pessimism / & how to decentralize happiness.” Can you expand on this?

Loma: I just pulled this text from Sara Ahmed’s “The Promise of Happiness.” In her words, “I agree: happiness is interesting. The more I follow the word happiness around, the more it captures my interest. We can still recognize the significance of queer pessimism as an alien affect: a queer politics which refuses to organize its hope for happiness around the figure of the child or other tropes for reproductivity and survival is already alienated from the present. Queer pessimism matters as a pessimism about a certain kind of optimism, as a refusal to be optimistic about "the right things" in the right kind of way.”

Katy:  During our group’s after-reading outing of salmon, whiskey sours, and marshmallows, you mentioned that one of your dream book blurbs would be by Angela Davis. Who are other activists that inspire you? Whose activist poetry do you learn from and recommend?

Loma: Yes, I want Angela Davis to blurb my first book when it’s ready because I’m writing about the prison industrial complex and she was one of the first prison abolitionists that I read. I don’t know her personally though, so I’m not sure that will happen. Another activist who inspires me, is named within a poem in this chapbook- Tuira Kayapo. You should google her. She’s a badass. And poetry activists that I read range from Roque Dalton to June Jordan. “Poem about Police Violence” should be on every poetry syllabus right now and should be sung at every march right now.

Katy:  Over at Lamda Literary, you’ve recently had an article published, titled “I Have Punk, Langston Had Blues, Lorca Had Gypsy Ballads.” You say that growing up with punk music helped you to trust your “poetic impulse.” Could you expand on the term, what it means to you?

Loma: I think about poetic impulse as the moment in a poet’s heart when the poem is speaking to them- when the poem says “hey, you should have a line break here” or “you should have an ellipses here” or…. We listen to some of these impulses and we edit some of the impulses away. In that comment within the essay, I was talking about using forward slashes to divide poetic impulses (that I usually have in relation to image). After forward slashes, I might change the image on impulse.

****

Christopher Soto (aka Loma) is a queer latinx punk poet & prison abolitionist. They were named one of “Ten Up and Coming Latinx Poets You Need to Know” by Remezcla. They were named one of “Seven Trans and Gender Non-Conforming Artists Doing the Work” by The Offing. Poets & Writers will be honoring Christopher Soto with the “Barnes & Nobles Writer for Writers Award” in 2016. They founded Nepantla: A Journal Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color with the Lambda Literary Foundation. They cofounded The Undocupoets Campaign in 2015. Their poetry has been called political surrealist and focuses on domestic violence, queer youth homelessness, and mass incarceration. Their first chapbook “Sad Girl Poems” was published by Sibling Rivalry Press in 2016. They received an MFA in poetry from NYU, where they studied with Eileen Myles, Yusef Komunyakaa, Marie Howe, Brenda Shaughnessy, Major Jackson, Rachel Zucker. Their work has been translated into Spanish and Portuguese. Originally from the Los Angeles area; they now live in Brooklyn.

Katy Cousino is an MFA candidate at the University of Notre Dame where she reads and writes poetry. She is the program's Outreach Coordinator and loves making connections with the community of South Bend. Some of her poetry can be found at Tagvverk, Deluge, and Seven Corners.

LETRAS LATINAS in DC: 2009 - 2016

PORTRAITS OF COLLABORATION:

Letras Latinas in DC, 2009-2016

 Eduardo C. Corral 

(as rendered by Dan Vera)

The programming Letras Latinas has carried out in Washington, D.C.,

during the period covered by this retrospective photo gallery,

was made possible thanks to the generosity 

of the Weissberg Foundation

 ********** 

LETRAS LATINAS 

@ the Smithsonian Museum of American History:

Poetics of Labor series

"The Bracero Program: 1942-1964"

Diana Garcia reading her poems

Fall of 2009

 ********

LETRAS LATINAS

@ Split This Rock Poetry Festival 2010:

Reginald Harris, Francisco Aragón, Janet Aalfs,

Jericho Brown, Dan Vera, Joseph Ross

Rich Villar, John Murillo, Marie Elizabeth Mali, Martín Espada

Letras Latinas-sponsored reading

**********

LETRAS LATINAS

presents

William Archila in DC (1):

with Frazier O'Leary's students

at Cardozo High School

book in hand: 

The Art of Exile by William Archila

spring of 2010

********

LETRAS LATINAS

partners with CAVE CANEM:

Kyle Dargan, Teri Cross Davis, Paul Martinez Pompa

Brenda Cárdenas, Camille Rankine, 

Gregary Pardlo, Francisco Aragón

@ The Writer's Center

Fall of 2010

**********

LETRAS LATINAS 

presents

Steven Cordova in DC: 

 

literary salon in a private residence

"In conversation with Steven Cordova" 

Steven Cordova reads his poems

at Sunday Kind of Love series

Fall of 2010

***********

LETRAS LATINAS, "patron" sponsor at AWP

***********

BELTWAY POETRY QUARTERLY

FLOR Y CANTO SPECIAL ISSUE

http://www.beltwaypoetry.com/floricanto/

***************

LETRAS LATINAS 

@ at Folger Shakespieare Library (1)

O.B. Hardison poetry series:

 J. Michael Martínez, Valerie Martínez, Naomi Ayala

winter 2011

**********

LETRAS LATINAS

presents

William Archila in DC (2): 

 Latino/a Poetry Now series (installment 2):

William Archila reads at Georgetown University

co-presented with Poetry Society of America 

and the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice 

spring 2012

************

LETRAS LATINAS 

@ the Library of Congress (1)

Lorraina López and Blas Falconer

presenting The Other Latin@

spring 2012

**************

LETRAS LATINAS

@ the Folger Shakespeare Library (2)

 O.B. Hardison poetry series

Francisco Aragón, Carl Phllips, Eduardo C. Corral

Fall 2012

**************

LETRAS LATINAS 

@ the National Press Club:

Neida Perez, Carmen Calatayud, Janice Law, 

Maritza Rivera, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Francisco Aragón

co-presenting with

"American Women Writers National Museum"

winter 2013 

*********

LETRAS LATINAS 

@ the Library of Congress (2):

Georgette Dorn, Rob Casper, Catalina Gomez

Fred Arroyo, Francisco Aragón, Maria Melendez

in the Poetry Room, Jefferson Building

spring 2013

**********

LETRAS LATINAS/

RED HEN POETRY PRIZE

 Dan Vera reading in Chicago

************************

LETRAS LATINAS

presents

PINTURA : PALABRA in DC (1): 

Blas Falconer 

@ the Smithsonian American Art Museum

January 2014

 Valerie Martínez

@ the Smithsonian American Art Museum

February 2014

 PINTURA : PALABRA workshop

@ Smithsonian American Art Museum 

February 2014

standing: Emma Trelles, Brenda Cárdenas, Carmen Calatayud,

Yvette Neisser Moreno, Valerie Martínez, Maritza Rivera,

Samuel Miranda, John Chavez, Carlos Parada Ayala

kneeling: Francisco Aragón, Dan Vera, Juan J. Morales

@Busboys and Poets, Sunday Kind of Love series 

PINTURA : PALABRA DC portfolio

featured in this issue of POET LORE

featuring work of DC workshop participants

 PINTURA PALABRA portfolio in POETRY, featuring work of

Blas Falconer, Brenda Cárdenas, Eduardo C. Corral

Valerie Martínez, Tino Villanueva, Laure Ann Guerrero
and others

**************************

LETRAS LATINAS 
@ the Library of Congress (3) 

Interview with Rigoberto González

after his lecture

"Latino poetry: 

Pivotal Voices, Era of Transition"
Spring 2014

****************
PINTURA : PALABRA in DC (2)

 Laurie Ann Guerrero,
the inaugural recipient of the
Letras Latinas Ekphrastic Residency:
 a literary salon
at the home of Kim Roberts
with Dan Vera as moderator
Spring 2015
*********************
LETRAS LATINAS
@ the Library of Congress (4)

 post-reading discussion with Tim Z. Hernández
Spring 2015
***********

 LETRAS LATINAS

presents

William Archila in DC (3):

William Archila reads his poetry 

for "Spotlight on U.S. Hispanic Writers,"

part of the Library of Congress'

Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape

in collaboration with LOC's Poetry and Literature Center

and the LOC's Hispanic Division

winter of 2016
Winter 2016
SPOTLIGHT ON U.S. HISPANIC WRITERS 

http://www.loc.gov/poetry/hispanic-writers/

William Archila reads at the Folger
Winter 2016

****************************

LETRAS LATINAS
co-presents 
the U.S. Poet Laureate in DC

in the  green room

at the National Portrait Gallery,

Juan Felipe Herrera, Arlene Biala, Diana Garcia

Juan Felipe Herrera

Arlene Biala Juan Felipe Herrera

Georgette Dorn, Diana Garcia

poets responding to

"One Life: Dolores Huerta"

at the National Portrait Gallery

spring 2016

***********

note:
This photo gallery is not meant to be a comprehensive visual record
of Letras Latinas programming in DC during the period covered,
but rather a generous selection.

Poets Unite: The Photo Gallery

"Poets Unite!" took place the evening of March 8, 2016 in Washington, D.C. and was presented by: the Library of Congress, Hispanic Division and Poetry and Literature Center; Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the University of Notre Dame's Institute for Latino Studies; the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. Additional support was provided by the Smithsonian Latino Center and the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.

NBC Latino published a piece ("Latino Poets Honor Civil Rights Leader Dolores Huerta"), which can be accessed:  HERE.(click)

Poets in the Green Room

The Program

Opening Remarks, with poets at the ready

Opening remarks by Taina Caragol, curator

of "One Life: Dolores Huerta"

Opening remarks (2)

Opening Remarks (2) by Francisco Aragon, director

Letras Latinas, Institute for Latino Studies

University of Notre Dame

Arlene Biala reads her poems

Arlene Biala reads her poems

Arlene Biala reads her poems

 Diana Garcia and Juan Felipe Herrera, in focus

 Diana Garcia takes the stage

Diana Garcia reads her poems

 Diana Garcia reads her poems

Juan Felipe Herrera reads his poems

Juan Felipe Herrera reads his poems

 Juan Felipe Herrera reads his poems

The poets follow up with their collaborative poem

The poets read their collaborative poem

inspired by Dolores Huerta

Juan Felipe reading part of the poem

 Arlene reading part of the poem

 Diana reading part of the poem

The poets with the public

 

 Georgette Dorn, Hispanic Division Chief,

Library of Congress, moderates

post-reading discussion

Arlene, Georgette, Juan Felipe, and Diana continue

their discussion before taking questions:

 

Post-event picture of the principal organizers and poets, L to R:

Francisco Aragón, Rob Casper, Anya, Creightney, 

Juan Felipe Herrera, Arelen Biala, Diana Garcia, Taina Caragol