Danny Romero is the featured guest author at the World Stage, Wednesday, August 1st

Danny Romero was born and raised in Los Angeles. He has degrees from University of California, Berkeley, and Temple University in Philadelphia, where he taught writing for many years. He currently teaches at Sacramento City College.

Romero’s poetry and short fiction have been published in literary journals throughout the country, such as Bilingual Review, Colorado Review, Drumvoices Revue, Paterson Literary Review, Pembroke Magazine, Permafrost and Solo. His work can also be found in a number of anthologies, including West of the West: Imagining California (1989), Pieces of the Heart: New Chicano Fiction (1993), Under the Fifth Sun: Latino Literature from California (2003), Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature (2008), and Pow Wow: Charting the Faultlines in the American Experience – Short Fiction from Then to Now (2009).

He is also the author of the novel, Calle 10 (1996) and two chapbooks of poetry. A poetry collection, Traces, was published this year by Bilingual Press. He lives with his son in Sacramento, California.

Danny Romero will be a guest author this Wednesday, August 1, at the World Stage, as part of the Anansi Writers Workshop program. The World Stage strives to make Los Angeles a more vibrant arts entity by creating an engaging grassroots environment for community members to share their wholly unique stories in spoken word, music and literature to enliven the spirit that was the dream of co-founders Billy Higgins and Kamau Daáood: “A spirit of love, cooperation, respect and artistic excellence.”

DETAILS:

What: Anansi Writer’s Workshop - Open to the public

When: Wednesday, Aug 1st, 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. (see specific program segments below)

Where: The World Stage Performance Gallery, 4344 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008 

The World Stage Anansi Writers Workshop was founded in 1990 by Kamau Daáood, Akilah Oliver, Nafis Nabawi and Anthony Lyons. The Workshop is conveyed in three sections:

Formal Workshop: 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Featured Guest (Danny Romero): 8:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Open Mic: 9:05 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Jawanza Dumasani is the workshop coordinator.  The workshop is open to the public but a $5.00 donation is suggested.

IN OTHER NEWS...

◙ Over at the San Antonio Current, Gregg Barrios offers an appreciation of the actress Lupe Ontiveros upon her passing.  Barrios says, in part:

“My favorite performance is her role as La Nacha in Gregory Nava’s El Norte. In the film, she shows the young Guatemalan immigrant how to wash and dry clothes in a Beverly Hills household. It is both heartbreaking and hilarious how the young woman finds it impossible to use a washing machine and dryer and ultimately resorts to the old fashion way of washing and drying clothes. She worked with Nava again in Mi Familia/My Family and the aforementioned Selena.”

Lupe Ontiveros

You may read the entire essay here.

◙ Amiga of La Bloga, award winning author Susan Straight, with the assistance of Michele Nielsen, Curator of History and Archives at the San Bernardino County Museum, takes us “on a tour of some North Redlands houses. Redlands was a favorite location for Easterners suffering from tuberculosis -- in fact, from 1890-1910, some people lived in tent houses on wooden platforms that later became permanent homes.”  One of the homes (pictured below), demonstrates how the builders used everything including local stones and rocks. If you have a taste for California history, you will love this piece.

A rock house in Redlands, CA - Photo: Douglas McCulloh

◙ Daniel Alarcón is pleased to announce the release of NAMES, a brand new episode from Radio Ambulante. He continues: “We’ve got amazing stories from Argentina, Colombia, and Uruguay, stories about the dead being adopted by the living, about doppelgängers whose lives intersect in the strangest ways, and a startling inside account of one of Latin America's most famous prison breaks. We’re incredibly proud of this work, of our producers Camila Segura, Nadja Drost and Leonel Martínez, and we hope you'll enjoy it.” I strongly recommend that you visit Radio Ambulante’s official website.

Daniel Alarcón