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.
