Day of the Dead Celebration at the Writers Place 2022 por Xánath Caraza

Day of the Dead Celebration at the Writers Place 2022

por Xánath Caraza

Este 2022 el Writers Place llevará a cabo la XIII edición de la Celebración de Día de Muertos, Day of the Dead Celebration el 28 de octubre a las 7 p.m. CST en Zoom. Tendremos como poetas invitados a Brenda Cárdenas, Cárlos Cumpián y la que escribe. Así mismo Andrés Ramírez nos acompañará con música. Con mi altar mostraré algunos elementos que hace esta celebración tan importante.  Ojalá y nos acompañen y se registren por adelantado a la sesión.

La música

Andrés Ramírez is a drummer born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. He started his music carrier at age 16. Andres has always practiced the Mexicayotl and the indigenous ways of praying to the best of his knowledge as a Mexica (Meshica) Dancer and Huehuetero (drummer). He co-founded with his partner Arelis Flores the Danza Mexica Calpulli Iskali in 2011, a group that promotes and practices the indigenous way of praying. 

Los poetas

Brenda Cárdenas is the author of Trace (forthcoming, Red Hen Press), Boomerang (Bilingual Press) and three chapbooks. She also co-edited Resist Much/Obey Little: Inaugural Poems to the Resistance (Spuyten Duyvil Press) and Between the Heart and the Land: Latina Poets in the Midwest (MARCH/Abrazo Press). Her poems and essays have appeared in many anthologies and journals, including Latinx Poetics: The Art of Poetry; Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations; Grabbed: Poets and Writers on Sexual Assault, Empowerment, and Healing; Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Anthology; POETRY; and many others. Cárdenas has served as faculty for the CantoMundo writers’ retreat (2021) and as Milwaukee Poet Laureate (2010-2012). She currently teaches Creative Writing and Latinx Literatures at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Carlos Cumpián a Chicagoan originally from Texas.  Human Cicada marks his fifth poetry collection: Coyote Sun (March Abrazo Press), Latino Rainbow (Children’s Press/Scholastic Books) Armadillo Charm (Tia Chucha Press), and 14 Abriles: Poems. In 2000, he was recognized with a Gwendolyn Brooks Significant Illinois Poet Award. 

 Cumpián has been included in more than thirty poetry anthologies, including the Norton Anthology Telling Stories.  Before becoming a teacher, he worked with various social service organizations such as ASPIRA and public relations for the Chicago Public Library. Cumpián has taught creative writing and poetry through community arts organizations including the National Museum of Mexican Art, Urban Gateways and as a writer-in residence funded by the Illinois Arts Council.  Cumpián taught in the English Department of Columbia College Chicago and in the Chicago Public School and Charter school system.

In addition, he has hosted live readings with Galeria Qui Que & La Palabra Series and published over 20 poets/writers with MARCH ABRAZO PRESS between 1978-2015. His most recent essay, “Learned to Read at My Momma’s Knee,” appears in With a Book in Their Hands: Chicano/a Readers and Readerships Across the Centuries (University of New Mexico Press, 2014). His first in a series of true supernatural accounts, “A Chicago Premonition” was published in Hombre Lobo #2, True Xicanax Spooky Stories, (Ponte Las Pilas Press, Los Angles, Ca. 2021) Cumpián is currently working on his “anti-war years” memoir Accidental Rebel: 1968-1976.

 

Xánath Caraza is a traveler, educator, poet, short story writer, and translator.  She writes for La Bloga, Revista Literaria Monolito, and Seattle Escribe. In 2021 It Pierces the Skin received Bronze Medal for the Juan Felipe Herrera Best Book of Poetry. In 2020 Balamkú received second place for the Juan Felipe Herrera Best Book of Poetry Award. In 2019 for the International Latino Book Awards she received Second Place for Hudson for “Best Book of Poetry in Spanish” and Second Place for Metztli for Best Short Story Collection. In 2018 for the International Latino Book Awards she received First Place for Lágrima roja for “Best Book of Poetry in Spanish by One Author” and First Place for Sin preámbulos / Without Preamble for “Best Book of Bilingual Poetry”.  Her book of poetry Syllables of Wind / Sílabas de viento received the 2015 International Book Award for Poetry. She was Writer-in-Residence at Westchester Community College, NY, 2016-2019.  Caraza was the recipient of the 2014 Beca Nebrija para Creadores, Universidad de Alcalá de Henares in Spain.  She was named number one of the 2013 Top Ten Latino Authors by LatinoStories.com. Her books of verse Where the Light is Violet, Black Ink, Ocelocíhuatl, Conjuro and her book of short fiction What the Tide Brings have won national and international recognition.  Her other books of poetry are Perching, An Exercise in the Darkness, Fără preambul, Μαύρη μελάνη, Le sillabe del vento, Noche de colibríes, and Corazón pintado. Caraza has been translated into English, Italian, Romanian, and Greek; and partially translated into Nahuatl, Portuguese, Hindi, and Turkish. Her upcoming book of poetry is titled Jackeline’s Butterfly.

 

Mi altar

Mi pan de Muertos, buen provecho. Los esperamos.