Michele Serros and Scandalosa
Named by Newsweek as "One of the Top Young Women to Watch for in the New Century" and by Tu Ciudad magazine as one of Los Angeles’ “Hip, Hot and Now” artists, Michele Serros is the author of Chicana Falsa and other stories of death, identity and Oxnard, How to be a Chicana Role Model, Honey Blonde Chica and her newest young adult novel, Scandalosa! In addition to being an award-winning poet, Serros has been a featured contributor for the Los Angeles Times' children's fiction section and a commentator for National Public Radio (Morning Edition, Weekend All Things Considered, Anthem, Along for the Ride, Latino USA). She has read her poems to stadium crowds of 25,000+ for Lollapalooza, recorded Selected Stories from Chicana Falsa for Mercury Records and was selected by the Poetry Society of America to have her poetry placed on MTA buses throughout Los Angeles County.
While still a student at Santa Monica City College, Michele’s first book of poetry and short stories, Chicana Falsa, was published. When the original publisher of Chicana Falsa went out of business, Michele continued to sell copies from her garage until Riverhead Books reissued Chicana Falsa and as well as a collection of short stories, How to be a Chicana Role Model. The latter instantly placed 5th on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list.
In 2002, Michele wrote for the ABC television sitcom, The George Lopez Show. "An opportunity," she says, "that hopefully with my contribution opens the door for a wider representation of Latinos in the mass media."
Serros’ work is required reading in U.S. high schools and universities and garners a diverse fan base ranging from Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers ("Michele is the great Californian writer who makes me proud of my state. When I read her books I cry and laugh.") to author Sandra Cisneros ("Michele Serros is the young, sassy writer whose brilliant weapon is her humor.”) The New York Public Library recommends Honey Blonde Chica as a “Book for the Teen Age 2007. Originally from Oxnard, California, Michele is currently working on a new novel, An Unmarried Mexican.
1. Scandalosa is a sequel to Honey Blonde Chica, with Evie a little bit further down the road of adolescence. Without giving too much away, what's going on with Evie?
In Scandalosa, Evie is now two months older than she was in HBC. She has also entered a new semester of school. In teenage years, such changes are paramount! She is excited to celebrate her Sweet Sixteen era and envisions her party to be similar to MTV's Sweet Sixteen but with all the traditional trappings (and birthday checks) of a quinceañera. BUT she is facing an obstacle. Will this obstacle interfere with her party... the pachanga of the school year? You'll have to read to find out!
2. You avoid a romantic portrayal of teens, yet Honey Blonde Chica isn't about the gang girl stereotype offered up as the YA Chicano/a experience. Can you also talk about the decision to write YA and it's significance to you, and your choice of
characters?
YA books saved me as a preteen. I grew up reading Judy Blume, Beverly Clearie, S. E. Hinton, and Louise Fitzhough. My first attempt at YA is an unpublished manuscript under my bed back home in NYC. It's titled Notes from a Medium Brown Girl. My agent has deemed it "took dark" and suggests that maybe I should focus on other projects but I haven't given up on Notes...just yet. The role of Evie is pretty much myself as a teenager. I dressed like a surfer but never flopped my belly on a board, ever. So the next best thing, of course, was dating a surfer. At 17, it was a dream for me to be the girlfriend of the tri-county (Ventura, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria) surf champion -- who was also Mexican (American) like me!
3. You seem to love and have a sense of playfulness concerning our pop icons and pop culture in general...I noticed on your site the gamine pose, where you're covered with chicharrones, as well as having seen a promos for Scandalosa where it looks like you're having fun with charreada and Flor Silvestre. Where does that love and that irreverence come from? How important an element is it for you in how you look at the world and how you approach writing?
Yes! The photo shoot with the chicharrones was for Estylo magazine. The editors had brought up Salma Hayek's Los Angeles magazine cover's version of Herb Alpert's Whipped Cream and other Delights. They suggested we push it a little further and had me wear a dress of pork rinds, rather than whipped cream. It was pretty funny. The photographer's assistant's sole job was to fan flies away and after the shoot, my skin was so greasy. My only regret is that too many people think I'm completely naked under the skins!
4. Who are the writers/artists that move you and how do you think they've influenced you and your work?
Oscar Zeta Acosta made a big impression on my while I was a college student. And Lester Bangs. I have more records and CDs than books and when I was younger I was always trying to write record or show reviews for underground fanzines and rags. One book I loved was I'm with the Band, by Pamela de Barres.
5. Where do you think the challenges lie for you as a creative person?
Discipline! It's challenging to pays bills based on your creativity.
Also, I tend to over think too much. It drives my friends and family crazy.
6. Are there people that act as mentors/sounding boards for you? If so, how does that mesh into how you work?
Oh yeah. I'm afraid that a current boyfriend is always put in the position of being the unexpected sounding board. I pity the man who is dating me in the middle or start of a new manuscript or project. They have to hear me whine about every little sentence that isn't going well. I'm really attracted to men who hold blue collar type jobs -- carpenters, contractors, UPS delivery guys -- men (in my experience) who don't typically read fiction a lot. So it's really good for me to share my work with them, because if they aren't "getting it" it's a sign for me to work a bit harder. Not saying that blue collar men are my entire "demographic" but I definitely don't want to write for other writers or, say, for the editors of The New Yorker. For me, the biggest compliment is from someone who admits that they don't like to read but confess that they actually read one of my books and liked it!
7. Where would you like to see yourself personally and creatively in ten years? In twenty?
I'd like to see Notes from a Medium Brown Girl published. I'm currently working on two manuscripts -- one of them is An Unmarried Mexican. It's about my first year in New York City after being newly separated from my ex-husband.
8. What something not the official bio?
That I was once married to the drummer of the heavy rock Queens of the Stone Age. It's something being a musician's wife. You're like in a little club with all the other band member's wives who can be really catty and extremely insecure. And you know if your man is getting kicked out of the band soon...because little by little all the wives stop inviting you to shop Melrose. This experience, of course, has inspired yet another manuscript I've been working on -- The Hair Club for Men.
Scandalosa
ISBN-10: 1416915931
ISBN-13: 978-1416915935
Michele's MySpace page
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GREAT TEATRO LUNA NEWS!
CURRENTLY PLAYING:
MACHOS
After a sold out run at Chicago Dramatists, MACHOS is moving to the 16th Street Theater in Berwyn, IL, conveniently located near the CTA/Blue Line Austin stop.
Tickets are already on sale, and I hope you will help spread the word!
Here's the scoop:
MACHOS At 16th Street Theater 4 weeks only! January 25 through February 17, 2008
Fridays at 7:30 PM Saturdays at 5:00 PM Saturdays at 8:00 PM Sundays at 6:00 PM
BUY TICKETS ONLINE at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/25539
Lisa Alvarado
Tia Chucha's Events for October 2007
Author Reading with Anna Marie Gonzalez
Saturday Oct. 6th at 2 p.m.
Ann Marie Gonzalez will present her new book and discuss its purpose. Divine for Life is a book written for people in search of divinity and understanding of who we are and what we are capable of. It is the Divine being's guide to life. This book will open doors to the truth of our existence.
"My deepest prayer is that sharing this information contributes to the empowerment of all who read this and ultimately to the spiritual evolution of humanity." Ann Marie Gonzalez
Book Reading with Mario Garcia
Saturday October 13, 2007 at 2 p.m.
Author and professor of History and Chicano Studies at UCSB Mario Garcia will present and read from his newly released book The Gospel of Cesar Chavez: My Faith in Action.
This is a book of spiritual reflections, prayers, or mantras from Cesar Chavez, one of the great spiritual leaders of our time. Perhaps the best-known Latino historical figure in the United States, a key aspect of why he did what he did was his faith. He was a devout Catholic and a man of deep moral and spiritual values, which is what drove him to seek basic rights for farm workers as well as recognition for their human dignity as children of God. Now, for the first time, The Gospel of Cesar Chavez calls attention to the spiritual side of this great leader through his own words.
Special Day of the Dead Workshop # 1
Satuday Oct. 20th from
11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The first workshop of our 3 piece Dia De Los Muertos celebration!
-Danza Temachtia Quetzalcoatl
-Intro to group
-Historical Prospective of Day of the Dead
-Sugar Skull Workshop
Come join Danza Temachtia Quetzalcoatl as we introduce ourselves to the community and provide a historical and cultural perspective of the importance of Dia de los Muertos. This visual presentation will close with a sugar skull making workshop. It's fun for Everyone!
All the workshops are free!
Poetry Reading with Jim Moreno: The Artivist Movement
Saturday October 20th at 2 p.m.
Poet Jim Moreno will present and read from his newly released poetry collection, Dancing in Dissent: Poetry for Activism.
Dancing in Dissent is an artivist's (artist and activist) collection of poetry resonating with the legacy of speaking out against injustice and oppression. Moreno is a member of San Diego's Langston Hughes Poetry Circle and a past board member of the African American Writers and Artists.
He teaches poetry workshops for gang youth in lockups, children in after-school programs and adults who are beginning or practiced poets.
Michael Heralda Performs Aztec Stories
Saturday Oct. 20, 2007 at 6 p.m.
Come and experience the origins of this very special ceremony from the indigenous perspective in a presentation of music, songs, and stories.
The ceremony has evolved due to European influences, the artistic influence of Jose Guadalupe Posada's fanciful stylizations, and the commercial forces of our "modern" world. This program is for those interested in learning about the origins of this ceremony. It is also an opportunity to help establish a "balance" between today's modern practice and the ancient ceremony's true relevance and importance. You will hear things that touch your heart and at times seem very familiar. This is the ancient voice that you hear intuitively speaking to you from the past through your heart. Some of the information revealed in this presentation may surprise you, and some may validate an intuitive understanding you possess and have contemplated.
Special Day Of The Dead Workshop # 2
Sunday Oct. 21st from
11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The second day of our 3 piece Dia De Los Muertos celebration
-Danza Temechtia Quetzalcoatl
-Historical Perspective of Danza
-3 groups
-dance, song, drumming
Day II of our Dia de Los Muertos workshop introduces the importance of danza in Day of the Dead celebrations. After the discussion, each participant is invited to learn an element of danza-drumming, dancing and/or Mexica songs-themselves!
All workshops are Free!
Special Day of the Dead Workshop # 3
Monday Oct. 22nd from
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
This is the last workshop of our 3 piece Dia De Los Muertos celebration!
-Danza Temachtia Quetzalcoatl
-Mexica story telling
This will be a review and expansion of first 2 workshops. Day III of our workshop will continue to teach the elements of "la danza" and will close with Mexica storytelling for all!
On this final day of the workshop, Danza Temachtia Quetzalcoatl will host a community ceremony for all its participants. Traditional face painting will begin the celebration and everyone who participated will have a chance to share what they have learned!
All workshops are free!
Friday Oct. 26th at 8 p.m.
Join us for our famous Open Mic Night, this week featuring poet Thomas Gayton, along with some of the local poets and musican performers!
Works and Performances.
Thomas has read his poetry on Pacifica Radio, KPFK-Los Angeles and has performed with Jazz greats Charles McPherson, cousin Clark Gayton and Daniel Jackson. He has taught verse writing at the Writing Center in San Diego, founded the Poetry Workshop in La Jolla, California, at D.G. Wills bookstore and also cofounded the San Diego Poets' Press.
Book Reading with Beto Gutierrez
Saturday Oct. 27th at 1 p.m.
Author Beto Gutierrez will read and discuss his newly published book A Sentence with the District.
A collection of essays based on actual experiences of a former at-risk youth who became an inspired high school teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, Gutierrez sheds insight from a first person point of view that others dare not mention. A must-read book that advocates educational equity and quality.
Sugar Skull Workshop Hosted by Norma
Sunday Oct. 28, 2007 at 12 p.m.
Come experience a hands-on workshop for the whole family in preparation for Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) with the making of Sugar Skulls, a centuries-old tradition in Mexico that plays an important symbolic role in this holiday. You are welcomed to join us in tribute of this fun and mysterious holiday.
Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural
10258 Foothill Blvd.
Lake View Terrace, CA 91342
(818) 896-1479
www.tiachucha.com
e-mail us at: [email protected]
Donate to Tia Chuchas! Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore | 10258 Foothill Blvd. | Lake View Terrace | CA | 91342
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Reyna Grande update
Under the Bridge Bookstore and Gallery
e-mail: [email protected]
When:
Saturday Oct 06, 2007
at 5:00 PM
Where::
Under the Bridge Bookstore and Gallery
358 West 6th Street
San Pedro, CA 90731
UNDER THE BRIDGE BOOKSTORE AND GALLERY CELEBRATES DEBUT AUTHORS!
RSVP not required
SPREAD THE WORD...
Join us as Eduardo Santiago, author of Tomorrow They Will Kiss; Rosa Lowinger, author of Tropicana Nights and Reyna Grande, author of Across A Hundred Mountains, read and sign their new books.
Our readings/booksignings are a great opportunity to meet an author, hear them read from their work, or purchase an autographed copy of their latest book. As always, our events are free and open to the public.
If you are unable to attend an event and are interested in purchasing a signed book please please give us a call at 310-519-8871 or contact us via email at [email protected]. We're happy to hold a book for you.
Some random autumnal thoughts...Here in the Midwest, there is always a clear sense of seasons changing, of the time and life broken into segments. Now on my walks, I see the start of red gold rustling in the trees, the yellow and orange suns of zempasuchitl, and in my dreams, the faces of loved ones on the other side reminding me to make an ofrenda. On my good days, I see my things linked as a whole, a cycle beginning and ending and beginning.
Somehow too, at middle age, I feel more and more an affinity with autumn, I seem more in touch with the fullness of things as they begin to pass away. Somehow in the still of winter, the expectation of spring, and the busyness of summer I forget to quiet myself and take in what's everyday beautiful ---the walk in the park near my house, the full moon veiled partially with papel picado clouds.
Maybe it because I know once again things will fall away soon into a wintersleep , it seems more important to take time to walk, feel the crunch of leaves and grass under my feet, the smell of wood smoke from neighbor's fireplaces. Maybe it's because I have enough experience remembering and forgetting this, that this year I'm writing it down.
Lisa Alvarado
Aracelis Girmay writes poetry, fiction, & essays. Teeth, her collection of poems, was published by Curbstone Press in June 2007. Her poetry has appeared in Ploughshares, Bellevue Literary Review, Indiana Review, Callaloo, & MiPoesias, among other journals. Her collage-based picture book, changing, changing, was published by George Braziller in 2005. Girmay is a Cave Canem Fellow & former Watson Fellow. She teaches writing workshops in New York & California.
(That's the official bio, gente, but I think you'll love hearing Aracelis on Aracelis in a recent email I received.)
*****
"I've loved books & the idea of reading since I was little. The story goes "you used to memorize the books & sit & read from memory before you knew how to really read." I used to sleep with my books. I LOVED to read, and then, I used to tell my younger brother stories. My grandmother still has folders of stories I'd write at her house. When I was 13, though, I read The Bluest Eye, I remember thinking: Oh, god, we're allowed to write like that? The way we think? The way people talk? The ways my people talk? Oh, really? It opened up this door of permission---I didn't know, really, that writing could represent me, not until then. wow, something in the way that I perceived writing & reading changed in me then.
I started sharing my work with other people when I was in college--Writing has always been my lifeline--my way of figuring & making sense & asking questions & maintaining hope, a hope. But it wasn't until college that I realized that I HAD to cultivate this work--that I HAVE to write. It is one of my absolute necessaries. Circulation, breath, communication, memory, wildness, & order. My mom is Puerto Rican & African American (Georgian)--from Chicago, & my dad's Eritrean, born in Gondar, Ethiopia. Both of them are amazing story-tellers--who tell the stories in very different ways. But, oh! The stories--they are essential--I always had the sense (even when I was very small) that these stories would be the only landscapes in which I'd meet, say, my Great Aunt Tiny, my uncle Samuel, my grandparents, my countries.
I knew, too, that the stories were not only important for me & my brother to hear (my sisters weren't born yet), but for my parents to say out loud. I remember witnessing the powers a story can have on the person telling--the way connections that weren't made before can be made in the telling. I write because it is my way of speaking, my way of figuring, my way of connecting, moving deeper into my life. I write, too, in the words of Carolyn Forche: against forgetting. I write the things that others wish I would forget. The things I cannot bear forgetting. The things I cannot survive forgetting. I write to get something back: world, that is, to still myself, somehow, & consider the things the world is constantly showing: see, see this! hear, hear this! say this! remember, remember!
I write to undo time, to go back & fiddle, to sit with what I've been given, to learn something, really, to visit the ghosts & let them know I see them.
Influences--poets, fictionists, painters, musicians: Helene Cixous, Aime Cesaire, Audre Lorde, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Toni Morrison, Frida Kahlo, Martín Espada, Gwendolyn Brooks, Nazim Hikmet, Anna Akhmatova, Ovid, Etta James, Derek Walcott, Naomi Shihab Nye, Cy Twombly, Lucille Clifton, Caetano Veloso, Pharoah Sanders, Taha Muhammad Ali, James Tate, my students, a few of Hayden Carruth's poems knock me out--hugely, church stories, my family's stories, my parents, my family's dead; and every accordion: every accordion is my influence."
*****
And if you haven't already fallen in love with her and her writing, take a look at what others have to say about the Divine Ms. Girmay.
"In Teeth, the poems of Aracelis Girmay ring out with a burning truth as she transports the reader into the world of despair, discrimination, sorrows, triumphs, joy and the courage it takes to flourish as a woman of color. Her keen observations are put forth with an appetite for life without fear or self-consciousness as she weaves her words into a range of potent poems." -- Nicholasa Mohr
"The poetry of Aracelis Girmay is so strong, so brave, so lyrical, so fiery, so joyful, that the usual superlatives fail. I think of Sandra Cisneros and her words of praise for another writer, Denise Chávez: 'I love this book so much, it sounds like I’m lying.' Exactly." -- Martín Espada
"In the foreword, [Espada] calls the poems, 'hard, cutting, brilliant, beautiful.' As I read Teeth, I have to say that it did not take long for me to agree with [his] opinion. But more than that, I have to say that Girmay has put together one of the best debuts by any poet in recent memory...This collection is sure to continue to create a significant amount of well-deserved buzz. No doubt it will garner more praise and will be mentioned among nominees for literary awards. Indeed, Aracelis Girmay is the real deal."-- Jose B. Gonzalez, Co-Editor of Latino Boom
"In her powerful debut collection of poems, Teeth, Aracelis Girmay reaches out to her various cultural lineages (Eritrean, Puerto Rican and African American) and weaves them into a distinct voice, political and beautiful as 'bullets of ivory'...Teeth delivers on its promise to be a fierce, proud book of poems that provokes thought and invites its readers to be a poet's unique and expectant universe, where celebration and protest, lament and solace, sound and silence, intertwine and thrive."-- El Paso Times
Aracelis Girmay makes me want to be a better writer. TEETH is a stunning piece of work de sudor y socorro. She has the gift -- able to craft indelible work fashioned from the bones of ancestors and living, singing blood. Girmay's been blessed to be mentored by Martín Espada but make no mistake, her voice is wholly and fully her own, as is her subject matter. Her mastery of poetic form and an almost ruthless, heartbreaking beauty is shot through this unforgettable volume. Like Espada, she seamlessly fuses the personal and political, revealing where the wounds lie. And Girmay always, always, returns to the indomitable, unquenchable spirit that saves even the most disadvantaged, the most abused from being mere victims. She is also brave enough, wise enough to show her heart in love and at play.
But the social power of this book is never diluted At its essence, TEETH reminds me of a passage in Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior. A young woman, a peasant girl, has completed her training to become a soldier, the means by which her family and her village will seek justice against the overlord. With a whisper-thin blade, her parents inscribe the history of abuse which all of them have suffered. The girl's back becomes her eternal oath, a record laid into the flesh, but it is never reduced to a scar.
ARROZ POETICA
I got news yesterday
from a friend of mine
that all people against the war should
send a bag of rice to George Bush,
& on the bag we should write,
“If your enemies are hungry, feed them.”
But to be perfectly clear,
my enemies are not hungry.
They are not standing in lines
for food, or stretching rations,
or waiting at the airports
to claim the pieces
of the bodies of their dead.
My enemies ride jets to parties.
They are not tied up in pens
in Guantanamo Bay. They are not
young children throwing rocks. My enemies eat
meats & vegetables at tables
in white houses where candles blaze, cast
shadows of crosses, & flowers.
They wear ball gowns & suits & rings
to talk of war in neat & folded languages
that will not stain their formal dinner clothes
or tousle their hair. They use words like “casualties”
to speak of murder. They are not stripped down to skin
& made to stand barefoot in the cold or hot.
They do not lose their children to this war.
They do not lose their houses & their streets. They do not
come home to find their lamps broken.
They do not ever come home to find their families murdered
or disappeared or guns put at their faces.
Their children are not made to walk
a field of mines, exploding.
This is no wedding.
This is no feast.
I will not send George Bush rice, worked for rice
from my own kitchen
where it sits in a glass jar & I am transfixed
by the thousands of beautiful pieces
like a watcher at some homemade & dry
aquarium of grains, while the radio calls out
the local names of 2,000
US soldiers counted dead since March.
&, we all know it, there will always be more than
what’s been counted. They will not say the names
of an Iraqi family trying to pass a checkpoint
in an old white van. A teenager caught out on some road
after curfew. The radio will go on, shouting
the names &, I promise you,
they will not call your name, Hassna
Ali Sabah, age 30, killed by a missile in Al-Bassra, or you,
Ibrahim Al-Yussuf, or the sons of Sa’id Shahish
on a farm outside of Baghdad, or Ibrahim, age 12,
as if your blood were any less red, as if the skins
that melted were any less skin, & the bones
that broke were any less bone,
as if your eradication were any less absolute, any less
eradication from this earth where you were
not a president or a military soldier.
& you will not ever walk home
again, or smell your mother’s hair again,
or shake the date palm tree
or smell the sea
or hear the people singing at your wedding
or become old
or dream or breathe, or even pray or whistle,
& your tongue will be all gone or useless
& it will not ever say again or ask a question,
you, who were birthed once, & given milk,
& given names that mean: she is born at night,
happy, favorite daughter,
morning, heart, father of
a multitude.
Your name, I will have noticed
on a list collected by an Iraqi census of the dead,
because your name is the name of my own brother,
because your name is the Tigrinya word for “tomorrow,”
because all my life I have wanted a farm,
because my students are 12, because I remember
when my sisters were 12. & I will not
have ever seen your eyes, & you will not
have ever seen my eyes
or the eyes of the ones who dropped the missiles,
or the eyes of the ones who ordered the missiles,
& the missiles have no eyes. You had no chance,
the way they fell on avenues & farms
& clocks & schoolchildren. There was no place for you
& so you burned. A bag of rice will not bring you back.
A poem cannot bring you. & although it is my promise here
to try to open every one of my windows, I cannot
imagine the intimacy with which
a life leaves its body, even then,
in detonation, when the skull is burst,
& the body’s country of indivisible organs
flames into the everything. & even in
that quick departure as the life rushes on,
headlong or backwards, there must, must
be some singing as the hand waves “be well”
to its other hand, goodbye;
& the ear belongs to the field now.
& we cannot separate the roof from the heart
from the trees that were there, standing.
& so it is, when I say “night,”
it is your name I am calling,
when I say “field,”
your thousand, thousand names,
your million names.
IN THE CANE FIELDS
You are a steel-blade woman,
I am a steel-blade man.
When we dance like this,
head-high in the cane,
my heart beats red with want.
It’s a dangerous taste
gonna swing me from some hanging tree.
I am a steel-blade woman.
You are a steel-blade man.
If the Boss Men follow
down the dirt red road,
accuse us of blackness & of love,
let us live again, sweet,
come back & haunt these fields.
FOR ESTEFANI LORA, THIRD GRADE, WHO MADE ME A CARD
for Estefani Lora, PS 132, Washington Heights
*
Elephant on an orange line, underneath a yellow circle
meaning sun.
6 green, vertical lines, with color all from the top
meaning flowers.
*
The first time I peel back the 5 squares of Scotch tape,
unfold the crooked-crease fold of art class paper,
I am in my living room.
It is June.
Inside of the card, there is one long word, & then
Estefani’s name:
Loisfoeribari
Estefani Lora
*
Loisfoeribari?
*
Loisfoeribari: The scientific, Latinate way of saying hibiscus.
*
Loisforeribari: A direction, as in: Are you going
North? South? East? West? Loisfoeribari?
*
I try, over & over, to read the word out loud.
Loisfoeribari. LoISFOeribari.
LoiSFOEribari. LoisFOERibARI.
*
What is this word?
I imagine using it in sentences like,
“Man, I have to go back to the house,
I forgot my Loisfoeribari.”
or
“There’s nothing better than rain, hot rain,
open windows with music, & a tall glass
of Loisfoeribari.”
or
“How are we getting to Pittsburgh?
Should we drive or take the Loisfoeribari?”
*
I have lived 4 minutes with this word not knowing
what it means.
*
It is the end of the year. I consider writing my student,
Estefani Lora, a letter that goes:
To The BRILLIANT Estefani Lora!
Hola, querida, I hope that you are well. I’ve just opened the card that you made me, and it is beautiful. I really love the way you filled the sky with birds. I believe that you are chula, chulita, and super fly! Yes, the card is beautiful. I only have one question for you. What does the word ‘Loisfoeribari’ mean?
*
I try the word again.
Loisfoeribari.
Loisfoeribari.
Loisfoeribari.
*
I try the word in Spanish.
Loisfoeribari
Lo-ees-fo-eh-dee-bah-dee
Lo-ees-fo-eh-dee-bah-dee
& then, slowly,
Lo is fo e ri bari
Lo is fo eribari
*
love is for everybody
love is for every every body love
love love everybody love
everybody love love
is love everybody
everybody is love
love love for love
for everybody
for love is everybody
love is forevery
love is forevery body
love love love for body
love body body is love
love is body every body is love
is every love
for every love is love
for love everybody love love
love love for everybody
loveisforeverybody
Last words on TEETH ---
Sigh. Sigh Again. Glorious. Go. Buy. The. Book.
ISBN 978-1-931896-36-8
*****
Un Abrazo a Julia Alvarez!
Sister Chicas gets a fantastic mention in Julia Alvarez' Once Upon A Quinceañera. We were completely bowled over to find that Julia had written a glowing paragraph about our book on page 48, as well as listing us in the reading guide! The project continues to be blessed and we are all so grateful for the kind words and the support.
Lisa Alvarado
Johanny Vázquez Paz was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She holds a Master of Arts in Hispanic Studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Indiana State University. Her book Streetwise Poems/Poemas Callejeros was recently published by Mayapple Press (Michigan, 2007). She co-edited the anthology Between the Heart and the Land / Entre el corazón y la tierra: Latina Poets in the Midwest (MARCH/Abrazo Press, 2001) and was included in the compilation Poetas sin tregua (Spain, 2006) of Puerto Rican poets from the 80's generation.
Some of her poems appeared in the anthology Más allá de las fronteras (Ediciones Nuevo Espacio, New Jersey, 2004), and she was published in the collection Carpetas de Luz after winning the Voces Selectas 2000 poetry contest of Luz Bilingual Publishing. Johanny has been published in the literary magazines VOCES Journal (Univ. of California), El Centro Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies (Hunter College, N.Y.), Beyond Borders (De Paul Univ.) and Yagrumal (Puerto Rico), among others. She currently teaches Spanish at Harold Washington College in Chicago, IL.
Johanny Vázquez Paz nació y se crió en San Juan, Puerto Rico. Posee una maestría en Estudios Hispánicos de la Universidad de Illinois en Chicago y un bachillerato en Sociología de la Universidad del Estado de Indiana. Su libro Streetwise Poems/Poemas Callejeros fue recientemente publicado por Mayapple Press (Michigan, 2007). Co-editó la antología Between the Heart and the Land / Entre el corazón y la tierra: Latina Poets in the Midwest (MARCH/Abrazo Press, 2001), y fue incluida en el libro Poetas sin tregua-Compilación de poetas puertorriqueñas de la generación del 80 (España, 2006).
Además, algunos de sus poemas aparecen en la antología Más allá de las fronteras (Ediciones Nuevo Espacio, New Jersey, 2004), y fue publicada en la colección Carpetas de Luz después de ganar el certamen Voces Selectas 2000 de Luz Bilingual Publishing. Johanny ha sido publicada en las revistas: VOCES Journal (Univ. of California), El Centro Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies (Hunter College, N.Y.), Beyond Borders (De Paul Univ.) y Yagrumal (Puerto Rico), entre otras. Actualmente es profesora de español en Harold Washington College en Chicago, IL.
Aside from the obvious descriptors in her bio, Johanny Vázquez Paz is quite simply a force of nature. She's warm like earth, clear and bracing as running water, and bright as the canopy of morning sky. She's also a Chicago literary fixture, and it's been our very good luck indeed that she's been the host of Palabra Pura since its inception. It's Johanny's voice you hear each month at California Clipper welcoming you, teasing you, coaxing you to relax and enjoy. With her inimitable presence, the bar becomes nuestra joint, an opportunity to savor. And the experience is made richer by her sharing her own poetry, setting out the first course in that feast of words that is a Palabra Pura reading.
There is so much to appreciate. She is also a poet of what I like to consider working class sensibilities -- direct, honest, but full of profound feeling, true feeling. In the 2007, the release of Streetwise Poems/Poemas Callejeros, Johanny shows us how deeply the streets run in her veins, the public and private ways her heart holds the love of family and their stories. No matter how much her work is anchored in an urban base, she is tethered always to la isla, to Puerto Rico and its sorrow and strength, always writing from an solid place of female dignity. Take a moment and read for yourself.
Daughter of the City
I feel the streets in my veins
avenues
highways
alleyways
boulevards
roads without stop signs or lights or signals
live within me
circling the bewildering labyrinths of my being,
noises echo loudly at every corner,
each step banging like a hand on a drum,
horns demanding that others move out of the way,
shots crying farewell to their reasons for hate,
screams hiding by the anger of a barking dog.
Daughter of the city
citizen of hell
resident of purgatory.
I am a skyscraper inhabited by urgency,
a map of nameless streets,
only the suicidal wind dares to speed
past the danger signs of my curves.
Hours merge without boundaries into dawn;
my anxieties open for business twenty-four hours a day
without ever finding peace and quiet
inside the insistent beating of my sleepwalking heart.
Letter to My Mother from Chicago
Don’t worry about me, madrecita,
everything seems fine in the northlands
and I perfect myself before your eyes.
No problem disturbs me
more than ten hours a day
my health is excellent
without doctors or healthy diets
and there is no one to interrupt
my eternal solitude.
But, don’t be worried, mami,
it’s not as bad as you think.
There are millions of jobs here
that don’t pay well
there is a lot of money
in other people’s accounts
new buildings go up every week
with people trapped behind each door.
If I sound sad maybe it’s because
I miss my homeland, my family and everything,
because the weather chills my bones more each year,
because of the things-to-buy list
that grows like a well fed child,
because of the problems that visit me daily
without an invitation.
I’m fine,
I survive day by day
taking care of things myself,
don’t feel sad, viejita,
life is perfect here.
Reasons of Worth
because I sin in secrecy and silence
keeping before the world
a record of impeccable morality
because I have withstood deserved insults
in the dark corner of rancor and hate
because I could have taken advantage of many men
but I chose solitude over lies and convenience
because I did not prostitute my ideals under the assault
of those whose only ideal is profit
because I was born woman and I bleed
and I am impregnated and I give birth
and I raise and nurture and clean and organize
and I stop bleeding
for these and many other reasons of worth
I deserve fame right now
be it fifteen minutes of praise,
be it an ovation of applause and roses,
be it my image glowing on television,
or my touched-up photo in some important magazine,
be it an honorable mention in some contest
or a trophy with my name engraved,
whatever it may be, but let it be grand...
because
I deserve fame!
I deserve glory!
For more of Johanny's writing, please enjoy the following:
PUBLICATIONS-
Book Poemas Callejeros / Streetwise Poems published by Mayapple Press, Michigan, 2007.
Poem published in the anthology The City Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century, Cracked Slab Books, Chicago, 2007.
Poem: Our Revolution.
Poems published in Poetas sin tregua compilation of Puerto Rican poets published in Spain, Ráfagas, 2006.
Poems: Sentada en la arena mirando el mar, Anónimo Lo que queda, Un infierno mío, Fuerza de voluntad, En comunión, Jardinera.
Poems published in Más allá de las fronteras anthology published in New Jersey, USA, Ediciones Nuevo Espacio, 2004.
Poems: Sentada en la arena mirando el mar, Sin debida sepultura.
Article "Café con demasiaaaaada leche: I am a Black Woman Trapped in a White Woman's Body" and poem published in Que Ondee Sola, Northeastern Illinois University-Chicago, IL, March 2003.
Poem: Anhelo africano.
Song lyrics written included in the compact disc Compromiso by Luis Jahn, Chicago, IL, Del Sur Music Publishing, 2003.
Poem: Cada familia.
Co-edited and published poems in Between the Heart and the Land/Entre el corazón y la tierra; Latina Poets in the Midwest anthology published in Chicago, IL, 2001, MARCH/Abrazo Press.
Poems: Liviana / Light Heart (both versions in all indicated), Por un hilo / By a Thread, A la vida / To Life, Morning After.
Poems published in VOCES: A Journal of Chicana/Latina Studies, Volume Three, Number One and Two, University of California, Davis, Spring 2001.
Poems: Con fe / With Faith (both versions in all indicated), Dedicado a Soledad / Dedicated to Solitude, Veinticuatro Horas / Twenty-four Hours, Liviana / Light Heart, Razones de Peso / Reasons of Worth.
Poems published in Centro Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, in the article "New Rican Voices", Volume XII, Number 1, Hunter College, New York, Fall 2000.
Poems: African Yearning, Carta a mi madre.
Chapbook El filo de la esquina published in the collection Voces Selectas 2000, Carpeta de Poesía Luz Número 4, Luz Bilingual Publishing, Sherman Oaks, CA, 2000.
Poems: Por un hilo, Con fe, Palabras cortas, Juerga de dos, mentira de muchos.
Poems published in ¡Sin linderos ni arrabales, hacia el Siglo XXI!, Segunda Parte. Anthology published in Madrid, Spain, 1999, Calíope Press.
Poems: Liviana, ¡Qué grande estás!
Poems published in El Otro Newspaper, Chicago, IL, December 1999.
Poems: Si alguna vez, Razones de peso.
Poem and short story published in ¡Sin linderos ni arrabales, hacia el Siglo XXI! anthology published in Madrid, Spain, 1999, Calíope Press.
Poem and Short Story: En las mañanas, Con fe.
Poems published in Yagrumal literary magazine, 1999 issue, Peñuelas, Puerto Rico.
Poems: Callejón, Cada familia, ¡Hay que...!, Con fe, Bailando bolero sola, Resolución de fin de año.
Poems published in ¡Y Dios la hizo mujer! anthology published in Madrid, Spain, 1998, Calíope Press.
Poem: Razones de peso.
Poems and article published in La Raza Newspaper, Chicago, IL, July 1999.
Poems: Bailando bolero sola, Callejón.
Interview published in Que Ondee Sola, Northeastern Illinois University-Chicago, IL, March 1999.
Poem published in Que Ondee Sola, Northeastern Illinois University-Chicago, IL, April 1999.
Poem: Our Revolution.
Poems published in Beyond Borders: Más all de las fronteras literary magazine, De Paul University, 1997-98 issue.
Poem: Cada familia.
Poems published in Diminuendo, volume ii, issue 1, Loyola University literary magazine, October 1998. Poem: Alleyway.
Poems published in Karacola literary magazine, 1998, Santiago, Chile.
Poem: Razones de peso
Poems published in Abrapalabra University of Illinois literary magazine, Chicago, IL, 1996
Poem: Anuncio.
Poems published in Fe de erratas, August and November 1993 issues. Poems: Mujer, Débil.
Lisa Alvarado
What is the worst book you’ve ever read?
Brilliant!I've been meaning to re-read Scruples. Haven't read it since I was 14, and how I loved it then!
But really, why would Chanel product place in a book for Pre-teens? Hardly their target market. Does this person listen to rap music, also a bastion of product placement? And who are these "librarians" asking for the books to be taken off the shelf. Shame on them (if they exist)
I am more worried about you shopping in the "small men's collection" as I remember you as tall. (LOL)
Jane
I just realized I posted about Paris on Bastille Day. Totally an accident but how magnifique!
They are promoting COSMETICS, not clothes. Well within the young teen allowance. And by the way, wasn't it Judith Krantz who was paid by Bulgari to include one of their pieces in a novel - and did not hesitate to let the world know she thought it was OK. Don't remember the publisher - alas!
They are promoting COSMETICS - not clothing - well within the budgets of young teens (and the chick-lit adult readers).
And wasn't it Judith Krantz who was paid by Bulgari to feature a piece of jewelry in one of her novels? (And didn't hesitate to let the world know she thought it was OK.)
No--that was Fay Weldon, and The Bulgari Connection . Interesting that Weldon is considered the higher-brow of the two.
some blunder here re. Bulgari. sorry for the repetition and thanks for the correction
oops - sorry for the repetition and thanks for the correction
It's not something I'll get all het up about, but I feel like I read fiction - especially in high school! - to get away from the world where it matters so much to have the right jeans and the right cosmetics and the right everything.
On the other hand, most of the readers of teen boys-and-shopping fic probably feel differently.
(From one who is late to the party.) Is one permitted to ask: WHO IS TOM GUNN?