Letras Latinas, the literary initiative of the
University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, is pleased to announce Alexandra Lytton Regalado as
the third and final recipient of the PINTURA:PALABRA
DC Residencies. These one-week stints, for three Latina writers, took place
in 2015 (Laurie Ann Guerrero), 2016
(Gina Franco) and conclude in 2017.
Regalado will be in residence from June 12 to June 19.
Alexandra
Lytton Regalado’s reaction to being selected:
"As a mother, publisher, editor, translator,
and art advocate I spend a huge chunk of my day promoting other people’s work—granted,
they are people I love—but for me to have an entire week to focus on my own
projects is such a gift. It's a Godsend because it comes at a perfect time. My
first book of poems, Matria, launches in May (Black Lawrence Press)
and this residency will allow me to sink my teeth into my next writing project.
I work closely with emerging and established Salvadoran artists and writers
(who live in their birth country and abroad) and I’m interested in developing
transnational collaborative projects that combine writing with painting,
photography, film, performance, and installation art. More than just providing
pleasure, art plays a key role in challenging the way the world is represented
because it urges us to question interpretations and perspectives. In El
Salvador, a country overrun by violence, street crime, and corruption, where
all avenues of societal change are stalled or completely collapsed, and for
Salvadorans living abroad and contending with marginalization, discrimination,
and deportation, I believe art and literature can provide ways of promoting
reconciliation and reconstruction. I want to research how art and writing
intersect as forms of survival, resistance, protest. My agenda includes the
Sylvia Plath exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery, the National Museum of
African American History, the National Museum of the American Indian, the
Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Galleries for
Folk and Self-Taught Art and the craft exhibit at the Renwick Gallery, the
National Museum of Women in the Arts; and at the top of my list are the
Phillips Collection, the Hirshhorn Museum, and other contemporary art
spaces. Finally, I'm infinitely grateful to Letras
Latinas at Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, and to the residency's
benefactors, Molly Singer and Martha Aragon Velez."
*
Publication partners
for the first two residents are ORIGINS and The
Los Angeles Review, respectively. That work is forthcoming. Our thanks to
Dini Karasik and Blas Falconer for saying Yes. Letras Latinas has yet to
identify and enter into an agreement with the publication for our third and
final resident.
*
Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the Institute
for Latino Studies, strives to enhance the visibility, appreciation and study
of Latino literature both on and off the campus of the University of Notre
Dame, with an emphasis on programs that support newer voices, foster
connections between writers, and impact local communities.
Letras Latinas
would like
to thank
Molly Singer
&
Martha Aragon Velez
whose generosity
make
the PINTURA:PALABRA
DC
Residencies
possible
