By: Erik Brooks,
on 6/3/2016
April is Poetry Month. Here is a story about finding yourself/your identity and your place in the world – all in nicely written verse. (Images to post very soon.) Bartholomew Quill: A Crow’s Quest to Know Who’s Who Written by Thor Hanson Illustrated by Dana Arnim Little Bigfoot 4/05/2016 978-1-63217-046-0 32 pages …
By: Erik Brooks,
on 1/17/2016
By: Erik Brooks,
on 8/5/2015
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By: Cynthia Reeg,
on 4/25/2008
By: Manuel Ramos,
on 2/7/2008
GLORIA VELÁSQUEZ SCHOLARSHIP
The Johnstown (CO) Breeze features an article about one of our favorite people, Gloria Velásquez, poet, novelist, professor, activist, and how the memories she carries about her brother have resulted in an attempt to help young people get into college. Here are the first few paragraphs of the story. At the end is info about how you can help the effort.
By Matt Lubich
The Johnstown Breeze
He remains forever just a kid. Frozen in the amber of grief over a life lost too soon. After nearly four decades, eyes now framed with wrinkles have to squint when they look back to recall when he was alive, but even today, tears still come when they do.
But perhaps, his memory will help send another minority young man or woman off to college, rather than to war.
Writer and former Johnstown resident Gloria Velásquez is trying to establish a scholarship at Roosevelt High School in memory of her brother, John Robert Velásquez, who was killed in the spring of 1968 in Vietnam. He was the first, and it is believed only, casualty from the community in that war.
Velásquez, a noted Chicana writer and poet, and a professor of modern languages and literature at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, Calif., started the scholarship a while back, but it hasn’t been awarded for several years.
“I had started it, and then it sort of died out,” she said. “I tried to revive it last year, but it didn’t work out, so now I’m trying to get it going again faithfully every year.
“It’s only $500, but it’s coming out of my pocket,” Velásquez said. “I just want to get someone excited about the idea of going to college. Like the encouragement I got from some people. I want to see someone who has the potential maybe get a door opened for them and know that they can also achieve an education.”
Velásquez wants the scholarship awarded to an African American or Latino/Chicano student at Roosevelt.
Read the rest of the story here.OKLAHOMA SERIES FEATURES BLESS ME, ULTIMA
NewsOK.com reports that a series of lectures on the book Bless Me, Ultima will be sponsored by the Honors College of The University of Oklahoma. The lecture series is a prelude to a reading initiative on the book by the Pioneer Library System. The panels are scheduled from now until April 15. The novel, by Rudolfo Anaya, was selected by library officials as this year's Big Read book.
Eduardo Lago, born in Spain but now a resident of New York City, received the Bartolome March Award for Excellence in Literary Criticism for a comparative study of the three existing Spanish versions of James Joyce’s Ulysses. Lago has translated works by Henry James and numerous other American classics.
In his presentation, Lago will consider a series of themes as presented in the literature of various Latino writers, converging in New York.
For more information contact:
Ileana Rodriguez Ph.D., Director, Joseph A. Unanue Latino Institute
(973) 761-9422
[email protected]
The event will feature a gallery opening of paintings, photography and sculptures by some of Indiana's finest visual artists.
The gallery opening will be followed by refreshments and spoken word performances by the Philadelphia-based Asian American duo Yellow Rage, Tomás Riley and IU Professor Emeritus James E. Mumford.
The gallery opening begins at 6 p.m. in the lobby of the Ruth N. Halls Theatre. Spoken-word performances begin at 7 p.m. in the Grand Hall of the Neal-Marshall Center. The event is free and open to the public.
Yellow Rage
Yellow Rage's Michelle Myers and Catzie Vilayphonh made their first appearance together as Black Hair, Brown Eyes, Yellow Rage in December 2000 at the Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Slam in Philadelphia, where they made the semi-finals. Since then, they have performed on Simmons' Def Poetry Jam show on HBO, as well as at the HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, the APIA Spoken Word Summit and the New York International Fringe Festival. Their first CD, Black Hair, Brown Eyes, Yellow Rage, Vol. 1, is now available.
Tomás Riley
Riley is a poet, writer, educator and a veteran of the influential Chicano spoken-word collective The Taco Shop Poets (TSP). With TSP, he has appeared in the HBO documentary, Americanos: Latino Life in the United States and the PBS dramatic series American Family. He was profiled in Hector Galán's ITVS documentary series on Latina/o arts, Visiones. His spoken-word CD Message From the New Forreal debuted in 2003. He also performed on Chorizo Tonguefire and a jazz/word collaboration with Chicano artist-activist icons Jose Montoya and Raul R. Salinas titled Intersections.
His written work has been anthologized in Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam (Three Rivers Press, 2001), The Taco Shop Poets Anthology: Chorizo Tonguefire (Chorizo Tonguefire Press, 2000), Pacific Review and various journals and literary publications. Most recently his first solo collection of poetry, Mahcic, was published by Calaca Press in 2005.
James E. Mumford
Mumford is the former director of IU's African American Choral Ensemble. Although his career has included vocal performances with with Doris Dore's Opera Theater, the Baltimore Civic Opera and on Broadway as "Jim" in Porgy and Bess and "Audrey" (the plant) in Little Shop of Horrors, this will be his public debut as a spoken-word artist.
By: Manuel Ramos,
on 10/18/2007
Manuel Ramos
CASPER
The Casper College Literary Conference, whose theme this year was Spiritual Warriors, took place this week but I didn't know about it in enough time to provide advance notice. This annual conference was scheduled for October 17 - 19 in Casper, Wyoming. I do want to make note of the appearance of Ekiwah Adler-Beléndez at this conference. Blue Flower Arts has this bio of the young poet on its website:
"Blue Flower Arts is proud to introduce to the United States audience, 19-year old poet Ekiwah Adler-Beléndez, from Amatlan, Mexico, a small village an hour from Mexico City. The son of a North American father and a Mexican mother, Ekiwah is a poetic prodigy whose powerful verses have mesmerized Mexico's literary scene. Born September 14, 1987, Ekiwah is the author of three volumes of poetry: Soy (I Am); Palabras Inagotables, (Never-ending Words); Weaver (2003), his first book in English, and The Coyotes Trace, which features an introduction by Mary Oliver. Ekiwah lives in Massachusetts, has dual citizenship and is bilingual.
...
"Ekiwah, which means Warrior in the language of the Purepecha, is an appropriate appellation. He has been battling cerebral palsy at birth—born 10 weeks early and weighing less than two pounds. Ekiwah writes, 'I cannot walk by myself, yet in my poems I not only walk, but give myself license to have eight legs and experience movement. When I read a poem, on an ephemeral level I go to the places the poet describes.' His warrior nature also allows him this wisdom: 'I don't feel my cerebral palsy is a battle I have to win. I don't battle more or less then anyone else—my cerebral palsy is simply there. For me the connection of my name with my struggle has to do with the fact that I fought in my birth to live.'"
NYC
The auction, to be held November10, in the Hibben Center of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology on the UNM Main Campus, will be conducted with the assistance of R. B. Burnham Native Auctions. A preview of the items available for bid will be from 11:00 AM -1:00 PM, and the auction will start at 1:30 PM
This is the Press' first major fundraising event since the launch of its endowment campaign last spring.
"This is a wonderful opportunity for the Press and the public to support Native authors and artists and books about Native America," comments Luther Wilson, director of the UNM Press. "The funds we raise will help cover major expenses such as printing, research, permissions, and illustrations. The money will be applied to individual book subventions and to an endowment for long-term support. We are also pleased to be able to provide a sales venue for today's Navajo weavers. The pieces they are showcasing are truly beautiful."
The auction will be the first in a series of major events and outreach efforts by the Friends of the Press to raise funds for the $5 million endowment campaign launched this past May. The Press said in a news release that monies collected for the endowment will help it "publish high quality children's books on science and Southwestern cultures, defray cost increases in book production, perpetuate its commitment to high editorial standards and maintain independence in a world of publisher consolidation."
Premio Aztlán Literary Prize
