A New Rhyme: Valadez/Melendez, or Maria to the rescue...

First things first: Letras Latinas and The Guild Complex trusts and prays that Javier Huerta and his loved ones are okay and that the nature of his personal emergency, which prevents him from reading in PALABRA PURA this evening, is not of a serious a nature. We will miss hearing him perform his fine work. But more importantly, again, we hope things in his orbit are back on the mend.

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As luck would have it, poet and Momotombo Press acquisitions and managing editor Maria Melendez is currently on a plane heading to Chicago: she has graciously agreed to pinch hit at PALABRA PURA tonight. The evening, therefore, still promises to be a vital and interesting contrast of styles.

Maria was going to be present at the reading tonight anyway, along with fifteen very special guests: 15 school teachers from around the United States who are currently taking part in a four-week seminar on the teaching of poetry in schools at DePaul University, which is being led by Eric Murphy Selinger.

Tomorrow morning, Maria Melendez will be leading a three-hour session on the teaching of Latino poetry to k-12 students. This is what is bringing her to Windy City, and what is keeping me here an extra day. Among the texts the seminar participants have been reading are: The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry; Maria Melendez's How Long She'll Last In This World; "Gringo with Baedeker, Cortez in Kevlar" by Eric Selinger; the correspondence between Javier Huerta and Eric Selinger that was generated as a result of Selinger's aforementioned essay/review. In her presentation tomorrow, Melendez will also be using some of the poetry of Luis Valadez. I will be present, as well, and I am very much looking forward to meeting these generous individuals who want to make space for Latino poetry in at least 15 non-college classrooms around the U.S.

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Here is Maria Melendez being interviewed by Steven Cordova as part of Letras Latinas' Oral History Project. Note: scroll down to the 11th interview.

Dispatch Desde Lake Forest, Ilinois

It didn't fully register when Rich Villar wrote his comment a few days ago:

"Serendipity is a wonderful thing."

But tonight I sat in my room (I'm at Ragdale for a fortnight), put on some headphones so as not to disturb the other residents, and listened to the whole thing:

ACENTOS'

inaugural podcast
!

But I want to ask Rich Villar a favor: please post the full names and brief bios of all the people who took part in that fluid discussion. I was sad I didn't hear the whole thing, but what I heard was great. I won't attempt to highlight it. Except to say yes: it is uncanny that while being completely unaware that this podcast project was in the works, Latino Poetry Review made its first tentative steps over at Blogtalkradio. Listening to ACENTOS' debut in this arena will serve as inspiration and incentive to slate another LPR audio segment: we create these creatures, we have to feed them. And thank you, Rich, for mentioning PALABRA PURA's effort in Chicago. We're already thinking about 2009.

Although I can only speak for myself, this podcast tonight, coupled with thoughts about the soon-to-be Acentos Literary Review; and reflecting upon the lively launch LPR has had, provoking a healthy dose of "inquiry and dialogue" thanks, in large part, to Huerta/Santos Perez/Selinger; and thinking about Gabe Gomez's and John Michael Martínez's soon-to-be Breach Press, which will showcase experimental verse; and thinking about poet/doctoral candidate John Chavez at the University of Nebraska, whose area of inquiry is Latino experimental verse; and thinking about the fact that The Wind Shifts tour is gearing up for its next installment at The Loft in Minneapolis on May 31st, where Urayoán Noel (a podcast participant tonight), will be reading, along with Emmy Pérez, Adela Najarro, and Carl Marcum; and thinking about how Letras Latinas will be underwriting Ura's appearance in DC in mid-June at a Spanish language series called "Para Eso La Palabra"---all of this, and other things I'm surely forgetting (what am I missing?) has me posing the question:

Is Latino poetry living a particular moment right now?

DYI: Blogtalkradio / Letters to the Editor @ LPR

The Washington Post published a piece that caught my eye a few weeks ago about something called "Blogtalkradio." It seemed there was a technology on the web that would allow anyone with a phone, a computer, and an internet connection to have a "radio show." What I found appealing about the concept was that after the so-called "show" was "broadcast" (on the internet), it would remain in an archive as a podcast that anyone could subsequently listen to.

A few days after that, Craig Perez made mention of being interviewed and sharing some of his poems on what appeared to be a setup of this nature. (I say this because he mentioned "a mic and a laptop." But come to think of it: Blogtalkradio doesn't require host and guest to be in the same room; in essence, it's a recorded phone conversation that can include as many as six speakers. So perhaps it wasn't the same setup.)

Last week, I got an e-mail announcing, specifically, a forthcoming blogtalkradio show featuring Yusef Komunyakka and Sasha Feinstein (it took place on April 16). It included a link to blogtalkradio's website. I couldn't resist. I clicked. I looked around, browsed, heard a few snippets of this and that. One thing led to another and before I knew it I was creating an account and a profile and committing to a half hour slot for Sunday, April 20 at 11 PM eastern time! I had no idea if I'd be able to navigate the instructions. The site advised against using a cell phone and said that land-lines provided better sound quality, etc. etc. What was I getting myself into?

I had created what I'm calling the "audio segment" or "companion" to Latino Poetry Review (LPR). I threw up a description. Afterwards, I couldn't decide if I'd just do the first show on my own as a test run, maybe reading a few poems (by others: something I always like to do) with commentary, or if I might persuade someone to "be my guest." All the deliberate, long term planning that went into launching Latino Poetry Review (LPR)---well over a year's worth---was thrown out the window where this new LPR-related venture was concerned! I heard the Nike commercial throbbing in my ear: Just Do It.

And so I did. It easily ranks as the most impulsive, least thought out initiative, where Letras Latinas is concerned. But in the days leading up to the "show" I have to admit that the prospect of having an audio forum that would allow for further discussion and sharing of poems and ideas related to LPR's mission seemed both appealing and fun. I'm very grateful to the guest who accepted my invitation to, in essence, be a guinea pig.

After listening to the result last night at around 11:40 PM, which my guest generously claimed in a later e-mail was "pretty good for a first go around!", I think I can safely say the shows can only get better. I feel like a student in Radio 101 who has just turned in his first assignment and is thankful he's taking the course pass/fail.

My inaugural guest has graciously agreed to offer further feedback over e-mail about how the experience felt and how it could be improved. Readers of this blog who take the time to listen through the show are welcome, of course, to offer feedback and ideas for future shows---keeping in mind LPR's mission.

Latino Poetry Review's inaugural audio segment featured LPR contributing editor, María Meléndez, who read some work from her collection, How Long She'll Last In This World, as well as work from her second, full-length manucript. She also shared some thoughts on what I guess I'm coming to view as the continuing "Selinger-Huerta asunto"

And speaking of which: the ILS webmaster informs me, as I type this, in an e-mail: "OK it's up." He is referring to a "letter to the editor" Eric Selinger has written in response to Javier Huerta's thought-provoking "letter" in response to Selinger's piece in LPR, which originally appeared in Parnassus. To read them both, click here.

And finally, on this Monday morning, a hearty congratulations to Daniel A. Olivas who announces today the publication of Latinos in Lotusland (Bilingual Press, 2008)