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"It’s a wonderful book, filled with the grace and wisdom of being present, at every moment, and reminding us to do the same." Sandra Cisneros

And by-the-way, don't forget about Raúl Niño's upcoming Chicago readings at: the Sulzer Regional Library tomorrow, October 4th, at 7PM, or the DvA Gallery on Friday, October6, at 8-9:30PM. Available through MARCH/Abrazo Press


And good news about La Bloga's René Colato Laínez:

Byrd, Lee Merrill. (2006). Lover Boy/Juanito el cariñoso: a Bilingual Counting Book. Illustrated by Francisco Delgado. Cinco Puntos Press ISBN 0-938317-38-5. Grades PK-2. (Bilingual, English/Spanish) Reviewed in Críticas Magazine: http://reviews.criticasmagazine.com/BookDetail.aspx?isbn=0938317385; School Library Journal, Jun, 2006, Vol. 52, Issue 6, p. 142; Kirkus Review, 3/15/2006, Vol. 74, Issue 6, p. 287.

Juanito loves to count in English and Spanish, the kisses he gives to family, friends and pets.

Canetti, Yanitzia. (2006) Ay, luna, luna, lunita… Illustrated by Ángeles Peinador. Editorial Everest, S.A. (Distributed by Lectorum).ISBN 84-241-8774-1. Grades PK-2. (Spanish)
Reviewed in Críticas Magazine: http://reviews.criticasmagazine.com/BookDetail.aspx?isbn=8424187741

Farmer Federico Feliciano de la Feria never suspects that all the animals on his farm, except for one, are unhappy with who they are and wish to the moon to make them a different animal.

Colato Laínez, René. (2005). Playing Lotería/El juego de la Lotería. Illustrated by Jill Arena. Luna Rising. ISBN 978-0-87358-881-2 and 0-87358-881-9. Grades 1-3. (Bilingual, English/Spanish) Reviewed in Críticas Magazine: http://reviews.criticasmagazine.com/BookDetail.aspx?isbn=0873588819; School Library Journal, Oct. 2005, Vol. 51, Issue 10, p. 148.

A boy reluctantly spends the summer with his grandmother in Mexico. They have fun learning each other's language using the game Lotería, or Mexican bingo.

Garza, Xavier. (2006). Juan and the Chupacabras/Juan y el Chupacabras. Illustrated by April Ward. Piñata Books. ISBN 978-1-55885-454-3 and 1-55885-454-1. Grades 2-4. (Bilingual, English/Spanish) Reviewed in Kirkus Reviews, 10/15/2006, Vol. 74, Issue 20; School Library Journal; Oct. 2006, Vol. 52, Issue 10, p144.

After hearing their grandfather describe his encounter with the Chupacabras, Juan and his cousin Luz go into the corn fields at night to find out if the Chupacabras is a real monster.

Gonzalez-Bertrand, Diane. The Ruiz Street Kids/Los Muchachos de la Calle Ruiz. (2006). Piñata Books. ISBN 978-1-55885-321-8 and 1-55885-321-9. Grades 3-6. (Bilingual, English/Spanish) Reviewed in School Library Journal, Oct. 2006, Vol. 52, Issue 10, p. 144.

The Ruiz Street kids wonder why David, the tough-looking red-haired kid, has a different bike every time he rides down the street. They all think David steals the bikes and the rumors begin.

Hayes, Joe. (2005). A Spoon for Every Bite: Una Cuchara Para Cada Bocado. Illustrated by Rebecca Leer. Cinco Puntos. ISBN 0-938317-93-8. Grades 1-5. (Bilingual, English/Spanish)
Reviewed in Library Media Connection, Feb. 2006, Vol. 24, Issue 5, p. 57; School Library Journal, Oct. 2005, Vol. 51 Issue 10, p. 148-149.

In this folktale, a poor man tells his rich compadre that he knows someone who uses a different spoon for every bite. The envious rich man spends his entire fortune buying enough spoons for every bite he takes. He is surprised when he finds out how a poor man uses a spoon for every bite.

Mansour, Vivian. (2005). El Enmascarado de Lata. Illustrated by Trino. (The Tin Wrestler) Fondo de Cultura Económica. ISBN 968-16-7672-6. Grades 4-6. (Spanish) Reviewed in Críticas Magazine: http://reviews.criticasmagazine.com/BookDetail.aspx?isbn=9681676726

In this comical story, a small puny boy tries to convince his schoolmates, who pick on him daily, that the famous wrestler, El enmascarado de Lata (The Tin Wrestler), is his father. When his plans fail, he discovers the true meaning of friendship and integrity.

Villaseñor, Victor. (2005). Little Crow to the Rescue/El Cuervito al Rescate. Illustrated by Felipe Ugalde Alcántara. Piñata Books. ISBN978-1-55885-430-7 and 1-55885-430-4. Grades 2-4. (Bilingual, English/Spanish) Reviewed in Kirkus Reviews, 11/15/2005, Vol. 73, Issue 22, p1236-1236; Booklist, 10/1/2005, Vol. 102, Issue 3, p. 66; School Library Journal, Feb. 2006, Vol. 52, Issue 2, p. 127.

When Father Crow warns his son to beware of ungrateful humans, who do not appreciate what animals have taught them, Little Crow makes a clever suggestion to stay out of danger.

Lisa Alvarado

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Open Mic Poetry Reading & Bicycle Show-and-Tell
Show off your bike and tell its story, or bring a poem to read.
Ages 14 and up.
Refreshments will be served.

Hosted by:
Raúl Niño

Raúl Niño was the recipient of a Significant Illinois Writer’s Award from Gwendolyn Brooks,
and a Sister Cities award from the City of Chicago. Niño will read from A Book of Mornings, his second volume of poetry published by MARCH/Abrazo Press.

Thursday, August 9, 2007
6pm – 7:55pm
Bezazian Branch
1226 West Ainslie Street
Chicago, IL 60640
312-744-0019
Hours: M-TH 9-8; F-SA 9-5

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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 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

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Last night, I had the pleasure to attend Palabra Pura's reading featuring Sandy Florian and Raúl Niño. Once again, over a pre-reading dinner (presided over by the Guild's Executive Director Ellen Placey Wadey, board members and poets Mike Puican and Mary Hawley, and the MC, poet and diosa Johanny Vasquez) I was able to have a far ranging, relaxed discussion with Sandy about her work. She's a master of prose poetry that is haunting, complex, dream-like, and we all got the scoop that the next day she was to fly out the very next day to prepare for a residency in France.

We were joined by Raul at the California Clipper and I have to say being in the audience was a singular treat. The pairing of Florian's layered, imagistic writing about the everyday and the divine and Nino's clean, spare etchings of private moments reverberated in my mind even on the train into work today.....That, compays, is why poetry is food for the soul at the deepest level...at least for this writer, and I suspect, many of Bloga's readers.

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It isn't often that you find an author who isn't clamoring for publicity. Imagine my surprise and delight in encountering a Chicago area poet who feels that his work should just stand or fall on its own. It took a little wheedling, but I was able to get a bio and a photo from this reluctant writer, Raúl Niño. For the record, the work is strong, deeply felt and beautifully rendered, but I'll say more about that later on in this article.

And as you can see for yourself, Niño doesn't take himself too seriously. Read his bio below and you'll see what I mean.

“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you”

Rumi (1207-1272 CE)


Book of Mornings

Raúl Niño's exquisite chapbook Book Of Mornings is now available through Marcha Abrazo Press. Niño has taken time to meditate over and perfect these gems, and has also designed the portada cover. If you can't make his readings where the chapbook will be available, send a money order for $12.00 to MARCH/Abrazo Press, Post Office Box 2890, Chicago, Illinois 60690. Niño will autograph and dedicate your chapbook, if the buyer includes instructions. His first poetry collection, Breathing Light, was published by MARCHA/Abrazo Press in 1991, ISBN 1-877636-10-X. Copies are extremely rare, also available by mail order for $20.

He was the winner of the Sister Cities Award in 1992, an award that took him to Mexico City on a reading tour to help foster stronger culture ties between Chicago and Mexico City. Niño was the recipient of the Significant Illinois Writers award in 1993, presented by Gwendolyn Brooks, Poet Laureate of Illinois. His poems have appeared in anthologies such as Power Lines, published by Tia Chucha Press, and New Chicano/Chicana Writers, published by the University of Arizona Press.

Niño is currently waiting for his Muse to return from holiday in Barbados (why there? she's got a lovely tan already), at which time they will exchange pleasantries then get down to the important business of editing through his new manuscript, Rough Sutra, and if the sky remains blue, it may be published by MARCH/Abrazo Press in 2008. Raúl Niño lives in Chicago.



My dawn
is your dusk.
Your eyes close,
mine open.

Moon seduces oceans
to fill your shores.
Meanwhile, the gravity of lovers
strolls freely,
corralling history
into the palms of fidelity.
Soft laughter beneath your sky
makes the long journey toward mine.

My dusk
is your dawn.
My eyes close,
yours open.


My hands are restless dreamers
that awaken early,
seeking your geography,
two hardy explorers
hiking over valleys and hills
of your warm terrain.
They need no light,
these faithful adventurers.
Memory guides them
through receding shadows
of familiar textures,
soft nostalgia
their only goal.


Moonless sky begins to change,
hues blend,
merge lines of ocher,
heaven and earth divide.
These palettes of insomnia,
are summer’s solstice hesitant shades.

A restless night of desire is over,
my lover sleeps in her foreign thoughts,
loosely tucked between thin sheets,
with the curve of her spine
exposed to my memory,
while the sovereignty of her bed drifts away.

Landlocked I watch as
navigating light fills her room,
familiar patterns and textures return,
clothes, furniture and floor,
waiting to be touched again.


Days take on the character
of an unmarried uncle,
hesitant to linger too long.
At such an early hour, such a late thought,
as a Moorish moon searches for a prayer,
Nordic clouds descend for a closer look
swift and low.
Overhead a wobbly V formation
falls across the sky like loose string.
I listen to the honks and squawks
of these geese fade away.
And the wind picks,
leaving a rain of leaves to bury my world in ocher.


My son wakes up before me,
so early that robins
still dream.
He crawls over
his sleeping mother
whimpering half words and
scattered phrases.
He pokes my shut eyes,
pulls my ear with a strong grip,
and makes a muffled cry
pointing into the darkness.

I want to sleep a little more,
let my last dream play itself out.
My son has other plans.
He wants to play.
He wants his juice.
He wants me to chase him.
He wants to see the cat eat.
This little person who seems
to have always been,
hugs me, and I hug him down
onto a couch in silence.
Sleep finds him fast, and all I hear
are his deep breaths,
and a robin beginning its day.

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This column is devoted to a hub of Chicano literary life here in the Chicago. MARCH/Abrazo Press, an independent small press and publisher, has promoted literature by and about Latinos and Native Americans for nearly 30 years. It is is the publishing arm of March, Inc. also known as el Movimiento Artistico Chicano. The MARCH, Inc. organization was incorporated in Illinois in 1975 as a not-for-profit cultural arts organization.

Since its inception, MARCH/Abrazo Press has published numerous poetry books, anthologies, annotated bibliographies and analyses which feature writings by acclaimed poets such as Sandra Cisneros, Trinidad Sanchez, Carlos Cumpián, Carlos Cortez and other talented Midwestern writers.

Their goal is to promote Latino/Native American literary and visual arts expression with an emphasis on the Midwest and Chicago. Many of our books are published in a bilingual English and Spanish format in order to span many audiences.

Take a look at some of these joyas literarias and you won't be able to resist...In layman's terms, BUY THE BOOK!




Between the Heart and the Land / Entre el corazón y la tierra: Latina Poets in the Midwest Edited by Brenda Cárdenas & Johanny Vázquez Paz

"...While the literary voices of U.S. Puerto Rican poets and fiction writers and of their Chicano/a counterparts on the West Coast and in the Southwest have been anthologized, duly canonized and even mainstreamed by the Anglo literary market, very little is heard about the Latino/a writers and poets from the Midwest... Between the heart and the Land / Entre el corazón y la tierra encompasses a rich array of women of various national origins—Dominican, Cuban, Costa Rican, Bolivian, Salvadorian, Columbian, Argentinian, Mexican, Chicana, and Puerto Rican—as well as of diverse socioeconomic and work experiences, sexuality, sexual identities, age, and generational experiences…"
--- from the forward by Frances Aparicio, Ph.D. Latin American Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago

"Between the heart and the Land / Entre el corazón y la tierra is a poetic and bold testament of the undeniable Latina presence in the heartland of the United States." --- Ana Castillo

ISBN 1-877636-18-5





Serpent Underfoot by Frank Varela

"A Boricua poet now rooted in the Puerto Rican diaspora. These are poems that pay homage, to Crazy Willie, to the doomed Paulina, to his Korean War veteran uncle, in the language of real, lived experience. This is a poet who wants to send Willie Colon and his salsa into outer space, who tells us of forgotten African gods and the 'spics banished to Chicago' for forgetting. For his passion and his clarity, his humor and his memory, I welcome Frank Varela." --- Martín Espada, author of The Republic of Poetry

"I enjoy Varela most when he drops below street-level into the dark earth, which is something of the city's subconscious, the flip side of the urban experience. His poems about laboring with soil, rooting up growing things, are thoughtful and touching, redolent with the fragrant costs of mortality." --- Sesshu Foster, author of Angry Days

"Varela has accomplished a poet's fundamental objective: the creation of beautiful word paintings that convey personal, intimate, and yet, universal messages." --- Manuel Ramos, author of the Ballad of Rocky Ruiz

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