A good mix of poets reading tonight...

A Sunday Kind of Love: Dan Vera & Steven Cordova (November 21, 2010)

This past Sunday, Letras Latinas joined Split This Rock Poetry Festival and Busboys and Poets as co-sponsors of a special edition of "A Sunday Kind of Love," a poetry reading series founded by Sarah Browning, and currently co-hosted by Katy Richy. Anyone wanting to take the pulse of Washington, D.C.'s poetry scene would need to attend a reading in this series, not only for its solid and diverse curation, but for the cool space the readings take place in: the Langston Room at Busboys and Poets on V & 14th in the U Street Corridor of the District.

Steven Cordova was joined by Dan Vera
for a memorable afternoon. Here are some pics:

mic & stage
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

poets Dan Vera, Carmen Calatayud, and Steven Cordova
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

the public: restless for poetry
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

 pre-reading pose
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

featured readers

Dan Vera
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

Dan Vera
(photo credit: Peter Montgomery)

Dan Vera
(photo credit: Peter Montgomery)

 Steven Cordova
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

Steven Cordova
(photo credit: Dan Vera)

Steven Cordova
(photo credit: Dan Vera)

 Steven Cordova
(photo credit: Dan Vera)

open mic

 Peter Montgomery
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

 Carmen Calatayud
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

el público
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

post-reading talk and smiles;
Sunday Kind of Love co-host Katy Richy is pictured on the upper left;
poet Joe Ross (seated in green shirt) also pictured.

Letras Latinas Presents: A Literary Salon (November 19, 2010): Steven Cordova

The intimacy of a literary event in a private home is something that appeals to me more and more. Two years ago, around this time (November), Letras Latinas hosted a reading/fundraiser in a private home in Santa Fe, NM, featuring Gabriel Gomez and Michelle Otero. 

What took place in Washington, D.C. last Friday evening was something else. First, Friday's event was more a conversation than a reading, though a few poems were read. And second, everyone present (or, every household present) went away with a book, courtesy of Letras Latinas. In this sense, it wasn't a book party where books were sold. Rather, guests were invited to learn about Steven Cordova, the writer, in his own words, and hear him read a few poems, as well as engage him in dialogue. In fact, an essay of Steven's, forthcoming in an edited volume, was e-mailed to the invited guests ahead of time to give them the option of learning a little more about Steven, his work, and his journey as a writer.

Steven Cordova with the spread

(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

Dan Vera and Robert Giron

(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

pre-salon eats

(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

getting started:

Steven Cordova, interviewed by Francisco Aragón

(photo credit: Dan Vera)

guests look and listen (1)

(photo credit: Dan Vera)

Steven makes a point

(photo credit: Dan Vera)

guests look and listen (2)

(photo credit: Dan Vera)

*

Letras Latinas programming in the Washington, D.C. area

is made possible, in part, to the generosity 

of the Weissberg Foundation

November 8, 2010 @ the University of Notre Dame

Before I flew west for the Latino Art Now! conference for the unveiling of Malaquaias Montoya's print-- inspired by Andrés Montoya's poetry--Letras Latinas hosted William Archila at Notre Dame on Monday, November 8, 2010. This is an area Letras Latinas aims to improve upon: bringing Latino and Latina writers to campus in collaboration with faculty who are teaching their book or books. In other words, the writers who come to Notre Dame will be influenced by who are being taught at Notre Dame. In William Archila's case, The Art of Exile is being taught this semester in an undergraduate course titled, "Migrant Voices." Here are some pics from his visit:

breakfast

Professor Tom Anderson and William Archila

at Sorin's at the Morris Inn
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

Professor Marisel Moreno, poet Lory Bedikian, 

and  Professor Tom Anderson
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

* 

a bit of a campus tour

William Archila on the second floor of McKenna Hall,

(home of the Institute for Latino Studies)

standing before the room where he will be reading later that day.
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

a crisp autumn day with golden dome
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

flyers on the first floor, O'Shaghnessy Hall
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

class visit

poet speaks to, and answers questions from,

students in an undergraduate course, 

"Migrant Voices,"

taught by Professor Marisel Moreno
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

lunch meeting with creative writing graduate students

in O'Shaghnessy Hall
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

Professor Marisel Moreno prepares to inteview William Archila

for the Letras Latinas Oral History Project

in the Julian Samora Library at the Institute for Latino Studies
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

signage outside 202 McKenna Hall
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

William Archila reads
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

*

post-reading reception and book signing

libros a la venta
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

signing and conversing
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

 poet holding a gift just handed to him
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

walking to dinner
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

two pairs with Performing Arts Center (PAC) as backdrop
(photo credit: Francisco Aragón)

"Untitled" by Malaquias Montoya, inspired by Andrés...

Malaquias Montoya

Plaza de la Raza, Los Angeles, November 11, 2010

Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize Initiative

Letras Latinas, the literary program of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, gratefully acknowledges Chicano artist Malaquias Montoya, who has created this silkscreen print (Edition 50). The work is inspired by the poetry of his son, Andrés Montoya (1968-1999). It includes lines from, “the escape,” a poem from Andrés Montoya’s award-winning book, the iceworker sings and other poems (Bilingual Press, 1999).

Malaquias Montoya had this say shortly after its creation:

“My son Andrés's poetry has always inspired me especially those poems that reflect the San Joaquin Valley.  Just as in Andrés's work, this print views the Highway 99 as an important symbol not only because it connects so many little towns throughout the valley, but also because it has always given hope to some that they might one day escape life's hardships and despair.  I've always been deeply touched by the protagonist in Andrés's poem "the escape," a man who leaves, even if only in his mind, the love of his life on the 99.”

Proceeds from the sale of this print will go towards two worthy projects: the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize, a biennial Letras Latinas initiative which supports the publication of a first book by a Latino or Latina poet; and the publication of a posthumous book of poetry by Andrés Montoya, edited and introduced by Chicano writer, Daniel Chacón. 

More soon....

Plaza de la Raza, Los Angeles, California

Latino Art Now!:

The New Wave/La Nueva Ola


Third Biennial Conference


November 10-13, 2010


Plaza de la Raza


Los Angeles, California

"My son Andrés's poetry has always inspired me, especially those poems that reflect the San Joaquin Valley.  Just as in Andrés's work, this print views Highway 99 as an important symbol, not only because it connects so many little towns throughout the valley, but also because it has always given hope to some that they might one day escape life's hardships and despair.  I've always been deeply touched by the protagonist in Andrés's poem "the escape," a man who leaves, even if only in his mind, the love of his life on the 99."

Malaquias Montoya

November 2010

“Untitled”
by Malaquias Montoya

(with lines of poetry from “the escape”
by the late Andrés Montoya)

will be unveiled tomorrow--November 11, 2010,

at Plaza de la Raza, Los Angeles, CA

the escape

it doesn’t matter that his chin is too long

or that the left side of his upper lip

is being pulled into his nose

by a hair of skin.

it doesn’t matter that he never asked

to the prom the girl who smelled

of rosemary and dirt wet

from the rain.

it doesn’t matter, the regrets for quitting

school at 16 for the job at PDM steel,

or that the union’s been bought

since ’76, or that since he started

callousing his hands on the cool

face of metal, he’s lived his life daily

asking like a child about to be beat,

“i wonder if they’ll lay me off today.”

he’s sixty now and never been married

and it doesn’t matter that he’s lonely,

that he left the woman of his dreams,

the hitchhiker he never picked up,

somewhere on the 99 south of Selma

in 1972.

it doesn’t matter that today he woke again

hating everything without knowing it.

it doesn’t matter that he’s drunk again

it doesn’t matter that he swerved

to miss the kids playing on the corner

of the prostitutes, that he plowed

his Pontiac into the waiting side

of someone’s car, that watching

were witnesses staring from the mouth

of the sorry street littered with fast food

bags and the fake ghosts of hope and life

teasing everybody.

it only matters, now, at the end of the long day,

that there are still two blocks left before he

can begin his journey up the walk to the waiting

cushions of the soft sofa staring out

from the crumbling house.

 “the escape” appears in the iceworker sings and other poems (Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingüe, 1999) by Andrés Montoya. It received the 1997 Chicano/Latino Literary Prize at UC Irvine, and the 2000 Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award for poetry.

Grateful Acknowledgement to Bilingual Press / Editorial Bilingüe, housed at Arizona State University's Hispanic Research Center in Tempe, AZ, for permission to publish this poem at Letras Latinas Blog.

***

The Latino Art Now! Conference is the leading national forum for artists, art professionals, curators, educators, scholars, critics, and art dealers. Through dialogue in roundtables, workshops and presentations, the conference examines the contemporary state of Latino art in the United States and the cultural forces that are presently shaping it. Join us for the latest issues, trends, and topics in Latino art and culture.

Conference features art exhibitions, book fair, tours to art center and cultural venues.

Facebook Page:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=154528701249829

IUPLR page:

http://www.nd.edu/~iuplr/news/lanc.php

November 1, 2010: Rentería Rentería Rentería