"The Latino Cultural Revolution" by Gavin O'Toole

SINCE 1998, when the fourth anthology of Latino poetry mentioned by Francisco Aragón in the opening comments of his introduction to this collection was published, the demographic wind has most definitely shifted in the USA.

The multiplying Hispanic community has passed a significant census landmark: becoming, depending on how you care to see it, the country’s largest minority or its second largest ethnic group after the non-Hispanic white community.

While such a change may seem tangential to the rarefied world of poetry, it is no doubt indicative of the degree to which factors such as age and integration will influence the ever-changing mosaic of concerns within a large sub-culture anywhere.

NEWS FLASH: UC Merced Reading TODAY

WRITE LOOK LISTEN is the name of a literary reading series at the University of California, Merced in the Central Valley. I just learned today that

DAVID DOMINGUEZ
SCOTT INGUITO
ADELA NAJARRO

will be giving a reading to promote The Wind Shifts. I'm not exactly sure how far UC Merced is from, say, Fresno, or Visalia. But I'm just putting this out there in case anyone reading this is in the area, or knows someone in the area who might be interested in attending. I know that the anthology will be for sale at the event.

A special thanks to poet Jared Stanley, UC Berkeley and Iowa grad, who teaches at UC Merced for getting this reading organized and funded. Jared is also the editor of the online literary journal Mrs. Maybe.

I'm hoping to get photographs of the reading, which I'll post here.

---Logan, Utah

The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry ON TOUR

In a little over two weeks I'll be heading down to Palm Beach, FL to help launch:

The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry ON TOUR

The National Association for Latino Art and Culture (NALAC) in San Antonio started something called the NALAC Fund for the Arts a few years ago. They award modest grants to small organizations and Latino/a artists to carry out various initiatives. For example, recent recipients of this grant include elena minor (on behalf of PALABRA), and Rigoberto González (for travel assistance to attend an artist residency).

Thanks to a couple of private individual donors, the modest grant I landed from NALAC for The Wind Shifts has been more than matched and will allow me to at start The Tour. It's a two-year initiative that will take a different group of poets from the anthology to six cities. The proposed cities and venues are:

2008
The Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, FL
The Loft in Minneapolis, MN
Richard Hugo House in Seattle, WA
2009
Poetry Center San José in San Jose, CA
The Guild Complex in Chicago, IL
Poet's House in New York, NY.

All but two of the poets in the anthology are slated to take part. With the exception of the first reading, there will be four different poets at each event. In Florida, we will be joined by special guest Richard Blanco (who's slated to read in Seattle), and the arts writer for The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the poet Emma Trelles, who will be covering the event. Emma is also the guest editor of the forthcoming Cuban-American issue of MiPoesías.

This project would not be possible without The Guild Complex in Chicago, who is providing fiscal agency and logistical support. A special thanks, therefore, to Ellen Wadey, their Executive Director. The University of Arizona Press has put up a web page to highlight the 2008 readings. The Society of the Four Arts has announced the inaugural reading here.

The Tour kicks off with Sheryl Luna, whose second collection of poems, 7, was recently accepted by University of Notre Dame Press. She'll be joined by Kevin A. González, whose first book of poems is forthcoming from Carnegie Mellon University Press. Rounding out the roster is Eduardo C. Corral, who is widely published and is the current Olive B. Connor Fellow in Creative Writing at Colgate University.

Please spread the word if you know anyone who lives in or near Palm Beach, or Miami for that matter, which is not that far. And please forward this post and relevant links to places on the web that might seem appropriate.

Thank you, in advance, to AWP (All Willing People, according to RY) who are inclined to lend a hand.

***

The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry ON TOUR is supported in part by the Ford Foundation, JP Morgan Chase, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Southwest Airlines through a grant from the NALAC Fund for the Arts.

The Poetry Foundation: A collaboration

In the Fall of 2003, the current Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) visited the University of Notre Dame. I had just started my job at the Institute for Latino Studies (ILS) and with the help of the poet Kymberly Taylor, who was organizing his visit, we were able to set up a breakfast meeting with him, his assistant, my boss Gil Cárdenas (who collects Latino art), Kymberly, and myself. Thanks to that meal, the idea behind Poetas y Pintores: Artists Conversing with Verse was born. A grant proposal still had to be written---a task I didn't especially enjoy I can assure you---and the whole project still had to be put together: further partnerships had to materialize, most notably with the Center for Women's InterCultural Leadership (CWIL) at Saint Mary's College, where poet María Meléndez was a Fellow at the time (fiction writer Richard Yanez had been a Fellow there prior).

I remember that Dana Gioia's visit wasn't without its detractors given that he was appointed by the Bush administration. My first conversation with him---at a reception the night before the breakfast meeting---revolved around translating poetry. It was a subject we were both intensely interested in and it broke the ice, so to speak.

I also remember thinking that associating with him would perhaps raise a few eyebrows in certain circles. Shortly thereafter, I got an e-mail from a friend and fellow writer who saw nothing wrong with forming alliances in order to carry out important work---in this case: fleshing out a project that would heighten the visibility and appreciation of Latino poetry (Among the poets whose work Poetas y Pintores wanted to celebrate: Alberto Ríos, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Victor Hernández Cruz, Pat Mora, Rigoberto González, and Emmy Pérez, to name six).

*

This past March in Chicago, I had the pleasure of hearing Martín Espada read, in person, for only the second time. The first had been (as I mentioned in one my first posts here) back in the mid-eighties at Small Press Traffic, a wonderful neighborhood bookstore that was, literally, around the corner from where I grew up, in San Francisco. After Espada's reading, I was invited to attend a dinner in his honor. Sitting across from me was Emily Warn. Also present were Carlos Cumpian, whose MARCH/Abrazo Press has long been an inspiration, and Lisa Alvarado.

Much was said that evening.

Collaboration and partnerships are Letras Latinas' bread and butter---a philosophy I've embraced increasingly these last couple of years.

Here are six poems (and another six poets) I admire.