Everynight Life
Celeste Frazier Delgado, Jose Esteban Muñoz (eds.)
This book explores the varied tradition of dance throughout Latino/a America: salsa, merengue, rumba, mambo, tango, samba and norteña as a language of resistance. The editors reveal the history of these popular forms of dance as syncretic practices of African, indigenous, and mestizo people in the Americas. Much in the same way popular forms of African-American dance preserved traditional values of an oppressed people, so did the people’s of Latino/a America survive a dominant culture of of liquidation and negation. The most striking example of this is the Brazilian example, capoeira. It's both a syncretic dance practice of Yoruba devotees and a martial art. Slaves and former slaves developed capoeira as a means to resist and defend themselves. To a lesser extent, dance forms as popular as salsa, merengue, etc. reflect ancient tribal forms which celebrate the earth and body, resisting co-optation by European invaders. In fact, these dances insinuated themselves into mainstream culture and became popular themselves. They represent a kind of subversion to a Eurocentric idea of body, personal space and identity. I was fascinated by the editors’ premise that dance uses the body and its movement as a language, a code. I was reminded of the possibility to invent story by movement, by the symbolism of moving flesh.
ISBN-10: 0822319195
ISBN-13: 978-0822319191
Riverbed of Memory
Daisy Zamora
Daisy Zamora was a member of Nicaragua’s Sandinista Liberation Army. She was program director of the clandestine Radio Sandino during the revolution, and later became a Vice Minister of Culture in the revolutionary government. In Riverbed of Memory, Zamora writes poetry about the horrors of war, its causes and its aftermath. What's stunning about the book is its elliptical, subtle portrayal of its subject matter. She creates a riveting portrayal of violence and death, by inference, and it's all the more powerful because of it. I was spellbound by a writer who could capture the essence of something horrible without cliche, without beating the reader to a bloody pulp. Zamora accomplishes this with economy and simplicity. In a particularly strong piece, Zamora compares the spilled blood of a child to the first fruit of the harvest, crushed under the boot of a soldier, its pulp staining the earth. I found in Riverbed of Memory examples of how to write about strongly charged material indirectly, helping the reader to understand the enormity of catastrophe by describing the shadow it casts.
ISBN-10: 0872862739
ISBN-13: 978-0872862739
Gringa Latina: A Woman of Two Worlds
Gabriella De Ferrari
Gabriella De Ferrari is a curator, lecturer and Peruvian expatriate living in New York City. Gringa Latina is the story of her journey between two worlds. She describes in loving detail her life in a small rural town where her father was a doctor. The reader follows De Ferrari through her home town, along its riverbank, its grove of olive trees, the sights and sounds of her mother’s kitchen. With similar detail, she describes her culture shock at the crowds of people in New York, her first subway ride, her first nervous attempts to mount and promote an exhibit. While clearly De Ferrari’s affluence protected her from the worst aspects of being a stranger in a strange land, she captures the emigre’s sense of loneliness, loss and anomie. Her language is clean and spare, and I found this book helpful in thinking about the creation of memoir as a whole, and my piece in particular. Gringa Latina uses the very personal account of one woman’s journey to tell a larger human story through the use of the particular, connection to place, and the recreation of home.
ISBN-10: 1568361459
ISBN-13: 978-1568361451
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CHICAGO FOUNDATION FOR WOMEN'S Latina Leadership Council
6:30 p.m. wine and cheese reception
8-9:30 p.m. performance
Friday, Nov. 9
Chicago Dramatists
1105 W. Chicago Ave.
Chicago, IL
Call (312) 577-2801 ext. 229. Tickets are $45.
Proceeds from this event benefit the Unidas Fund of the Latina Leadership Council. No refunds or exchanges. A world premiere production, "MACHOS" is an interview-based play about contemporary masculinities. As always, Teatro Luna asks hard-hitting questions, such as: Exactly how did you learn to use the urinal? "MACHOS" presents a range of true-life stories with Teatro Luna’s trademark humor and unique Latina point-of-view.
"MACHOS" follows Teatro Luna's critically-acclaimed shows "S-E-X-OH" and "LUNATIC(A)S." It moves beyond the everyday stereotypes of gender, offering a complex look at how 50 men (and eight Latina women) learned how to be men. Performances
are drawn from interviews with 50 men nationwide and performed by an all-Latina cast in drag. After the performance there will be a reception with director Coya Paz and the actors.
Featuring Belinda Cervantes, Maritza Cervantes, Yadira Correa, Gina Cornejo, Ilana Faust,
Stephanie Gentry-Fernandez and Wendy Vargas.
Learn more about the Latina Leadership Council of Chicago Foundation for Women
Chicago Dramatists is wheelchair-accessible.
If you have other accesibility needs or questions, please contact Marisol Ybarra by Nov. 6 at (312) 577-2836 / TTY (312) 577-2803 or mybarra@cfw.org.
SAVE THE DATE
November 3, Saturday
¡Siempre Latina!
Gala Dinner
Garden Manor
4722 W. Armitage
Chicago, IL
$70 at door
Available:
312 563 0132
Early to Bed 5232 N. Sheridan Rd. Chicago, IL
773 271 1219
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AND MORE ABOUT MARGO TAMEZ
THE OTHER VOICES WOMEN’S READING SERIES PRESENTS MARGO TAMEZ
MARGO TAMEZ is the recipient of a Poetry Fellowship from the Arizona Commission on the Arts and a First Place Literary Award from the Frontera Literary Review. She is the author of Naked Wanting, also published by the University of Arizona Press. She is of Jumano and Lipan Apache as well as Spanish Land Grant ancestry of South Texas and currently lives in Pullman, Washington.
Friday, November 9th at 7:00 p.m.
Antigone Books,
411 North 4th Avenue
520-792-3715
RAVEN EYE
Written from thirteen years of journals, psychic and earthly,
this poetry maps an uprising of a borderland
indigenous woman battling forces of racism
and sexual violence against Native women and children.
This lyric collection breaks new ground, skillfully
revealing an unseen narrative of resistance on the
Mexico–U.S. border. A powerful blend of the oral
and long poem, and speaking into the realm of global
movements, these poems explore environmental injustice,
sexualized violence, and indigenous women’s lives.
These complex and necessary themes are at the
heart of award-winning poet Margo Tamez’s second
book of poetry.
NAKED WANTING
Speaking with the voice of the cicada and the cricket,
the raven and the crane, Margo Tamez shows us that
the earth is a vibrant network of birth, death, and rebirth—
a sacred intertwining from which we as humans have
become disconnected. Through images that remind us
of Nature’s beauty and fragility, reflections on childbirth
and children, and warnings of environmental abuse,
she brings to her poetry the insight of someone
who has experienced firsthand what happens
when our land and water are compromised.
“Margo Tamez’s poetry works like a heartsong,
it makes us brave. Her alive response to what kills
makes us want to stand up with her and sing in
the face of the enemy. . . . They say that women
at war pose the most serious threat, and so it is
that Margo Tamez’s call to battle both instills
fear and thrills us.” —Heid E. Erdrich
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Juan Felipe Hererra offers a personal and illuminating perspective on this issue in his new book 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can't Cross The Border: Undocuments 1971-2007. He launches his "187 Express" at City Lights on Thursday, November 15th, 7pm, with music and spoken word, and is available for interview.
Herrera has enlisted a team of "word-callers" to join the festivities --
Emilio Robles Kirkpatrick, 12 year old wordsmith - MC
Ginny Lim, SF, Poet
Arlene Biala, Santa Clara, Poet
Margarita Robles, Fresno, Poet
Francis Wong, SF, Jazz musician
John Carlos Perea, SF, bassist
Yolanda Muñoz, San Diego, sculptor
The "Express" takes Herrera across the border states,
and up and down California in a series of
event/performances involving guest musicians and artists.
Raised in the fields of California in a family of migrant workers,
Herrera has blended art and activism for over 30 years
as a pioneer of the Chicano spoken word movement.
He has spent the last three and half decades
assembling the collection found in 187 Reasons –
at rallies, walkouts, under fire and on the run,
in cafés, under helicopters and in the midst of
thousands of marchers for civil rights and new
immigration policies. Some of the work is a result
of secret reconnaissance information given to him
by travelers in Central America as they documented
the atrocities of the military. There are sections
devoted to the first Chicano encounters and
journeys in the Mayan Indian ground of Chiapas,
now recognized globally. And there are spoofs
and sparks and lists of things that speak about
migrant Street Poets' experiences. Most provocative
is the photo album of Herrera’s family and his
journeys documenting close to a hundred
years of migrante life.
Juan Felipe Herrera is Professor of Creative Writing
at the University of California, Riverside.
Author of 23 books, he is a community arts leader
and a dynamic performer and actor.
He is the son of Mexican immigrants
and grew up in the migrant fields of California.
TIA CHUCHA'S CAFE CULTURAL
Instill the love of reading early on and bring your children,
nephews, nieces, or grandchildren to meet children's
author Rene Colato and play loteria. He will read
from his book "Playing Lotería / El juego de la lotería."
"PlayingLotería" is about a little boy who visits his
grandmother in Mexico, and with the help of la lotería,
learns a new language and how special the bond
between a boy and his grandmother can be.
SATURDAY, Nov. 3rd at 2 p.m.
Cine Sin Fin Screening
Cine Sin Fin will be screening films and videos by
aspiring independent Chicana/o filmmakers.
The purpose is to empower those who personify
and humanize the Chicana/o experience to
those who would otherwise not be familiar with it
and promote positive images of Chicanas/os in film.
There will be a panel discussions throughout the evening.
Featured Films:
Milagros
The Great Tamale War
Isabel
Tomoko's Kitchen
Compas
Search for the Chupacabra
Wednesday, Nov. 7th at 7 p.m.
Lake View Terrace, CA 91342
(818) 896-1479
Fax: (818) 896-1489
info@tiachucha.com
Lisa Alvarado
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