SPOTLIGHT ON GARY D. KELLER

Monday’s post from Daniel Olivas…

Gary D. Keller is Regents' Professor and Director of the Hispanic Research Center at Arizona State University. He is the author of numerous books and articles of scholarship and creative literature that treat Mexican-American and Latino art, film, literature, linguistics, and language policy. Keller is also the General Editor and Director of Bilingual Review/Press (“BRP”) which publishes literary works, scholarship, and art books by or about U.S. Hispanics under the name Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingüe. BRP also produces the literary/scholarly journal Bilingual Review, distributes more than 1,000 titles by other presses, and is the exclusive distributor of books by Latin American Literary Review Press.

Most recently, Keller co-authored Chicano Art for Our Millennium: Collected Works from the Arizona State University Community (Bilingual Press), which showcases more than 120 works of Chicana and Chicano art and provides a good representation of the art movement for general readers as well as students. Created in part as a catalog for the 2004 exhibition of the same name, the book is also designed to serve as a useful tool for teaching Chicana/o art from the elementary grades through graduate school. Art aficionados will relish the striking full-color images in this coffee-table-quality volume. Themes include community values, borders and biculturalism, spirituality, and cultural icons. This is the third volume in the series.

EDITORIAL INTERNSHIP: Tu Ciudad Los Angeles magazine is seeking motivated and talented interns to assist with editorial duties including but not limited to research and fact-checking for its print magazine and online outlets. Ideal candidates possess excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and Spanish, as well as a passion for providing the hippest and most relevant cultural and lifestyle news to L.A.’s English-speaking Latinos. Interns must be available to work in the magazines Wilshire Boulevard office between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. for a minimum of three consecutive months. Candidates must be college students. Internship positions are unpaid. Interested persons should send a cover letter, resume, and writing samples to edit@ciudadmag.com.

A LITTLE POETRY: Here is a poem by Leticia Hernández-Linares:

Cars That Go Boom

cars that go
boom
scrape the ground
you feel every groove

the pulse of the bass
carries you through the streets
that you are so excited to ride down
in that black lowered mini-truck
that goes
boom

but these are the poor boy rods
not the ones
with glossy lettered rear windows
in hot pink and turquoise
like the Aqua Net can
that she carries in her backpack
spray spray in the morning
groggy shufflin' of slippers
the father swears
she's killing herself with that poison air
and taking them all down too

question
how to know you're a red neck
answer
if you think bond-o is a color paint
wrong
never been to my neighborhood
where bond-o flags
that the wind can't move
lay crumpled in driveways
where Mexicans eat rednecks for breakfast
in their Menudo soup hangover broth
that the mother pops
out of the can
in the Sunday aftermath

so glamorous those cars that vida
like the Sheila E. song
sparkly and forbidden to ride

but once you're in
its not all that special really
it's actually kind of uncomfortable
feels kind of wrong

like the bottom shouldn't be
so close to the ground
and what if he doesn't really like her
she can hear the metal
scratching
but the bass is too high
and all you feel is the throbbing
and picture
the windows bubbling out from the sound
like in a cartoon of a spaceship

te buscan
they are calling you the father says
when the familiar vibrations
shake the house
it's like
a mating call

pointy shoed dj wannabe
too much gel in the hair vato
wants you and he asks hey
you like the cars that go
boom

when the ride is over once you
get out
you feel just like that old school jam says
like Expose revealing
what the Cover Girls are hiding
with the female
always heart broken
always hard spoken
feels like she's been dragging
more than cruising
more than loving

later you find out
all there is to like
about the cars that go
boom
is the memory

[From the chapbook Razor Edges of My Tongue (Calaca Press).]

BUSH AND LITERATURE: The online literary journal, Outsider Ink (which was named one of the top five markets for new writers by Writer's Digest in the June 2003) has just released a special edition of art and literature concerning the Bush administration. I have a little story included in the issue. Here’s the contents:

Fiction: The Destruction of the World Trade Center Considered as an Aerial Relay Race by Dan McNeil; Hit by Daniel A. Olivas; Looting In Irak by Robyn Singer Rose; The Day The World Ended by Devan Sagliani; Fugue by Ted Sappington; Spit by Joseph P. Thayer

Poetry:Corey Habbas

Artwork:Bill Pierce

Story-Photo Collage:Alice Wittenberg

All done. I’m back from Kaua’i and I had promised to tell you more about those colorful roosters and chickens that run wild on the island. But I leave that for another day. Until next Monday, enjoy the intervening posts from my compadres at La Bloga. Also, do what you can for those suffering from Hurricane Katrina. My compa listed several fine organizations on La Bloga last week...good resources there. ¡Lea un libro!