Poetry of Resistance: Voices for Social JusticeEdited by Francisco X. Alarcón and Odilia Galván Rodríguez
Foreword by Juan Felipe Herrera
University of Arizona Press
March 10, 2016
[from the publisher]
“Borders can be overcome with the revolutionary tenderness of poems. This anthology is an incredible assemblage of voices and letters that proves that collective poetry is the answer to the violence-filled policies that increasingly face us in these times.”—Juan Felipe Herrera, U.S. Poet Laureate
On April 20, 2010, nine Latino students chained themselves to the main doors of the Arizona State Capitol in an act of civil disobedience to protest Arizona’s SB 1070. Moved by the students’ actions, that same day Francisco X. Alarcón responded by writing a poem in Spanish and English titled “Para Los Nueve del Capitolio/ For the Capitol Nine,” which he dedicated to the students. The students replied to the poem with a collective online message. To share with the world what was taking place, Alarcón then created a Facebook page called “Poets Responding to SB 1070” and posted the poem, launching a powerful and dynamic forum for social justice.
Since then, more than three thousand original contributions by poets and artists from around the globe have been posted to the page. Poetry of Resistance offers a selection of these works, addressing a wide variety of themes, including racial profiling, xenophobia, cultural misunderstanding, violence against refugees, shared identity, and much more. Contributors include distinguished poets such as Francisco Aragón, Devreaux Baker, Sarah Browning, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Susan Deer Cloud, Sharon Dubiago, Martín Espada, Genny Lim, Pam Uschuk, and Alma Luz Villanueva.
Bringing together more than eighty writers, the anthology powerfully articulates the need for change and the primacy of basic human rights. Each poem shows the heartfelt dedication these writers and artists have to justice in a world that has become larger than borders. Poetry of Resistance is a poetic call for tolerance, reflection, reconciliation, and healing.
The celebrated author of twelve volumes of poetry, including From the Other Side of Night: Selected and New Poems and most recently Canto hondo / Deep Song, Francisco X. Alarcón was a lifelong advocate for social justice and Poetry of Resistance carries forward a tremendous legacy of poetic activism.
Odilia Galván Rodriguez, co-editor of the anthology, remembers her friend and creative partner, “Francisco X. Alarcón represented a generation of us who believe that it is more important to bring all the voices along, than it is to stand out among the voices. He was a humble man, who walked his talk. His writing life was not a solitary act, he knew the importance of working in tandem with other writers of witness who not only struggle to bring about social justice in all the ways they can think of, but who also have a developed Indigenous world view.”
Eco-poet, writer, editor, and activist, Odilia Galván Rodríguez is the author of four volumes of poetry; her latest is Red Earth Calling: Cantos for the 21st Century. She was the English edition editor of Tricontinental Magazine in Havana, Cuba. She facilitates creative writing workshops nationally and is a moderator of “Poets Responding to SB 1070” and “Love and Prayers for Fukushima,” both Facebook pages dedicated to bringing attention to social justice issues that affect the lives and well-being of many people.
“The issues Francisco was concerned with had to do with humanity and we should all be so lucky to follow his footsteps,” says Galván Rodríguez. “At first, I could not imagine a world without him in it but now I know he has not left us. He lives in the hearts of all who struggle for justice.”
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| Patricia Santos Marcantonio |
Patricia Santos Marcantonio
Arte Público Press
March 31, 2016
In
the summer of 1959, everyone knows his place in Arizona. Michael Shaw
is an alcoholic lawyer struggling with his reputation as the son of one
of Mitchell County’s wealthiest, most successful attorneys. Toni Garcia,
the first in her family to obtain a college degree, has returned to
Borden, Arizona, because she’s worried about her father’s health. But as
a Mexican American, she can’t get a teaching job in spite of her
education and intellect. Their worlds collide when Michael is assigned
to represent María Sánchez Curry in the bloody murder of her husband and
Toni, desperate for work, accepts a job as the defendant’s interpreter.
María and Ben Curry’s tumultuous marriage was well documented by María’s many visits to the ER. The couple was also well-known at local bars, where they often drank to excess. But the killing of a white man by a Mexican woman—even in self-defense—is not permissible in a time when justice is determined by the good-old-boys’ club. Also unacceptable is the growing relationship between Michael and Toni, who fight to save María against all odds.
In this evocative exploration of class and race in 1950s America, Bobby Darin is on the juke box, Doris Day is on the silver screen and pink flamingos grace front yards. Former crime reporter Patricia Santos Marcantonio crafts a stirring tale of forbidden love in a world where democracy rules but due process and fair treatment aren’t as readily available on the wrong side of the tracks.
- See more at: https://artepublicopress.com/product/verdict-in-the-desert/#sthash.HJG8F7PG.dpuf
María and Ben Curry’s tumultuous marriage was well documented by María’s many visits to the ER. The couple was also well-known at local bars, where they often drank to excess. But the killing of a white man by a Mexican woman—even in self-defense—is not permissible in a time when justice is determined by the good-old-boys’ club. Also unacceptable is the growing relationship between Michael and Toni, who fight to save María against all odds.
In this evocative exploration of class and race in 1950s America, Bobby Darin is on the juke box, Doris Day is on the silver screen and pink flamingos grace front yards. Former crime reporter Patricia Santos Marcantonio crafts a stirring tale of forbidden love in a world where democracy rules but due process and fair treatment aren’t as readily available on the wrong side of the tracks.
- See more at: https://artepublicopress.com/product/verdict-in-the-desert/#sthash.HJG8F7PG.dpuf
[from the publisher]
In the summer of 1959, everyone knows his place in Arizona. Michael Shaw is an alcoholic lawyer struggling with his reputation as the son of one of Mitchell County’s wealthiest, most successful attorneys. Toni Garcia, the first in her family to obtain a college degree, has returned to Borden, Arizona, because she’s worried about her father’s health. But as a Mexican American, she can’t get a teaching job in spite of her education and intellect. Their worlds collide when Michael is assigned to represent María Sánchez Curry in the bloody murder of her husband and Toni, desperate for work, accepts a job as the defendant’s interpreter.
María and Ben Curry’s tumultuous marriage was well documented by María’s many visits to the ER. The couple was also well-known at local bars, where they often drank to excess. But the killing of a white man by a Mexican woman—even in self-defense—is not permissible in a time when justice is determined by the good-old-boys’ club. Also unacceptable is the growing relationship between Michael and Toni, who fight to save María against all odds.
In this evocative exploration of class and race in 1950s America, Bobby Darin is on the juke box, Doris Day is on the silver screen and pink flamingos grace front yards. Former crime reporter Patricia Santos Marcantonio crafts a stirring tale of forbidden love in a world where democracy rules but due process and fair treatment aren’t as readily available on the wrong side of the tracks.
________________________________________________________________________
Editor(s): Monica Hanna, Jennifer Harford Vargas, José David Saldívar
Duke University Press
January 8, 2016
[from the publisher]
The first sustained critical examination of the work of Dominican-American writer Junot Díaz, this interdisciplinary collection considers how Díaz's writing illuminates the world of Latino cultural expression and trans-American and diasporic literary history. Interested in conceptualizing Díaz's decolonial imagination and his radically re-envisioned world, the contributors show how his aesthetic and activist practice reflect a significant shift in American letters toward a hemispheric and planetary culture. They examine the intersections of race, Afro-Latinidad, gender, sexuality, disability, poverty, and power in Díaz's work. Essays in the volume explore issues of narration, language, and humor in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the racialized constructions of gender and sexuality in Drown and This Is How You Lose Her, and the role of the zombie in the short story Monstro. Collectively, they situate Díaz’s writing in relation to American and Latin American literary practices and reveal the author’s activist investments. The volume concludes with Paula Moya's interview with Díaz.
Contributors: Glenda R. Carpio, Arlene Dávila, Lyn Di Iorio, Junot Díaz, Monica Hanna, Jennifer Harford Vargas, Ylce Irizarry, Claudia Milian, Julie Avril Minich, Paula M. L. Moya, Sarah Quesada, José David Saldívar, Ramón Saldívar, Silvio Torres-Saillant, Deborah R. Vargas
___________________________________________________________________________
Reading Junot Díaz
Christopher Gonzalez
University of Pittsburgh Press
December 16, 2015
[from the publisher]
Dominican American author and Pulitzer Prize–winner Junot Diaz has gained international fame for his blended, cross-cultural fiction. Reading Junot Diaz is the first study to focus on his complete body of published works. It explores the totality of his work and provides a concise view of the interconnected and multilayered narrative that weaves throughout Diaz’s writings. Christopher Gonzalez analyzes both the formal and thematic features and discusses the work in the context of speculative and global fiction as well as Caribbean and Latino/a culture and language. Topics such as race, masculinity, migration, and Afro-Latinidad are examined in depth. Gonzalez provides a synthesis of the prevailing critical studies of Diaz and offers many new insights into his work.
Later.
In
the summer of 1959, everyone knows his place in Arizona. Michael Shaw
is an alcoholic lawyer struggling with his reputation as the son of one
of Mitchell County’s wealthiest, most successful attorneys. Toni Garcia,
the first in her family to obtain a college degree, has returned to
Borden, Arizona, because she’s worried about her father’s health. But as
a Mexican American, she can’t get a teaching job in spite of her
education and intellect. Their worlds collide when Michael is assigned
to represent María Sánchez Curry in the bloody murder of her husband and
Toni, desperate for work, accepts a job as the defendant’s interpreter.
María and Ben Curry’s tumultuous marriage was well documented by María’s many visits to the ER. The couple was also well-known at local bars, where they often drank to excess. But the killing of a white man by a Mexican woman—even in self-defense—is not permissible in a time when justice is determined by the good-old-boys’ club. Also unacceptable is the growing relationship between Michael and Toni, who fight to save María against all odds.
In this evocative exploration of class and race in 1950s America, Bobby Darin is on the juke box, Doris Day is on the silver screen and pink flamingos grace front yards. Former crime reporter Patricia Santos Marcantonio crafts a stirring tale of forbidden love in a world where democracy rules but due process and fair treatment aren’t as readily available on the wrong side of the tracks.
- See more at: https://artepublicopress.com/product/verdict-in-the-desert/#sthash.HJG8F7PG.dpuf
María and Ben Curry’s tumultuous marriage was well documented by María’s many visits to the ER. The couple was also well-known at local bars, where they often drank to excess. But the killing of a white man by a Mexican woman—even in self-defense—is not permissible in a time when justice is determined by the good-old-boys’ club. Also unacceptable is the growing relationship between Michael and Toni, who fight to save María against all odds.
In this evocative exploration of class and race in 1950s America, Bobby Darin is on the juke box, Doris Day is on the silver screen and pink flamingos grace front yards. Former crime reporter Patricia Santos Marcantonio crafts a stirring tale of forbidden love in a world where democracy rules but due process and fair treatment aren’t as readily available on the wrong side of the tracks.
- See more at: https://artepublicopress.com/product/verdict-in-the-desert/#sthash.HJG8F7PG.dpuf
In
the summer of 1959, everyone knows his place in Arizona. Michael Shaw
is an alcoholic lawyer struggling with his reputation as the son of one
of Mitchell County’s wealthiest, most successful attorneys. Toni Garcia,
the first in her family to obtain a college degree, has returned to
Borden, Arizona, because she’s worried about her father’s health. But as
a Mexican American, she can’t get a teaching job in spite of her
education and intellect. Their worlds collide when Michael is assigned
to represent María Sánchez Curry in the bloody murder of her husband and
Toni, desperate for work, accepts a job as the defendant’s interpreter.
María and Ben Curry’s tumultuous marriage was well documented by María’s many visits to the ER. The couple was also well-known at local bars, where they often drank to excess. But the killing of a white man by a Mexican woman—even in self-defense—is not permissible in a time when justice is determined by the good-old-boys’ club. Also unacceptable is the growing relationship between Michael and Toni, who fight to save María against all odds.
In this evocative exploration of class and race in 1950s America, Bobby Darin is on the juke box, Doris Day is on the silver screen and pink flamingos grace front yards. Former crime reporter Patricia Santos Marcantonio crafts a stirring tale of forbidden love in a world where democracy rules but due process and fair treatment aren’t as readily available on the wrong side of the tracks.
- See more at: https://artepublicopress.com/product/verdict-in-the-desert/#sthash.HJG8F7PG.dpuf
María and Ben Curry’s tumultuous marriage was well documented by María’s many visits to the ER. The couple was also well-known at local bars, where they often drank to excess. But the killing of a white man by a Mexican woman—even in self-defense—is not permissible in a time when justice is determined by the good-old-boys’ club. Also unacceptable is the growing relationship between Michael and Toni, who fight to save María against all odds.
In this evocative exploration of class and race in 1950s America, Bobby Darin is on the juke box, Doris Day is on the silver screen and pink flamingos grace front yards. Former crime reporter Patricia Santos Marcantonio crafts a stirring tale of forbidden love in a world where democracy rules but due process and fair treatment aren’t as readily available on the wrong side of the tracks.
- See more at: https://artepublicopress.com/product/verdict-in-the-desert/#sthash.HJG8F7PG.dpuf
Gracias Manuel, for this posting.
ReplyDeleteSaludos, Odilia Galván Rodríguez