PALABRA PURA: 2009

Welcome to our fourth season.

Palabra Pura promotes literary expression in more than one tongue through a monthly bilingual poetry reading featuring Chicano and Latino artists. With an aim to foster dialogue through literature in Chicago and beyond, each evening pairs a local poet with a visiting writer along with an open mic to engage the interaction of diverse voices, ideas, and aesthetics. The readings are held the third Wednesday of the month (excepte August and December).

2009 Season

January 21

7:30 - 9:00 PM
@Décima Musa

John Murillo
Rafael Franco Steeves

***

February 13
Special Edition: "One Poem Festival"

(AWP off-site event)

6:00 - 7:30 PM
@Jazz Showcase

Lisa Alvarado
Carlos Cumpian
Silvia Curbelo
Gina Franco
Gabe Gomez
Irasema Gonzalez
Maurice Kilwein Guevara
Gabriela Jauregui
Olivia Maciel
Carl Marcum
Valerie Martínez
Orlando Ricardo Menes
Achy Obejas
Daniel A. Olivas
Johanny Vázquez Paz
Paul Martinez Pompa
Linda Rodríguez
Jacob Saenz
Jorge Sánchez
Juan Manuel Sanchez
Rich Villar

co-sponsored by Poetry magazine

***

March 18
7:30 - 9:00 PM
@Décima Musa

Joanne Diaz
Dawn Herrera-Terry

***

April 15
7:30 - 9:00 PM
location to TBA

Dan Vera
Carmen Alicia Murguia

***

May 20
7:30 - 9:00 PM
@Décima Musa

"The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry ON TOUR"
Rosa Alcalá
Albino Carillo
Carolina Monsivais
Lidia Torres

***

June 17
7:30 - 9:00 PM
@Décima Musa

Emma Trelles
Jacob Saenz

***

July 15
7:30 - 9:00 PM
@Décima Musa

Javier Huerta
Luis Humberto Valadez

***

September 16
time/location TBA

Juan Felipe Herrera

co-sponsored by the Poetry Foundation

***

October 28
7:30 - 9:00 PM
@Décima Musa

Dolores Dorantes
Laura Solórzano
Jen Hofer
(translator)

co-sponsored by Consulado General de México

***

November 18
7:30 - 9:00 PM
@Décima Musa

Rita María Martínez
Luis Tubens

***

Palabra Pura 2009 is a partnership between Letras Latinas, the literary program of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, and the Guild Complex in Chicago. Additional support is provided by contratiempo.

Inauguration Interlude (4)

Working from home today. The inaugural address read--for me--as a nudge to get to work. So later this afternoon, Letras Latinas Blog returns to the business of its mission. But first a brief, modest photo essay---of yesterday. I was glad to have been there---it's still sinking in.

Thousands began gathering at the mall well before daybreak.
We were among those who got a "late" start.

We entered the mall opposite the Capital, walking past the monument.

The jumbotron displaying a sea of people and flags.

Glimpse the Capital dome on the lower left.

The moment we came for.

President Obama begins inaugural address.

Elizabeth Alexander reads a poem.

Semi-official estimates: 1.8 million of us.

Inauguration Interlude (3)

Two who were at yesterday's concert

The photograph above, taken taken yesterday, January 18, at the concert, was my favorite. The boy in the red and gray coat atop his father's shoulders occasionally waved a flag. The girl in the foreground is wearing a prophetic hat. As I mentioned in my first "interlude": it seemed to me there were a lot of people of color strolling down Pennsylvania Avenue on Saturday. The same seemed to be the case at the concert.

Today, in the special inauguration issue of Newsweek, I read some interesting tidbits, such as:"[A]n expert in Hispanic demography noted that 50,000 Hispanics turn 18 every month, and two thirds of Hispanics are younger than 45...Demographer Bill Frey of the Brookings
Institution has maps that show that Hispanics and immigrants are now living in almost every county in the country."

And:

"We are heading toward a day when the people who are considered minorities will, taken together, account for a majority of the U.S. population."

I'd like to think that a meaningful countdown towards that day begins tomorrow.

I'm reminded of the ending of Francisco X. Alarcón's poem, "Letter to America":

en la cara
reflejamos
tu futuro

our faces
reflect
your future

*

And what about the concert? In some ways, it reminded me a well-commented poetry reading.
In other words, the pattern went something like this: a speaker would be introduced to say a few words about a particular theme, and a singer would follow with a song that seemed
somehow related to the stated theme. I enjoyed the speakers as much as the singers. I won't do justice trying to render highlights, but I was especially taken with Denzel Washington and Samuel L. Jackson among the speakers, and Usher (accompanied by Stevie Wonder, performing "Higher Ground) and U 2 among the singers. But really, they were all great.

And listening to Obama.

*

The other thing I might say at this point is that I'm physically tired. We walked to the concert (it took about an hour) and then stood the whole time while there, and then walked back, via Georgetown. But being physically present among so many fellow walkers and concert goers seemed sustaining.

Tomorrow promises to be more of the same. It's 10:30 PM and we'll be hitting the pavement tomorrow at 7 AM to see how close we can get for an 11:30 AM start. Estimates of a projected crowd fluctuate between 1 and 2 million.

Inauguration Interlude (2)

Here is the invocation by the Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson, bishop of the Episcopal Church in New Hampshire, that HBO did not broadcast:

Opening Inaugural Event
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC
January 18, 2009

Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president.

O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…

Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

AMEN.

Walking across the Roosevelt Bridge
with the frozen Potomac and the Kennedy Center
on our way to the Lincoln Memorial

Scoping the crowd

View of the Lincoln Memorial
and reflecting pool from the WW II Memorial

Bruce Springsteen sings first

An excerpt of Obama's remarks today:

[...] And yet, as I stand here tonight, what gives me the greatest hope of all is not the stone and marble that surrounds us today, but what fills the spaces in between. It is you - Americans of every race and region and station who came here because you believe in what this country can be and because you want to help us get there.

It is the same thing that gave me hope from the day we began this campaign for the presidency nearly two years ago; a belief that if we could just recognize ourselves in one another and bring everyone together - Democrats, Republicans, and Independents; Latino, Asian, and Native American; black and white, gay and straight, disabled and not - then not only would we restore hope and opportunity in places that yearned for both, but maybe, just maybe, we might perfect our union in the process.

This is what I believed, but you made this belief real. You proved once more that people who love this country can change it. And as I prepare to assume the presidency, yours are the voices I will take with me every day I walk into that Oval Office - the voices of men and women who have different stories but hold common hopes; who ask only for what was promised us as Americans - that we might make of our lives what we will and see our children climb higher than we did.

It is this thread that binds us together in common effort; that runs through every memorial on this mall; that connects us to all those who struggled and sacrificed and stood here before.

It is how this nation has overcome the greatest differences and the longest odds - because there is no obstacle that can stand in the way of millions of voices calling for change.

That is the belief with which we began this campaign, and that is how we will overcome what ails us now. There is no doubt that our road will be long. That our climb will be steep. But never forget that the true character of our nation is revealed not during times of comfort and ease, but by the right we do when the moment is hard. I ask you to help me reveal that character once more, and together, we can carry forward as one nation, and one people, the legacy of our forefathers that we celebrate today.

Two views of the crowd

Walking up 17th street afterwards

Inauguration Interlude (1)

It felt a bit like Barcelona today.

I was in the capital of Catalonia in the summer of 1992 during the Olympics. I'd managed to get a ticket to some 100 meter heats. But what I most remember was the sense of camaraderie among the throngs wandering the streets at all hours as the games unfolded. I'd lived in Barcelona for a year in 1987-88 and been back for long stretches so I knew the city well. But those few weeks in 1992 somehow felt different.

I was reminded of that feeling as we walked down Pennsylvania Avenue today, past the White House, heading towards the Capital---taking it all in before Tuesday (a sort of calm before a pleasant storm if you will). And I was struck by, yes, how many people of color I saw. African American families, Asians, Latinos, looking like they were on their respective family holidays---digital cameras and cam corders in hand, strollers (which will be prohibited on the Mall come Tuesday, for security reasons), mostly everyone wearing hats and gloves.

At one point, to get warm, we wandered into The Willard and slipped into the Round Robin Bar. Bill had "The Harrison" (warm apple brandy); I had "Winter Therapy" (steamed Bailey's), and Marlene the "Sugarplum Toddy." Because it was only Saturday, I imagine, it wasn't at all crowded, though the people sitting at the adjoining small tables were clearly from out of town. We were there for about an hour. I took a moment to return a phone call and spent a bit of time talking with Peter Ramos, who shared with me some great news: Roberto Tejada's next book of poetry had been recently accepted by Wesleyan University Press.

As we wandered out of the Round Robin into the hotel lobby we stopped for a moment at a large TV screen: Obama was about to speak in Baltimore---one of his stops today on his historic train ride from Philadelphia. There was a couple standing next to me, middle-aged, who were in town from New Mexico and would be attending the inauguration; they'd landed tickets from their senator. I mentioned to them how much I liked Santa Fe, Madrid, Albuquerque. I lament that I didn't get their names. Warm words, nevertheless, exchanged.

We continued down Pennsylvania, past the Newseum, until we finally found ourselves standing behind a low partition, oh, about 100 yards from the platform where the swearing in would be taking place. There was a huge jumbotron screen off to the right broadcasting a college basketball game in high definition. Workers were setting in place what looked to be the final chairs for those with tickets. Again, there was a healthy throng of visitors milling about, taking pictures, looking back to glimpse the monument three miles away.

We continued our trek and made our way past the Capital dome, on the right, and walked behind it to stroll across the area where a helicopter, on Tuesday, will land and take the 43rd president up and away and out of our collective hair, the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress just beyond.

Pennsylvania Avenue continues, and down it we went till we got to Mr. Henry's on Capital Hill. We went in and had an early supper, after which we boarded the Metro at Eastern Market to catch the orange line back to Arlington.

PALABRA PURA alum wins!

ARACELIS GIRMAY

Wins Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award

Release date: 12/31/2008

Curbstone Press would like to congratulate Aracelis Girmay for winning the 2009 Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award for her poetry collection, Teeth. This award reflects outstanding literary achievement in the judgment of a committee of scholar-critic-writers who have professional and personal commitments to excellence in literature and the encouragement of creative writing. Beginning in autumn of 2009, the winning authors from this competition will be invited to tour the GLCA member colleges, where they will read from their works and engage with students and faculty members in a variety of contexts, such as discussions, lectures, colloquia, workshops, and interviews.