Macondo Public Reading

Please join us this Friday, July 25, from 7:00-9:00pm, at the historic Guadalupe theater in San Antonio Texas for a FREE PUBLIC READING by notable "MACONDISTAS" (a group of socially engaged professional writers and participants of this year's Summer Macondo Workshop) 

Confirmed readers include: San Antonio poet laureate, Laurie Ann Guerrero, former San Antonio poet laureate Carmen Tafolla, Gabriela Lemmons, Joe Jimenez, Jose B. Gonzalez, Ben Olguin, Rene Colato Lainez and more talented writers.

About The Macondo Workshops: 

The Macondo workshops started in 1995 at the kitchen table of the poet and writer Sandra Cisneros in San Antonio. These yearly workshops aimed to bring together a community of poets, novelists, journalists, performance artists, and creative writers of all genres whose work is socially engaged. Their work and talents are part of a larger task of community-building and non-violent social change. What united them was a commitment to work for under-served communities through their writing. 

With the blessing of its founder and the board of the Macondo Foundation, the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center administers the summer Macondo workshops.

This unique environment is unlike any other literary initiative in the United States. It is premised in Cisneros’ vision to create a homeland for writers who are working in underserved communities. Macondo has fostered a vibrant and growing community of writers who view their writing as way of giving back to the community and changing lives by fostering literacy.

Writing Opp. Fracking and heating Aztlán. Chavez.

Conjunto Writing Opportunity

News from San Anto Guadalupe Center

Camaradas de Conjunto: We're looking for literature on Conjunto Music for publication in the 32nd Annual Tejano Conjunto Festival en San Antonio 2013 program magazine. Any literature, including poems, short stories, interviews, scholarly articles, etc., as long as it deals with some aspect of conjunto music, of any length, will be accepted for review and possible publication through March 31, 2013. Conjunto is that original American musical ensemble and style of music which was created by the Texas-Mexicans and which utilizes the button accordion and bajo sexto as its principal instruments.. E-mail the literature to Juan Tejeda no later than early April. There's a relatively short turnaround so I appreciate spreading the palabra. Hope to see you here in May. Gracias, Juan Tejeda  (juantejeda@sbcglobal.net).

The 32nd Annual Tejano Conjunto Festival en San Antonio 2013 will take place May 15–16 at the Guadalupe Theater, 1301 Guadalupe Street and May 17–19 at Rosedale Park, 303 Dartmouth. The festival will feature a Seniors Conjunto Dance; inductions into the Conjunto Music Hall of Fame; workshops on the button accordion and bajo sexto; a New Directions concert; and three days and over 36 of the very best bands in conjunto music at Rosedale Park that includes special tributes, plus food and beverage booths, accordion raffle, student recital and more.

For more information, call (210) 271-3151, or visit www.guadalupeculturalarts.org. The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1980 to preserve, promote and develop the arts of the Chicano/Latino/Native American peoples for all ages and backgrounds through public and educational programming in six disciplines: dance, literature, media arts, theater arts, visual arts and music.

Fracking Update for Aztlán and beyond

As an author I want my works read for centuries to come. Making certain there will be young readers around to enjoy the works is a simple matter of self-interest. That's not the only reason Global Heating and combatting fracking extraction matters, but it's one reason I feel it should be of interest to La Bloga readers.

If you're in Arizona, your might get the worst of Global Heating that fracking will exacerbate, at least, in terms of heat. Go here to read about getting rid of your estufa because you'll be able to fry your eggs on the sidewalk, as long as you like to add a lot of sand to your revueltos. Very soon.

If you think the jobs that come with fracking might benefit you or the economy, read about the advantages of being a fracking worker: My winter as a frack rat

If you're not sure whether fracking is going to be operating under your barrio or suburb, go here to read about how you'll be able to hear and feel it. And how your wells and walls may suffer just from the search for fracking sites, something you have a right to have a say-so about.

Throughout Aztlán and beyond, if you were hoping Obama would stop the Keystone XL Pipeline, go here to read about how your Congressional legislators are attempting to push approval of the pipeline past Obama.

If you want to do something about fracking in other parts of Atlán, go here.

Next is info about a Colorado action this coming Monday:

There will be an amendment to the budget bill next week that would force approval of the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline.  Most worrying, Senators’ (Mark Udall and Michael Bennet) staff say they are “undecided” on whether to stop the pipeline.

350 Colorado and our friends from across the state have written a letter to our Senators explaining why they need to stop the pipeline, and we hope you will add your name before we deliver it to their offices on Monday.

Please co-sign the letter to let our Senators know that you want them to reject any attempt to push forward the pipeline. Click here to read and add your name.

After you sign, please share it with friends and colleagues -- the more signers, the stronger our message will be.

If you're in the Denver area, join us this Monday, March 18th, for a letter delivery event to the Senators’ offices. We meet at 11:45 in Downtown Denver  to send a message in person. At this critical moment, it's important we show there are lots of us who expect nothing less than for them to reject this pipeline outright.

Details:

WHAT: No KXL letter delivery to Senators Bennet and Udall

WHEN: 11:45 AM, Monday March 18th. (we should wrap up by 2 PM)

WHERE: Meet at Senator Bennet's office, 1127 Sherman Street, Suite 150, Denver CO

Más sobre el sudamericano Chavez

Excerpts from an article by Bill Fletcher

"It was clear Chavez had phenomenal support among the poorer and the darker parts of the Venezuelan population while the opposition looked like it could have walked in from Madrid. With the combination of the social movements plus President Chavez’s support, race came to be openly discussed in Venezuela and actual steps were taken to address a very different form of white supremacy than the version with which we are familiar here in North America.

"The Bolivarian process, which is far from over, has suggested multiple levels of struggle but in every case drawing upon mass action and mass involvement.  This goes beyond huge demonstrations—as important as they may be—but more in the direction of encouraging alternative institutions as well as revitalized (or in some cases new) social movements.

"Upon the discovery of his cancer, he apologized for not having taken sufficient care of himself. I was struck by this comment for two reasons. The first was the admission that he had not been on top of his health and that he was prepared to take responsibility for that. The second reason implicit in his comment:  that it is a duty to pay attention to one’s health, to live for the struggle (as opposed to living to struggle). Neither can one so underrate one’s own role that we think that as individuals we do not matter."

Go here to read his entire article. 

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member and Columnist, Bill Fletcher, Jr., is a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies, the immediate past president of TransAfricaForum, and the author of “They’re Bankrupting Us” - And Twenty Other Myths about Unions. He is also the co-author of Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice, which examines the crisis of organized labor in the USA.

Es todo, hoy,

RudyG