By Xánath Caraza
Los Norteños Writers, El Centro de la Raza, Seattle University (Department of Women and Gender Studies and Department of Modern Languages and Cultures), Hugo House, la Sala, José Carrillo, Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, Catalina Cantú, Robert Francis Flor, Denise Perez, Alex Bautista, Jim Cantú y todos, mil gracias for planning and sponsoring such a meaningful visit to incredible Seattle from December 10 to December 14, 2014.
Oh, yes, we had two wonderful poetry presentations, three poetry workshops, one writers workshop and one teacher training workshop. Seattle kept me happy busy, just as I love my visits.
Today, I have several guest writers. First is Kriten Millares from Seattle, who was kind enough to moderate our reading at Hugo House on December 12, and then I also have several poems from some adultos y some niños y niñas who were part of my workshops in Seattle.
Here is a piece from Kristen Millares, a few photos of the marvelous different events and poetry, la poesía written by all these norteños y norteñas y con esto me despido. Happy 2015 y viva la poesía!
LAS PALABRAS DE KRISTEN MILLARES
Few poets claim the stage like Xánath Caraza. Forget the modulated singsong of poetry voice. Caraza resounds. She sings. She breathes new life into her work with every performance. In short, she delivers.
I was honored to introduce Caraza’s reading at Seattle’s Richard Hugo House on December 12th along with Los Norteños poets Jose Carrillo and Catalina Cantú, who organized a series of readings and workshops to celebrate Caraza’s new book, Sílabas de Viento/Syllables of Wind, just released by Mammoth Publications, which also published her collection Conjuro in 2012.
But what does it mean to deliver a poem? Consider her poem “Yanga,” reproduced in part here with permission of the author.
Yanga, Yanga, Yanga,
Yanga, Yanga, Yanga,
Hoy, tu espíritu invoco
Aquí, en este lugar.
Yanga, Yanga, Yanga,
Hoy, tu espíritu invoco
Aquí, en este lugar.
Este, este es mi poema para Yanga,
Mandinga, malanga, bamba.
Rumba, mambo, samba,
Palabras llegadas de África.
Mandinga, malanga, bamba.
Rumba, mambo, samba,
Palabras llegadas de África.
In a linguistic tradition practiced by poets like Nicolás Guillén, Caraza summons the contributions of African culture to her motherland with onomatopoetic repetitions that recall percussive chants. Sounds academic, right? It wasn’t.
While Caraza is a professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, her stage presence is bold and anchored the deep reverberations of her voice and created an atmosphere in which anything might happen – in which the fugitive slave leader Yanga might appear, if only in the imaginations of the audience.
The recordings from that powerful night are not yet online, but you can sample Caraza’s style by listening to her read “Ante el río,”selected by the Smithsonian to promote Day of the Dead in 2013. Published in Conjuro, I’ve reproduced “Ante el río” below with permission from Caraza. Learn more about her at http://xanathcaraza.webs.com.
Ante el río
Como llorona estoy ante el río
Lamentándome por ti
Niño perdido
¡Ay de mí! ¡Ay de mí! ¡Llorona!
Como lagarto estoy sobre las piedras
Esperándote
En el río
Ave negra que nace del agua
Que abre sus alas
Y deja su historia salpicada
En el cauce del río
Dejando surcos en su vuelo bajo
Con su vientre pegado al río
Trinar sobre mis oídos
Rumor del agua
Bugambilias anaranjadas, fucsias, rosadas y blancas
Que están en mis sueños y
Me llenan la garganta
¡Ay de mí! ¡Ay de mí! ¡Llorona!
Eres tú el brujo y hechicero
Que se mete en mis sueños
Con el agua te lavo
Y te canto ante al río
¡Ay de mí! ¡Ay de mí! Niño perdido
Como Llorona estoy
Ante el río
Llévate mi tristeza niño hermoso
Lava mis penas en el río
Before the River
As Llorona I am before the river
Moaning for you
Niño perdido
¡Ay de mí! ¡Ay de mí! ¡Llorona!
As an alligator I am on the river stones
Waiting for you
In the river
Black bird born of the water
Opens its wings
And leaves its history sprinkled
By the flow of the river
Leaves tracks in its low flight
With its underside close to the river
Singing above my ears
Murmuring of water
Orange, fuchsia, pink and white buganvilias
Are in my dreams and
Fill my throat
¡Ay de mí! ¡Ay de mí! ¡Llorona!
You are the wizard and sorcerer
Who enters into my dreams
With water I wash you
And I sing to you before the river
¡Ay de mí! ¡Ay de mí! Niño perdido
As Llorona I am
Before the river
Take my sadness with you beautiful niño
Wash my sorrows in the river
Kristen Millares Young is a writer and journalist whose work has been featured by the Guardian, the New York Times, KUOW 94.9-FM, City Arts Magazine, Pacifica Literary Review, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Miami Herald and TIME Magazine. Kristen was the researcher for the NYT 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning story “Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek,” which also won a Peabody. Hailed by The Stranger as one of the “fresh new faces in Seattle fiction,” she was a 2014 Jack Straw Writing Fellow. She has been researching and writing her first novel for seven years. Kristen graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and from the Master of Fine Arts program at the University of Washington, where she studied and taught creative writing. She is a co-founder and board member of InvestigateWest, a nonprofit journalism center in the northwest.
LA POESÍA DE LOS ADULTOS
Daisy Chain
By José Carrillo
I had a dream
the sky was filled with blue stems
showers of them on the ground
they turned to daisies.
My hair, as if ready to welcome them,
stretched all the way down
to greet them
I loved the rising flowers on me
I looked at them, smelled them
for a long time
soon they began to grow out of my body
until I became one with them.
To my surprise
I heard someone in the distance
shout my name: Margarita!
Also by José Carrillo here is his interpretation of my poem “Yanga”.
El Juego
By Denise Pérez Lally
Red Rover, Red Rover
The Queen asks, “Please come over.”
This dimond crown, so loved, so cherished, and worn with honor
…should not deceive you.
I ask myself, would you recognize me, sweating from waiting tables,
Or crawling on my hands
And knees cleaning their floors,
Or caring desperately for their children.
How did I get her? And to think those
Closest to me were left behind…
Red Rover, Red Rover.
My Primavera
By Denise Pérez Lally
Dolor, esperanza y sol
My country this’ of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
My primavera,
Where is she?
Dear Mirella
By Xilen Ramírez
Too often,
mujeres Latinas,
mujeres de color,
are painted into de background.
I’m here to tell you that
we don’t have to stay there.
We can come out,
and we can paint
our own vision
of the world.
Movimiento
by Catalina M. Cantú
Day two of First Grade, I was shoved and called a nigger.
It was the first time; I heard the “n word”.
I felt their venom in my pores.
Teachers were mute.
Northwest postage stamp town of chalk people.
Where ever my family walked, they stopped us.
What are you?
Where are you from?
Papa, his wavy, ebony hair slicked back,
elegant in his suit, tie, and shinned shoes.
Met his ill dressed inquisitors with a stony gaze,
We are Americans, born in the U.S. of A.
Chalk people chortled and shook their pointed heads.
Their rancid racism reeked.
We escaped that time
And the next.
As a boy, Papa saw men lynched in Texas.
His pluck moved us further north
Not to a global city melting pot.
But, Surburbia with Barbie, Ken and their schools.
The Civil Rights movement tugged at my heart.
Where did I fit in the world?
Who were my people?
MECHA meeting brewed the tempest in my soul.
Doe-eyed whisper
Ravenous desire
Flor y canto.
Pungent rage
fueled by injustice howls
Justicia y libertad.
Sirens crush
Pavement kissed
Pinche vida.
Venceremos roar
Pomegranate gritos
Viva La Raza!
LA POESÍA DE LOS NIÑOS Y NIÑAS
¿Qué eres?
By Fernando B.
Yo hombre
Hombre soldado
Hombre fuerte
Hombre bueno
Hombre grande
Hombre de luz
Hombre de paz
0 Comments on When in Seattle Do as Los Norteños Writers Do as of 12/31/2014 10:42:00 AM
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By: Xánath Caraza,
on 11/30/2014
Blog: La Bloga (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Revista Contratiempo, Los Norteños Writers Group, Poets & Writers, Women Writers in Bloom & Open Mic, Add a tag
Por Xánath Caraza
¡Felicidades a Gerardo Cárdenas!
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| Gerardo Cárdenas |
La obra ganadora del certamen fue el libreto Blind Spot del mexicoamericano Gerardo Cárdenas. También recibió mención honorífica Sabrosa sopa de mancos, del dominicano Richarson Díaz.
Se presentaron 26 obras de hispanos de diferentes nacionalidades, residentes en los siguientes países: Alemania (1), Argentina (1), Colombia (1), España (11), México (2), República Dominicana (1), USA (6), Venezuela (3).
El jurado estuvo compuesto por cinco miembros: Dino Armas (dramaturgo y maestro uruguayo, residente en Montevideo, Uruguay), Giannina Braschi (escritora puertorriqueña, residente en Nueva York, USA), Pedro Monge Rafuls (dramaturgo y director teatral cubano, residente en Nueva York, USA), Iraida Tapias (dramaturga y directora venezolana, residente en Caracas, Venezuela), y Rosario Vargas (directora y actriz colombiana, residente en Chicago, USA).
Las identidades de los dramaturgos participantes fueron reveladas a los miembros del jurado solo después de la votación final.
Además de un premio en metálico, Blind Spot será objeto de una lectura dramatizada el 27 de marzo de 2015, en el Instituto Cervantes de Chicago. La obra también será publicada en 2015 dentro de la colección (dis) locados de Literal Publishers.
Sobre la obra:
“Blind Spot surge de mi lectura de Las sombras errantes, del francés Pascal Quignard. El libro me generó una serie de reflexiones sobre la luz y la sombra, lo visto y lo oculto, lo dicho y lo que se queda sin decir.
La anécdota central de la obra es la de un inmigrante indocumentado en Chicago quien se enlista con los Marines para conseguir la nacionalidad. El joven es enviado a Irak, donde es capturado por fuerzas rebeldes, torturado y finalmente liberado, para luego ser acusado de traición por el gobierno de Estados Unidos. Nunca sabemos si traicionó o no como resultado de la tortura, el punto es explorar precisamente, a través del drama de la población indocumentada, las dimensiones de luz y sombra en la experiencia humana.
La obra no está escrita de forma lineal: cuenta con un prólogo y tres actos, y cada escena corresponde a una época distinta de forma salteada. Este arreglo también es intencional, para subrayar la imposibilidad de entender el tiempo de forma lineal.” (Gerardo Cárdernas)
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| Gerardo Cárdenas |
Gerardo Cárdenas es escritor y periodista cultural mexicoamericano. Ha vivido en Madrid, Bruselas, Miami, Washington, D.C., y Chicago desde que salió de México en 1989. Es actualmente director editorial de la revista cultural Contratiempo. Sus artículos, cuentos y poemas han sido publicados en medios impresos y electrónicos de México, Estados Unidos, España, Venezuela, y República Dominicana. Como narrador, ganó el premio John Barry de Ficción en Español desde Chicago en 2004 y 2007, y el segundo lugar del concurso de literatura erótica Los Cuerpos del Deseo de NeoClubPress, Miami, 2012. En 2011 publicó la colección de relatos A veces llovía en Chicago (Libros Magenta/Ediciones Vocesueltas), que se hizo acreedor al Premio Interamericano Carlos Montemayor de Literatura a Mejor Libro de Relatos en 2013. Su libreto dramático Blind Spot ganó el Concurso de Dramaturgia Hispana de Chicago 2014 y se publicará en 2015 en la colección (dis)locados de Literal Publishing. Relatos suyos han sido antologados en Trasfondos: Antología de narrativa en español del medio oeste norteamericano (ars comunis editorial, 2014); El libro de los monstruos (Escuela de Fantasía, Bubok, Madrid, 2012), Los cuerpos del deseo: cuentos eróticos(NeoClubPress, Miami, 2012) y Bajo los adoquines está la calle (Taller de Escritura Creativa Enrique Páez, Madrid, 1998). Además de sus actividades literarias y editoriales, publica el blog En la Ciudad de los Vientos.
Next, here are a few images from Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon & Open Mic from November 23 in Brooklyn, New York.
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| New York City in the fall |
Gracias Poets & Writers, Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon, Juliet P. Howard, Martine Bisagni, Brooklyn Workshop Gallery, Golda Solomon and all the participants in the poetry workshop and open mic. Enjoy!
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| Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon & Open Mic |
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| El taller |
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| La comida |
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| La comida |
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| Martine Bisagni and her Brooklyn Workshop Gallery |
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| Durante el taller |
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| Poets Juliet P. Howard and Xanath Caraza |
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| Ginkgo Leaves |
Then Seattle is forthcoming with Los Norteños Writers, Seattle University, Hugo House and El Centro de la Raza.
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| Los Norteños Writers |
It is thrilling for me to have my upcoming Seattle, WA visit later this month. Thank you for organizing this visit Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs and Catalina Cantú. Also as part of my Seattle visit, I am excited to share the stage with Raúl Sánchez, Marina Isabel Sánchez, José Carrillo and Catalina Cantú.
Wickoff Auditorium in Seattle University on December 11 from 4 – 6 p.m. will be the stage for Raúl Sánchez, Marina Isabel Sánchez and me. This presentation is sponsored by the Department of Gender and Women Studies, the Department of Modern Languages and Culture, Seattle University and Los Norteños Writers.
On the morning of December 12, I will be giving two poetry workshops at El Centro de la Raza for young audiences. Later the same day, Catalina Cantú, José Carrillo and I will be sharing the stage at Hugo House at 6:30 p.m. Finally on Saturday, December 13, I’ll be giving a Writers Workshop, Prose Carved on The Skin: Writing with the Senses, at El Centro de la Raza. I hope you can join me. This should be a fine visit in beautiful Seattle, spending quality time with Los Norteños Writers y más.
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| Catalina Cantú |
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| José Carrillo |
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| Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs |
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| Marina Isabel Sánchez |
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| Raúl Sánchez |
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