Latino/a Featured Poets

Yaccaira Salvatierra @ The Acentos Review

 The Acentos Review is, I think, one of a handful of journals that is dedicated both to literary and community activism and to the publication of contemporary Latino/a literature that showcases the aesthetically and thematically diverse body of work being written by newer generation of poets. It has also become particularly effective at recognizing and supporting these emerging writers. Testament to this fact is the current issue of The Acentos Review featuring the work of Andrea Betran, Karina Billini and Yaccaira Salvatierra with her two poems “May” and “Luciérnaga.”

Here is an excerpt from “Luciérnaga:”

Luciérnaga, firefly, I didn’t believe you existed,

but there you were dancing in your radiance

along a damp Mexican path far from the city’s glow.

You were followed by a few others

flickering in and in like tips of fire;

you took them along the man-made trail

walled with dry bush and cacti;

you led them into an opening

among the thorned-arms of the maguey

as a deepening purple sky

slowly swallowed dawn’s dim light. 

I traveled behind you as far as I could,

but that was the last I saw of you.

[Continue reading.]

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Ruben Quesada @ Ostrich

A few weeks ago in an interview moderated by Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize winner, Sheryl Luna, Latino Poetry Now featured poet, Carmen Giménez-Smith expressed her enthusiasm for the diversity of Latino/a writers recently being published and for the main actors—journals, magazines, small presses—spearheading these publishing efforts. Among them is Nayelly Barrio’s Ostrich Review.

Issue two of Ostrich, features a poem by Letras Latinas-featured poet Ruben Quesada. Back in June of last year I had the opportunity to profile Ruben Quesada and his debut collection Next Extinct Mammal (Greenhouse Review Press, 2011), of which D.A. Powell writes: “Like Whitman, Quesada is a poet of motion—journeying to the center of the US… toward “that seam in space” where dream and experience intersect.”  His poem “On Telos” is currently featured at Ostrich.

[Continue reading.]

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David Campos @ Boxcar Poetry Review

Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize finalist, David Campos was the co-hosted the literary radio show Pakatelas on KFCF 88.1 FM Fresno from 2009-2011. And has his poems featured at The American Poetry Review, The Packinghouse Review, Connotation Press, Verdad, In The Grove, and The San Joaquin Review. His latest poem “After Hearing of My Father’s Passing” is a moving elegy masterfully interwoven with images of loss and redemption and is currently featured at the  Boxcar Poetry Review:

I remember the mountains, the echo of shotgun blasts

herding quails into the sky. Father, I remember hearing you

say how easier it would be to bury a father than a son.

This afternoon it is raining like that day I had no desire

to gut the deer hanging from the tree,

to carry the limp body over the hills,

to have its blood drip on my clothes

and dry in between my fingers.

I have no desire to lower your casket,

your body, into the ground, and watch it sway

before the hard wood of the coffin meets the soft earth.

I still remember the man who kept twenty paces ahead of me

up those mountains, who every now and then looked back

to make sure I was still there.

[Continue reading.]

Celebrating the Acentos Review with Eliel Lucero

This Sunday marks the one-year anniversary of the Acentos Review, an online journal publishing poetry, fiction, memoir, interviews, translations, and artwork by emerging and established Latino/a writers and artists. To mark this occasion, the Acentos Foundation will be hosting a free reading at New York's Bowery Poetry Club with contributors, organizers and supporters at hand to celebrate the moment. To give LETRAS LATINAS readers some more insight on the Acentos Review, I recently e-interviewed Co-Editor Eliel Lucero:

CAN YOU TALK A BIT ABOUT THE IMPETUS FOR THE ACENTOS REVIEW AND HOW YOU CAME TO BE ONE OF THE FOUNDING EDITORS?
Well the initial idea for an Acentos Review came in a meeting where all sorts of Acentos expansions were being discussed. I thought we should have a review but I didn't know that would involve me as an editor.

It seems like it was just an idea until Raina León, my co-editor, handled all the web stuff then we put out a call for submissions. Soon after, we began to be emailed from everywhere. It was an idea that manifested a lot quicker than I saw coming. That's the way I like it too.

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR GREATEST SURPRISE AS EDITOR?
As an editor what surprised me the most was the response. As we finished the first edition, I remember knowing that Raina would put it all up online, then the proofs online, and then the site went live. People began to email, text, and call me to congratulate me.

I guess until that point I was just working on a project with my friends. It was made real.

IS THERE A SPECIFIC AESTHETIC THAT CALLS TO YOU AS AN EDITOR?
I was faced with this question about a month ago, during a Q & A at the Hudson Valley Writer's Center. I am still a young editor, but what I realized when this question was asked, was that I don't have a specific aesthetic that calls to me. I work better from the other extreme–I know what I don't like very well. When I'm reading submissions and someone uses Spanish gratuitously a yellow card gets pulled from my shirt pocket and I give it a second look to see if I can look past the transgression. Some poems make it, some get a red card soon after, and get pulled off the field.

I think that I'm still building my aesthetic as an editor, which in big part has led to me questioning my aesthetic as a poet. I really look forward to the next year with the review. I'm learning more and more with every submission that I read; the good, bad and dirty.

WHAT'S THE BIGGEST MISCONCEPTION REGARDING LATINO POETRY TODAY?
As misconceptions go, I mentioned one before: Latino poetry doesn't need gratuitous Spanish words interspersed amongst the other words, the use of Spanish articles especially.

Another misconception is the identity poem. Although identity poems are important for the development of every poet, Latino poems are not limited to poems about being Latino/a, just poems written by individuals who consider themselves Latino/a.

YOU ARE NOT ONLY AN EDITOR OF THE REVIEW BUT ALSO A POET, STUDENT, TEACHER AND DJ. HOW DO ALL THOSE ROLES CONTRIBUTE TO YOUR OWN ART AND THE SELECTION PROCESS FOR THE REVIEW?
The editor hat I wear is exclusive. I try to put the other arts behind me a bit. I know what rhythm I like but I remind myself constantly that I don't want poems that sound like me, but poems that I want to sound like. Little pieces or tautology like that help me separate the arts.

The biggest thing is that as an editor I'm the critic, the enemy, not the artist. I'm not the artist until I'm putting it all together. But when reading submissions, I'm the villain that writes rejection letters after submission.

But I guess my roll as an educator does come out a bit. The voice that internally asks poets, "Did you really write that? Are you serious with that? Is that what you mean to say in these few lines?"

Sometimes reading submissions is a emotional exercise.

WILL YOU BE DJING THE ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION? WHAT'S THE MUSIC GONNA BE LIKE?
I wont be out in full DJ form, with turntables and such, because the time doesn't permit for such things, but DJ Feliz Cumbé (my alter ego) will make a special playlist. It'll have equal part roots, and some new school tunes that Latinos and everyone else should be listening to. It'll definitely include some Novalima, and Cultura Profetica. Palos, Digital Cumbia, Tribal Guaracha, and so many other forms of Musica Latina.

Music is poetry, the lyrics and the writing of every note. So as a DJ I guess I'm also a poetry editor, and my set is the review. I guess I was a bit wrong in the the last question. DJing definitely helps my selection, because I'm doing the same thing in a different venue.

Acentos Review's First Anniversary Reading and Celebration
Sunday, August 2nd, 6pm
FREE!

The Acentos Review Celebrates it first year with a reading with some of our favorite contributors. Please join us for this wonderful and FREE celebration.

Featured Readers include: Bonafide Rojas, Rodrigo Toscano, Edwin Wilson Rivera, Sheila Maldonado, Jose Gonzalez, Li Yun Alvarado, Pedro Marrero Jr., Shokry Eldaly II, Marie Elizabeth Mali, Liza Ann, David Ayllon, Mundo Rivera, Christina Olivares and Jennifer Prado.

The Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery (Between Houston and Bleecker)
F train to 2nd Ave, 6 train to Bleecker

Letras Latinas colabora con ParaEsoLaPalabra (PELP)....

...para presentar:

Urayoán Noel
(photo credit: Emmy Pérez)

Carlos Parada, a Salvadoran-born poet I met in October of 2006 in Washington DC, is who first spoke to me about ParaEsoLaPalabra. PELP is a collective who puts on Spanish-language cultural events that typically include poetry, music and the visual arts---evenings that are multidisciplinary in the best sense of the word. The events take place at the Haskell Center, which is part of the Folger Shakespeare Library on Capital Hill. Last friday, I attended for the first time:

With Naomi Ayala's assistance, Letras Latinas partnered with PELP to feature Urayoán Noel, who performed from his recent Spanish-language book (with companion CD), Boringkén, published in Puerto Rico by Librería La Tertulia and Ediciones Callejón.

Also performing that evening were Gabriel Lora and Paco Galarza, who form the Latin Jazz duo Smooth Continent. The evening was rounded out with the presentation of selected works by Cuban-born artist, Lázaro Batista.

And after the event itself is the post-event: a two block stroll to a local Greek restaurant where a few tables are put together and the PELP folks, along with invited artists and guests, sit down for a late dinner---not unlike, one might say, what PALABRA PURA and The Wind Shifts TOUR attempt to foster: breaking bread, drinking wine---in the company of new friends.

And among those new friends (though he didn't make the meal) was Bronx Boricua transplant in DC, Sami Miranda, recent reader at ACENTOS and author of the chapbook, landing, is always a roll of the dice, with beautiful cover and interior art by the aforementioned Lázaro Batista. Miranda, along with Batista and a few others form part of a collective called Tres Raices Arts Collective.

And really, that's what's been on my mind lately: collectives; collectives with common goals doing their thing. Another one I got a glimpse of last week was the Brookland Area Writers & Artists (BAWA), founded by poets Dan Vera and Michael Gushue. The concept is simple: monthly gatherings in an art gallery space to read poems (usually other peoples' poems) around a particular theme. The one last week: dogs. I read "Yoko" and "Sissy Boy" by Thom Gunn and Steven Cordova, respectively.

Special thanks to Neida Pérez, steering committee member of PELP, as well as her colleagues Sonia Gutiérrez and Arturo Salcedo.

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Naomi Ayala and Diana Pando read tomorrow at PALABRA PURA

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Letras Latinas would lastly like to join
the celebratory chorus for the launch of
The Acentos Review.
Congratulations to co-editors
Raina León and Eliel Lucero