Café Cultura

I'm off to the golden coast to help a long-time friend celebrate his 70th anniversary of life on this planet. Gonna be a far out party, as seventy-year olds are wont to say.  I've also been writing like Poe on absinthe because of two deadlines in June for short stories -- fun projects with unique premises that challenged my creativity and that had me writing outside my box.  Fouled-up heists, nasty women on the run, real bad hombres, dark justice.  Good stuff, I hope.  More on the stories later.  Fun, yes, but also time consuming. 

All of this to say that I've got a short blog this week.  Basically, here's a spotlight on a few of several summer events sponsored by one of Denver's best cultural organizations.  No need to ask what's going on -- just check out this place.

Here's what they say about themselves: 

 

 

Café Cultura has been providing positive, creative, and engaging community spaces for the Denver metropolitan area for more than eleven years. The idea for our organization emerged during the summer of 2004 with the passing of respected elder and veteran poet Abelardo “Lalo” Delgado. At that moment, we realized and accepted our responsibility to continue using our oral and written traditions to provide opportunities for creative expression not offered in schools or in the larger community. Café Cultura also drew inspiration from the movement connecting Indigenous people from throughout the Americas.  In that spirit of Red/Brown Unity, we hoped to use creative expression to unify people representing southern Indigenous nations, known by terms such as “Chicana/o,” “Mexicana/o,” and “Latina/o,” with those Natives of northern nations, referred to today as “Native American” or “American Indian."

Later.




Manuel Ramos is the author of several novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction books and articles. His collection of short stories, The Skull of Pancho Villa and Other Stories, was a finalist for the 2016 Colorado Book Award. My Bad: A Mile High Noir was published by Arte Público Press in 2016 and is a finalist for the Shamus Award in the Original Paperback category sponsored by the Private Eye Writers of America.