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While his note is geared to Palabra Pura poets, I would ask gente in the Chicago area and elsewhere to read this, give generously, and support what is a seminal Latino poetry venue. Palabra Pura Feed the soul, celebrates our luminaries, makes poetry accessible for our community in a way that no other literary institution does. For more info about who and what Palabra Pura is, read: http://labloga.blogspot.com/2007/07/conversation-with-francisco.html
and http://labloga.blogspot.com/2008/02/palabra-pura-news-new-latino-poetry-on.html.



October 16, 2008

Dear Lisa:

As a board member of the Guild Complex in Chicago, last year I had the privilege
of weighing in on the discussion that produced this re-vamped mission statement:

The Guild Complex, a community-based literary organization, presents and
supports diverse, divergent and emerging voices through innovative programs
including performances and readings. We look at literary culture and ask,
“What’s missing?”

In the Fall of 2005, then board member and current board president Mike Puican
answered that question (“What’s missing?”) in the following way: “There are no
poetry reading venues in Chicago that deliberately and systematically welcome
Latino and Latina poets.” So when Mike called me one morning and asked if I
would be interested in helping create a Latino poetry reading series, one of my
most enriching professional collaborations began. You know what I am talking
about because you are a PALABRA PURA alum. And I am writing to more than thirty
of you—our PALABRA PURA familia!

As the Guild Complex moves forward in planning season four (2009), we are faced,
as you can imagine, with growing challenges. We’ve received funding in the past
from the Illinois Council on the Humanities and the Joyce Foundation. In fact,
we have a grant proposal submitted to Joyce right now. We also recently
submitted a proposal to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for PALABRA
PURA. And yet we have come to understand that in order for this series to have
long-term viability, we are going to have to tap individual giving, as well.

And it occurred to me: who better understands and, I hope, appreciates this
series than those poets who have read in it? Who better understands that
PALABRA PURA aims to promote community between poets, specifically through our
pre-reading salon dinners, in addition to providing a Chicago venue for Latino
and Latina poets to share their work?

We have ten readings per year where we invite a “visiting poet” from outside
Chicago. With me so far? We are asking you to look at it this way: We are
asking you to donate $5 to each of those ten visiting poets. If you can think
about this in terms of giving future Palabra Pura readers $5 each, it will go a
long way towards our being able to keep offering honoraria, in addition, of
course, to travel and lodging.

And here’s the part I like the most: it’s a model for increasing sustainability.
Next year, at the conclusion of season four, we’ll be joined by more PALABRA
PURA alums, so that each year your $50 donation will be increased (if we remain
faithful) by at least $500. It’s as if we were all forming a living and growing
endowment for the future of the series. But don’t get me wrong: the annual
budget for PALABRA PURA is much much larger than the $1500 or so I hope to
raise from all of you. But it is an excellent and meaningful start at being
more intentional about tapping individual giving. Also: future potential
funders will be impressed if we can say that former participants in the series
are among our most faithful supporters.

And finally: your $50 donation buys you an annual membership to the Guild
Complex. If you have any questions about what a Guild “membership” means, please ask
(this letter is already too long!) And it goes without saying that if the
spirit moves you to donate more than $50 please do so since I imagine and
understand that there may be personal economies who can’t give as much as $50.
It also goes without saying that any amount, however modest, would be greatly
appreciated.

In a nutshell: I am asking you to consider making a tax-deductible donation of
$50 towards a program you were a part of and, we trust, was a meaningful
experience for you. You can make your donation by writing a check to “The Guild
Complex.” Please write in the memo line “Palabra Pura.” Alternatively, you can
make the donation online through pay pal by going to the Guild website (
http://guildcomplex.org ). We only ask that you let us know if you have gone
this route as we would like to keep track of the number of PALABRA PURA alums
who have contributed. If you opt to send a check, the mailing address is:

Guild Complex
P.O. Box 478880
Chicago, IL 60647-9998

Again, please feel free to contact me, or Ellen Wadey, the Guild’s Executive
Director, if you have any questions.

Thank you so much,

Francisco

Francisco Aragón
Co-curator, PALABRA PURA
Board member, The Guild Complex