The Apprentice's Tale. Mailbag. On-line Floricanto.

Portrait of the Apprentice with the Artist

Michael Sedano

Fortune smiles on the serendipitous photographer. In one of the busiest arts weekends of 2013, tough choices forced me to abandon plans for a big Saturday with the lens.

Poesia Para La Gente had commandeered a pedestrian tunnel in Cypress Park for a major poetry reading with art show and musical entertainment, scheduled for 6 pm. At 7, Avenue 50 Studio would be opening a pair of gallery shows, "Chispas" & "Mt. Washington Plein-Air Painters." I had plans to flit from event to event, camera in hand, continuing with my ongoing project to photograph writers reading to audiences, in search of the perfect public speaker portrait.

Six o’clock came and passed and I was homebound. Things cleared up and I was able to make a quick get-away and headed to Avenue 50. It was well past seven. As usual for late arrivers, parking was a challenge. As delightfully usual for the early or the tardy, Avenue 50 Studio was packed shoulder to shoulder.

The women’s show, “Chispas” hung impressive work. Priced in the thousands, collectors with the lana will be rewarded in a few years as artists like CiCi Segura Gonzalez gain added fame. Segura’s abstract work ranges from the sublime to the super intriguing. Margaret Garcia had a very large interpretation of a repeating figure from her oeuvre. Margaret was not present, she is mourning her mom’s death, qepd.

In the Annex gallery, the plein air show displayed dozens of masterfully rendered impressions of the bridges, craftsman architecture, river and mountain scapes that give Highland Park and Mt. Washington their visual character. My head was spinning at the quality in both exhibitions.

But the best element was serendipitous. I wandered into Two Tracks Studio where Pola Lopez and Heriberto Luna work. Pola was surrounded by admirers so I nodded her way and walked over to greet Heriberto. He stood in front of several works in progress, and next to him was a teenager. The girl stood quietly, drinking in the busy scene as artists and collectors exclaimed over the work. Luna introduced me to her with pride, telling me Catalina Bolivar “can draw you right now.” That’s how good she is already, at 15.

Catalina lives next door to Avenue 50 Studio, in a two-story stucco warren with no yard, no play area for all the kids growing up there. One day, 12-year old Catalina wandered into Two Tracks Studio looking to sell a drawing she’d produced. It didn’t sell, but Luna saw something in her work and in her determination. He invited her to hang out, learn art by doing studio chores.

Today, Luna praises Catalina's work, confiently assigning her layout and detailing tasks on Luna's magnificently intricate canvases, like those in progress being prepared for several major museums and galleries. Catalina’s is the classic apprentice tale. One day, she’ll return the favor as an accomplished artist and mentor other kids who wander in from the block looking for respite.

I love this foto of Catalina and Heriberto, their look of mutual respect and personal pride. The portrait stands as a reminder that, beautiful as all that art on the walls, the most genuine beauty is the love Pola Lopez and Heriberto Luna share with Catalina and, over the years, lots of neighborhood kids who’ve come to the studio, joined mural projects, prepped canvases, brainstormed ideas. Kids who learned that arte is not about the brush strokes or pallet, it’s all about love, and in fact, is puro alma for one’s gente and ideas.

E-mail Bag
Workshopping Writers

La Bloga friend Marcela Landrés, Cofounder of the 2013 Comadres and Compadres Writers Conference, reminds gente that Wednesday, August 14, is the cut-off date to receive an earlybird discount to attend the conference scheduled for Medgar Evers College, Brooklyn, NY on Saturday, October 5, 2013.

The conference provides Chicana Chicano Latina Latino writers access to published authors like the keynote speaker, Reyna Grande, as well as agents and editors with proven track records publishing Latina Latino books. Participants this year include Erin Clarke, Executive Editor, Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers; Adriana Dominguez, Agent, Full Circle Literary; Toni Kirkpatrick, Editor, Thomas Dunne Books; Nancy Mercado, Executive Editor, Roaring Brook Press; Andrea Montejo, Agent, Indent Literary Agency; Lukas Ortiz, Managing Agent, Philip G. Spitzer Literary Agency, Inc.; Jeff Ourvan, Agent, Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency; Diane Stockwell, Agent, Globo Libros Literary Management; Johnny Temple, Publisher, Akashic; and Stacy Whitman, Publisher, Tu Books.

The Pitch Slam, described in the program as “Writers will have thirty seconds or less and get instant feedback from agents and editors”, is the kind of on-your-feet training absent from many conferences. The session prepares a writer for the most important half minute of one’s career, a make-or-break first impression. A good 30 seconds makes the difference between “thank you for coming” and “tell me more.”

Landrés refers the eager, the curious, the prospective attender, to visit Las Comadres’ website for additional details and applications.

Absent from the Comadres Compadres program is training I think urgent for writers: a session on reading your own stuff. This is the big lacuna in a writer’s career training, and an achilles' heel of a writer's marketing efforts. Congratulations, you've been published. How are you going to sell those books? People hate to be sold, but they love being helped to buy. Reading your own stuff to that bookstore crowd is the key.

You’re on a panel of five authors. Fifty people are in their seats. One person in the audience is going buy all five books. Six people will buy one book, their friends’. How does a writer convert the forty-three nonbuyers into readers, buyers tonight? Do a “knock their socks off” reading and a writer achieves the purposes of the appearance: people notice your work and want more. Those are the gente who buy the book.

Latinopia Update
Francisco X. Alarcón On Poetry

In September 2010, the University of Southern California hosted el Festival de Flor y Canto. Yesterday • Today • Tomorrow, a reunion of poets who'd launched the floricanto movement in 1973, at the Festival de Flor y Canto, organized by Mary Ann Pacheco and Alurista, in association with El Centro Chicano de USC.

Joining the veteranas and veteranos from that day was a wonderful group of inheritors of that literary herencia, including La Bloga friend Francisco X. Alarcón, founder of Poets Responding to SB 1070 Poetry of Resistance and a leading light in contemporary bilingual poetry.

Latinopia creator Jesús Treviño filmed the three-day event. I am working with Jesús and the USC library to disseminate to USC's Digital Library those 2010 performances, in time for the anniversary of the 2010 reunion floricanto. I have initiated preliminary explorations to hold a third floricanto at USC, details to emerge.

Here's an interview Jesús and Francisco completed during Festival de Flor y Canto. Yesterday • Today • Tomorrow:

Reading Your Own Stuff: David A. Romero

Over the past few years, I've had the honor of conducting "reading your own stuff" workshops at the National Latino Writers Conference. As part of my preparation and followup from those, I've posted lecture notes for three oral performance topics, "Reading off the Page" for manuscript dependent events, "Memorization" as a strategy for improving effectiveness, and "Delivery"to address voice, posture, gesture, eye contact, confidence and poise.

From time to time, I'll be enlarging the scope of La Bloga-Tuesday's coverage of reading your stuff, principally through good examples of solid performances. Advice to writers: when you see a writer doing something you admire, copy and adapt what you see to your own work. 

La Bloga friend and poetry impresario David A. Romero’s video of his superb poem, Undocumented Football, stands as a model for poets who want to improve their own oral performance. The most important elements are Romero’s careful articulation and deliberate, but varied, rate. Every word, every phrase arrives clean and crisp, never a moment’s pause to ask “what did he say?” He’s not rushing through the words but gives each expression time to make its impact and fit into the fabric of the piece.

Note the poet’s use of vocal variety achieved through five- and seven-syllable phrasing, dispersing emphasis throughout the lines, sometimes hitting first words, sometimes the middle, often at the end of a line. That phrasing establishes a pleasing rhythm that sets up aural expectations. Approaching the climax, he abandons heavily accented syllables, adopts a conversational style that relies upon subtle emphasis while providing respite from expectations. This contrast heightens the impact when he repeats the opening spondee, “don’t. drop. the ball.” And segues smoothly to the closing phrases and its terminating molossus, “so. darn. hard.”

Significantly, Romero ends the recitation right. Instead of saying it, “thank you,” the poet nonverbally thanks the audience with his eyes and an acknowledging nod of the head. The technique honors the poem by allowing the last words their own space, free of the distraction of extraneous crap. Romero then pauses, a signal the performance has concluded, silence allowing the poem to sink in. In a live performance he would stand in silence, and only then walk off stage. Likewise the opening; in a live performance, the poet takes the stage, gets to the starting spot, polarizes the audience (I’m the speaker, you’re the listener) with eye contact and attitude, and only then begins to speak.

Sadly, You Tube ruins the effect of closing silence by tagging Romero’s video with an invading soundtrack from some other poet whom I did not choose to hear but is forced upon me by You Tube. How sad that You Tube ruins the impact and effectiveness of Romero’s reading with this irritating tag. It’s the media equivalent of walking off stage still talking, puro distraction and disrespectful to your art.

Meet the Poet
David A. Romero is a proud Pocho/Chicano spoken word artist from Diamond Bar, CA. He is the host of Between the Bars Open Mic at the dba256 Gallery Wine Bar in Pomona, CA. He is the second poet to be featured on All Def Digital, a YouTube channel from Russell Simmons. Romero has opened for Latin Grammy winning artists Ozomatli and Latin Grammy nominated artists La Santa Cecilia. His poetry has been published with poet laureates Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jack Hirschman and Alejandro Murguia.

Romero is the author of Diamond Bars: The Street Version and Fuzhou, two collections of poetry released by Dimlights Publishing. His forthcoming book, My Name is Romero, is due in spring 2014. Romero teaches writing and performance workshops on spoken word poetry.

Romero has led workshops for the Say What? Teen Poetry program of the Los Angeles Public Library, high school activists at the Santa Monica Mountains Peace Camp and students at the Juvenile Detention and Assessment Centers in San Bernardino, CA.

Romero is an artist affiliate of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) and a member of the Revolutionary Poets Brigade. "I enjoy performing funny poems, but I hope that after the laughs, people can stay and listen to the messages that I am spreading with my poetry against racism, against prejudice, against imperialism, against labor exploitation and against economic injustice. Romero is a graduate of the University of Southern California (USC), a double major in Cinema-Television and Philosophy.

For booking, contact: davidaromero@gmail.com Visit www.davidaromero.com for more poetry and enjoyment.


La Bloga On-line Floricanto
Francisco X. Alarcón, Maritza Rivera, Irma Guadarrama, tara evonne trudell, Tina Subia

For this antepenultimate in August La Bloga On-line Floricanto, the moderators of the Facebook group Poets Responding to SB 1070 Poetry of Resistance send along six lovely pieces illustrating a rich variety of styles from  five poets.


"Borderless Blue / Azul sin fronteras" by Francisco X. Alarcón
"Stand Your Ground" por Maritza Rivera
"Our Birth Rite (for Gloria Anzaldua)" by Irma Guadarrama
"Untitled"  by tara evonne trudell
"What Do You See?" by Tina Subia


BORDERLESS BLUE
Francisco X. Alarcón

blue
like the sea
at dawn

blue
like the sky
at dusk

blue
like sadness
loneliness

blue
like hope
happiness

blue
like White
Black, Brown

bonding
borderless
blue

blue
like the little
blue dot

seen
from afar
in outer space—

Earth jewel
shinning
blue

amidst
the vast
darkness

AZUL SIN FRONTERAS
Francisco X. Alarcón

azul
como el mar
al amanecer

azul
como el cielo
al atardecer

azul
como la tristeza
la soledad

azul
como la esperanza
la felicidad

azul
como blanco
negro, café

azul
sin fronteras
unificador

azul
como el puntito
azul

visto
desde la lejanía
sideral —

la Tierra
joya reluciendo
azul

entre
la vasta
oscuridad

© Francisco X. Alarcón
July 28, 2013

Francisco X. Alarcón, award winning Chicano poet and educator, is author of twelve volumes of poetry, including, From the Other Side of Night: Selected and New Poems (University of Arizona Press 2002), and Snake Poems: An Aztec Invocation (Chronicle Books 1992)  His latest book is Ce•Uno•One: Poems for the New Sun (Swan Scythe Press 2010). His book of bilingual poetry for children, Animal Poems of the Iguazú (Children’s Book Press 2008), was selected as a Notable Book for a Global Society by the International Reading Association. His previous bilingual book titled Poems to Dream Together (Lee & Low Books 2005) was awarded the 2006 Jane Addams Honor Book Award. He teaches at the University of California, Davis. He created the Facebook page, POETS RESPONDING TO SB 1070 . http://www.facebook.com/pages/Poets-Responding-to-SB-1070/117494558268757?ref=ts







Stand Your Ground
Maritza Rivera

La poesía
alimenta el alma
dándonos fuerza.

MARITZA RIVERA (aka Mariposa) is a Puerto Rican poet who lives in Rockville, MD.  She has been writing poetry for over forty years and is the creator of a short form of poetry called Blackjack. Maritza is the author of About You; A Mother’s War, written during her son’s two tours in Iraq; Baker’s Dozen; Twenty-One: Blackjack Poems and her work appears in literary magazines, anthologies and online publications. Maritza is a contributor to Poets Responding to SB1070, a supporter of the Memorial Day Writers Project (MDWP) and participates in the Warrior Poetry Project at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD.  She was the recipient of a 2012 BID International Writing Fellowship in Bahia, Brazil and has been accepted to attend the 2013 Bread Loaf Writers Conference in Sicily.  Maritza also serves on the Board of Directors of Split This Rock in Washington, DC and hosts the annual Mariposa Poetry Retreat at the Capital Retreat Center in Waynesboro, PA.





Our Birth Rite (for Gloria Anzaldua)
Irma Guadarrama

Pieces of earth puzzled into
mosaic revelations of
gaps and stops;
the human stride hampered
by a matching duo of
transnational bridge and border wall;
for every bridge a wall and still,
migration rebounds like
the ebb and flow of relentless
time and space, and
the rebirth cycle of
day and night. Never stopping:
like a lake that cradles
the spewing brew, or
a river that collects cascading water,
or fresh sprouting trees
fused with fossilized stumps.

Humans’ undeterred spirits
run their gamut like water flowing,
roots reaching, and rivers
morphing into oceans,
deep, vast, and free.

Featherless flying beings we are,
embracing the essence
of our birth rite.

Copyright 2013 Irma Guadarrama. All rights reserved.

Irma Guadarrama recently retired after a 44-year career of teaching and research, starting out as a bilingual teacher and finishing as a professor at various universities, the last ones being the University of Houston and the University of Texas Pan American in Edinburg, Texas. She received a bachelor’s degree from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Master’s degree from the University of Texas in San Antonio, and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. Born in Cd. Juárez, México, Irma grew up in central and north Texas. She lives in Houston with her two children and works as a writer/researcher for Bilingual Frontera and Mujeres, Fronteras y Sus Historias/Women, Borders and Their Stories. 

Untitled

tara evonne trudell c/s 4 de agosto 2013

my strand

of beads

broke

the scattering

of life

in all directions

losing some

in the process

of loss

and self

recovery

relating

the load

man left

on me

alone providing

children

against all

odds

of surviving

a world

of broken

spirits

woman strand

of beads

rethreading

the brilliance

coloring life

clear

circular opening

reflecting luster

of light

weaving thread

the patterns

of together

the many colors

of sisterhood

relating heart

in homeland

trusting colors

breaking away

societal patterns

against

women

the abuse

of words

actions

mind

controlling

rape

the stress

of disease

of woman spirit

relating earth

the worth

of precious

offerings

beading colorful

needing

essential parts

of sisterhood

community

picking up

rolling beads

the restringing

empowering

of woman

tradition

alive

in beadwork

representing

onward energy

pressurized

in the eye

of the needle

sisters gathering

beads

to tell

stories

overcoming

being left

behind

the arc

of woman

despair

against

all odds

of brutal

man wars

on women

gathering around

earth circle

sisters

grandmothers

and daughters

sharing

bead talk

restringing

strands

of women

in this

story.

Tara Evonne Trudell, a mother of four, is full-time student at NMHU working on her BFA in Media Arts with an emphasis in film, audio, and photography. It is through this expression of art, combined with her passion for poetry that she is able to express fearlessness of spirit for her family, people, community, social awareness, and most importantly her love of earth.

What Do You See?

Tina Subia

What do you see,

When you look at me?

Do you see that I yearn for a better life?

That I am willing to risk my life?

Does the color of my skin tell you that I am insincere?

When you look closer, can you see my fear?

Fear for my family and their future?

You want me to make things right, 

To go through proper channels,

But will you help to clear the way?

The wait is long, 

the journey is worth taking,

Meanwhile, there is injustice and prejudice standing in the way,

I am not asking for favors, 

Just fairness, 

I am not responsible for American jobs that are taken overseas, 

Or the fact that the cost of living increases faster than the rate of pay,

I am not responsible for the crimes of my brothers,

I only want a better life for my family, 

I am stuck between a corrupt government,

And a home of the free,

Which would you choose?

I do not have the power to change my 

Place of birth,

And I may not have the power to change your mind,

But I hope and dream that I can at least give my family a better life.

My name is Christina M.Subia and I was born and raised in Morenci, Arizona. I am married and have two grown sons, a daughter in-law and one rambunctious grandson. I have been a nurse for twelve years and before that a hairdresser and real estate agent. Throughout the years I have enjoyed writing poetry in my spare time, but never really shared it with anyone. Facebook has allowed me to connect with people and also share my thoughts and art,  which have been received positively. 

When I wrote "What do you see?" I tried to express the feelings and emotions that I would feel if I were an immigrant trying to make a new and better life for my family.

Librotraficante in New York Guest Post. La Bloga Represents in Brooklyn.

Rich Villar adjust the mic for Librotraficante and banned book author, Martín Espada 

The Decisive Act: On Orwell, Arizona, and 50 For Freedom

by Rich Villar, special to La Bola

They didn't show up, and I shouldn't be surprised.  A press release was generated, an email address and phone number was distributed, the messages went to the right people, and my phone didn't ring, and no messages hit my inbox.  None of them showed up, and I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, because there are always more important things to be discussed, like Mitt Romney's ignorance about the physics of airplane cabin pressure, or striking football referees, or the technical specs behind the iPhone 5.

There will be no articles written, no reporting, no witness from the press (except for what we do on our own, clearly).  They've got to report on the Presidential election, and the issues surrounding our economy, and health care, and illegal immigration.  No time for a bunch of rabble rousers talking about banned books, books you can still buy on Amazon.  Because if you can still buy things on Amazon, then all is well.

Did you know that Amazon once banned George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm?  Of all the books to ban.  Supposedly it was a dispute over rights, but it led to a massive outcry—similar, it could be said, to the outcry over Tucson's book ban.  But it's okay, Amazon said at the time, because it offered refunds to the buyers.  Point being, the technology to control what you read exists.  Point being, if Arizona had known this sooner, perhaps they wouldn't have to physically remove any books from the classroom.

Let's be clear.  The issues in Arizona are only peripherally about books.  Though it should be said, the first thing you do—if your aim to disappear a nation—is to throw their literature in the trash.  Burn it, ban it, box it, just don't read it.  And so they did just that, Arizona: they banned the books, and they boxed the books, and they made the Mexican-American Studies program in Tucson disappear, along with their teachers, along with any mention of it in the schools.  Ah, but they told us, they reassured us, that the books are not banned.  They just can't be used to teach Mexican-Americans about being Mexican-American.  And they told the rest of their teachers, that any attempt to teach any of the banned literature, all 80 titles on the list (it should scare you, to death, that there's a banned books list, and that it used to be a curriculum), could result in their termination, should any complaint about their rabble-rousing content be raised by a concerned parent.  Or, anyone, really.

This is where the story ended, even after Tony Diaz and the group Librotraficante had the audacity to quote the law in public, show its unconstitutional application toward one group of people, report to us the students' discontent, and organize a series of panels and lectures around the years-long battle between Arizona and the teachers, which is still ongoing in the courts.  They told us about the school district suing the former teachers for damages.  They told us about the threats to other people's jobs, to keep them in line, to silence them.  And they (meaning Luis Urrea) told us about the Orwellian implications of banning books, unbanning Shakespeare, and rewriting history, and covering themselves in doublethink and Newspeak.

Aurora Anaya-Cerda, owner of La Casa Azul Bookstore welcomes the SRO crowd, along with Rich Villar

We gathered, though the press did not, last Friday at the 50 For Freedom of Speech reading, because this is not simply about banning books.  Banned author Martín Espada knows that; which is why, when I asked him to do the reading, he brought himself from Amherst, Masschusetts, on his own dime, to be with us, the very night before another reading in Boston.  And banned author Luis Urrea knows that; that's why he drove straight to La Casa Azul from the airport when Tony Diaz made the call.  (And Tony flew up from Houston himself.)  It's about freedom, the fundamental right to know that down is down, and up is up, and that 2 + 2 = 4. 

Sergio Troncoso, Tony Díaz, Martín Espada, Melinda Palacio, Luis Alberto Urrea

What do you think it means when a government entity does not want you to read a book called 500 Years of Chicano History?  Do you honestly believe it has anything to do with the ideology of the authors?  Has anyone in the state of Arizona actually met these authors on the banned list?  They are not concerned with how well the students do in school.  They've admitted that much: despite the success of the program in sending children to college, the program was cancelled anyway.  The state of Arizona is concerned with what, and how, children learn in school.  But it is not the facts they're concerned about, specifically.  It's the narrative they're worried about.  The story.  They are concerned, as Big Brother was concerned, with controlling the past; as Orwell points out to us, whoever controls the past controls the future.

The United States has a past that it would like to forget.  The United States has, in its past, summarily executed brown people, Hispanics and Latinos from every walk of life.  The trouble for Arizona, and everywhere else, is that there are history scholars, activists, students, thinking people, some with U.S. college educations, who had the audacity to write textbooks, and to think to themselves the following: Hispanics and Latinos did not drop from the clear blue sky, or from some mystical war-drawn border.  In Arizona, we're actually learning the same story again, about whitewashed history, and changed facts, and misleading narrative.  We're learning about context, the same kind of context that created activists like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez, Pedro Albizu Campos, Lolita Lebron, and James Baldwin, who was also banned in Arizona.  Today, it's Mexican-Americans.  Take you pick as to who's next.  Who's due, as it were.  Where the fire will be next time.

If Chicanos have a context, and a history, before the advent of white supremacy, before the advent of European conquest or Pax Americana, there might be a reason for them to walk a little straighter, to understand their histories in context, to see themselves in a continuum from Aztlan, to zoot suits, to The House on Mango Street.  500 years ago, Chicanos existed.  Africa existed.  Latinos existed.  They had just different names.  When will we learn these names?

And when will the media learn to write long pieces about the systemic dismantling of civil rights?  When will they show up to poetry readings by authors on the banned list, in community spaces like La Casa Azul bookstore, in other states besides Arizona and Texas?  When will they tell you about Latinos uniting against their own genocide?  When will they tell you about the counterspells being cast by poets and writers, the ones who still believe in language, and history, and meaning, and roots?

Maybe when they find themselves being downsized, or commanded what to say, by their bosses, by their governments, by financial concerns.  Maybe that day is already here.

What's left for us, poets, Latinos, is to wake up and understand what is happening, to understand it in the context of lightning-fast information being passed and passed over.  We have to speak, and we have to speak often, in new ways and old ways, to keep these fights fresh.  And we must always be ready to tell the world our history, never tiring of the truth, never weary when people tell you they don't get it.  Never scared when the media doesn't show up.

Rich Villar at La Casa Azul (Luis Urrea posing for another photo in background)

And we have to remember love:  that's what was present in massive amounts last Friday at the Casa Azul, and in many places around the country, reading banned literature out loud, casting counterspells into the universe to reverse the trends, defy conventional wisdom, and survive the way we always have.  We have to remember love because our children thrive on it, because we thrive on it, because we will not become automatons unless we allow ourselves to be.  We have to remember love, because love banishes indifference, and because love will keep us rooted, our histories intact, our people whole.

Remember love, now and until the day you die, by reading every book that the state of Arizona tells you not to.  Read them, and quote from them, and steep your children in them.  Love every day, and do not give in to indifference.

While you're at it, write some of these things down.

"To mark the paper was the decisive act."

–George Orwell, 1984

***

Some of Melinda's photos from last weekend's Brooklyn Book Festival

Melinda Palacio works the crowd at the Brooklyn Book Festival

Lucrecia Guerrero, Luis Alberto Urrea, Melinda Palacio, Toni Margarita Plummer, and Reyna Grande at the Brooklyn Book Festival

A trip to Brooklyn would not be complete without a walk across the  Brooklyn Bridge. 

Melinda Palacio and Reyna Grande sightsee.

Toni Margarita Plummer and Melinda Palacio

La Bloga's Melinda Palacio will make a return trip to New York for the Las Comadres y Compadres Writers Conference, Saturday, October 6 in Brooklyn, NY. Don't miss the poetry panel moderated by Rich Villar.

Bloguero Garcia en Albuquerque mañana

LaBloga-ero Rudy Ch. Garcia will do a reading & signing of his Chicano fantasy novel tomorrow Sat. Sept. 29th at 2:00pm in the National Hispanic Cultural Center, 1701 4th St. SW, in Albuquerque. Please inform anyone you think might be interested. The Closet of Discarded Dreams on sale for $16. (NHCC contact Greta Pullen 505-724-4752)

Got Libros?

Melinda Palacio

Melinda Palacio, Aurora Anaya Cerda, and Nora Comstock at the 14th International Latino Book Awards

La Bloga will be reporting from La Casa Azul Bookstore in Nueva York all week. I'll be in town for all the events, including the Brooklyn Book Festival Saturday, September 23 and a book signing at the booth hosted by La Casa Azul Bookstore and Las Comadres, Booth # 122. Confirmed authors include: Esmeralda Santiago, Charles Rice-Gonzalez, John Parra, Reyna Grande, Sandra Guzman, Toni Plummer, Melinda Palacio, Alberto Ferreras, Ana Arelys Cruz Cabrera, Carlos Andres Gomez, David Unger, Grece Flores Hughes, Jaime Manrique, Lucrecia Guerrero, and Patricia Engel.  

My first visit to New York as an author brought a special surprise, a win of the Mariposa Award for Best First Book for my novel, Ocotillo Dreams. I had such a grand time seeing the sights and mingling with New Yorkers that, after the June ceremony at the Instituto Cervantes, I kept saying,  'I wish I can come back to New York soon'. Immediately, my wish was granted when Adriana Dominguez invited me to join the Las Comadres booth at the Brooklyn Book Festival and the Las Comadres y Compadres Writers Conference, Saturday October 6,held at Medgar Evers College, CUNY, Brooklyn.

The conference features authors, agents, editors, and publishers, but there will also be a poetry panel, moderated by Rich Villar, Executive Director of Acentos, from 11:00 -11-50. Published poets discuss the poetry business and how to see your poems in print. Panelists include Melinda Palacio, Emanuel Xavier, and Lila Zemborain. Register for the conference here.

Melinda and Toni Margarita (find us at the Brooklyn Book Festival Saturday, Sept. 23 at noon, booth 122)

For those of you playing the Where in the World is Melinda postcard contest on facebook, a big hint, I will be in New York this week and for two days in October. See if you're the first to identify where I'm at and I will write a postcard to you and drop it in the US mail.

The New York festivities begin tonight at La Casa Azul:

Book Launch Party for   

Count on Me: Tales of Sisterhoods and Fierce Friendships
Thursday September 20, 6:00pm - 8:00pm  

Edited by Adriana V. López, this collection of stories features twelve prominent Latino authors who reveal how friendships have helped them to overcome difficult moments in their lives.

Confirmed authors:

Esmeralda Santiago, Daisy Martínez, Sofia Quintero, Michelle Herrera Mulligan and Adriana V. López.

Free event, RSVP required: rsvp.lacasaazul@gmail.com 

50 for Freedom (This event is also happening nationwide, including Tia Chucha's in Sylmar from 5pm to 10 pm)

Friday September 21, 6:00pm - 8:00pm 
New York City's Latino literary community will converge to participate in "50 for Freedom of Speech," a national day of action protesting the de facto banning of Latino literature in the state of Arizona (with similar legislation poised to pass in other states as a result). 
Reading by banned Puerto Rican author and award-winning poet Martín Espada and readings of other banned book texts by some of New York City's top Latino academic, literary and spoken word talent.

Organized by: Librotraficante, Sangre Viva Arts Alliance and Acentos, Latino Rebels and La Casa Azul Bookstore, 143 E. 103rd street,  New York, New York.

Free event, RSVP required: rsvp.lacasaazul@gmail.com

Storytelling & Book Signing by John Parra, Saturday September 22, 12:00pm - 1:00pm.   

He may be a New Yorker now, but Parra is from Santa Barbara and Goleta, a fellow California native. He is a wonderful artist and I own my personal copy of My Name Is Gabriela. I'm looking forward to meeting the artist behind children's titles including: Gracias/Thanks, Waiting for the Biblioburro, P is for Piñata, and My Name is Gabriela.

   

Reading of The Distance Between Us

by Reyna Grande  

Tuesday September 25 6:00pm - 7:30pm  

You've read all about her on La Bloga, the L.A. Times, Slate, Christian Science Monitor, you name it. New yorkers can enjoy hearing Reyna Grande's story at La Casa Azul.

Free event, RSVP required: rsvp.lacasaazul@gmail.com 

Reading with Sergio Troncoso & Renato Rosaldo    

Thursday September 27, 6:00 - 8:00pm 

Sergio Troncoso debates and challenges us on the mystery of familias, how they determine our identity and how we break free of them, from fatherhood to interfaith marriage to educating our children. From Tucson to the Philippines, from Palo Alto to Manhattan, these readable poems tell of illness and racism, love and death-all in vivid tones. Savor these poems, slowly, what you inbibe will engage and enrich you.

Free event, RSVP required: rsvp.lacasaazul@gmail.com 

Here's some excellent news...

PEN Oakland officially announced the winners of the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Awards. I'm honored to see Ocotillo Dreams make the list.

PEN OAKLAND

" The Blue Collar PEN" The New York Times

Announces

22st Annual 2012 Literary Awards

Saturday, December 1, 2012, 2 PM – 5 PM

(Oakland , CA), September 17, 2012  --- The 22nd Annual PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles National Literary Awards will take place on Saturday, December 1, 2012, at the Oakland Public Library, Rockridge Branch, 5366 College Avenue from 2 to 5 p.m. The ceremony is free and open to the public, and will be followed by a reception and book signings.   PEN Oakland , founded in 1989, is a chapter of PEN International, founded in 1921. Dubbed "the blue collar PEN" by the New York Times, PEN Oakland annually sponsors the PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles Book Awards, named for the late poet and faculty member of U.C. Berkeley's English Department. This year marks the 22st anniversary of the awards.  Each year PEN Oakland presents an award to outstanding book titles published in the previous year. The Awards were created twenty years ago to honor writers of exceptional works often not acknowledged by the mainstream literary community.  Judged by respected writers, the awards honor books that both reflect a multi-cultural or marginalized viewpoint and represent the highest standards of literature.

THE 2012 PEN OAKLAND-JOSEPHINE MILES LITERARY AWARD WINNERS

 
 

Ocotillo Dreams  by Melinda Palacio.

Bilingual Review Press. (novel)

The Armageddon of Funk by Michael Warr.

Tia Chucha Press. (poetry)

Solitude of Five Moons  by Aurora Harris.

Broadside Press/University of Detroit Mercy Press. (poetry)

La Negra y Blanca: Fugue & Commentary by Deena Metzger.

Hand to Hand Press. (novel)

Fug You  by Ed Sanders.

Da Capo Press. (memoir)   

Sugar Zone by Mary Mackey.

Marsh Hawk Press (poetry)

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward.

Bloomsbury. (novel)

CENSORSHIP AND LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Alexander Cockburn is the winner of the 2012 Censorship Award.

Q.R. Hand will receive the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Countdown to Publication:

ONE MONTH

How Fire Is a Story, Waiting (Tia Chucha Press, Fall 2012)

"Palacio’s work is expansive, physical, funeral-wet, elevated, funny, existential, woman-story, jazzy and Pachukona. She is unafraid to dive head-on into questions of death, loss and self. Into the fiery entwined spikes of father-daughter estrangements, mother-daughter intimacies and most of all, she is “insomniac” bold in this volume as an ongoing sequence on self.  Melinda’s collection has Bop and “swagger,” lingo, song, denuncia, compassion and wild, unexpected turns– all the key ingredients and hard-won practices of a poet (and shaman) in command of her powers.  I don’t think there is anything like this book. ¡Brillantissima!"

- Juan Felipe Herrera

Las Comadres y Los Compadres Writers Conference and Other Special Events

Melinda Palacio

Las Comadres Para Las Americas to host Comadres and Compadres Writers Conference in Nueva York

  

On October 6, aspiring writers can purse and polish their own dreams of publishing their novel, collection of stories, memoir, or book of poetry at the Las Comadres y Compadres Writers Conference in New York, held at Medgar Evers College, CUNY, Brooklyn. Registration for writers and vendors is now open for the conference.
Writers will also gain an insider's perspective into the big time publishing industry. In addition to the usual panels, attendees can choose one-on-one meetings with agents and editors, specializing in books by Latino authors. La Bloga represents: I will be on the poetry panel.The Keynote speaker is author and television personality Sonia Manzano.  Having originated the role of “Maria” on Sesame Street, Manzano wrote two children’s books, No Dogs Allowed (Simon and Schuster, 2004) and A Box Full of Kittens (Simon and Schuster, 2007), and will have her first YA novel, The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano, published by Scholastic in Fall 2012. Some of the publishing professionals on hand include Johanna Castillo, Vice President & Senior Editor/Atria, Simon & Schuster: Jaime de Pablos, Director/Vintage Español, Knopf Doubleday Group; Adriana Dominguez, Agent/Full Circle Literary; Mercedes Fernandez, Assistant Editor/Dafina Books, Kensington Publishing; Sulay Hernandez, Editor/Other Press; Cheryl Klein, Executive Editor/Arthur A. Levine Books; Selina L. McLemore, Senior Editor/Grand Central Publishing; Christina Morgan, Editor/Harcourt Houghton Mifflin; Lukas Ortiz, Managing Director/Philip G. Spitzer Literary Agency, Inc.;  Diane Stockwell, Founder/Globo Libros Literary Management; and Stacy Whitman, Founder and Editorial Director/Tu Books.

Adriana Dominguez, Literary Agent

Adriana Dominguez of Full Circle Literary talks about her involvement in the first Comadres Writers Conference:

"I am so proud to be part of the wonderful group of people organizing this important conference. This project is very personal for all us. We have joined together around three basic concepts: access, guidance, and community. We want to provide Latino writers with access to the world of publishing by exposing them to successfully-published Latino authors, as well as editors and agents who have a track record of helping Latinos get published. During a full day of panels and one-on-ones with industry experts, the conference will provide writers guidance on how to navigate the world of publishing, and what they need to do to increase their chances of getting published. Finally, we believe that there is power in numbers and that everyone needs support, so we would like Latino writers to walk away from this experience as community builders; to create writers' communities, critique groups and workshops that support other Latinos on their journey to getting published. There are not nearly enough books written by Latinos in today's marketplace. We have united some of the best and brightest minds in publishing under a single roof to help change that. Please join us!"

Upcoming Events:

Next week, September 8, Melinda Palacio offers a memoir writing workshop for Tucson's Sowing the Seeds Writing Collective.

September 15, 

Authors read from Latinos in Lotusland, edited by La Bloga's Daniel Olivas

Latinos in Lotusland at the Autry, September 15, 2pm to 4pm. Don't miss a full day of Latino Heritage month at the Autry Museum in Burbank. La Bloga will feature this event on Friday, September 14. Stay tuned for more inside accounts of Lotusland contributors.

Friday, August 31, Lunasol Bookfestival tonight in Whittier:

August 31 from 6pm to 10 pm 6711 Bright Avenue, Uptown Whittier.

LunaSol Book Fest Line-Up:

Meet and Greet Reception: 6-6:30pm

Lizette Valles (Author)                               "land of the Lost Socks"                     6:30-6:42pm

Esau Andrade (Illustrator)                          "Perfect Season for Dreaming"           6:42-6:54pm

Joe Cepeda(Author/Illustrator)                    "Lado a Lado"                                  6:54-7:06pm

Javier Hernandez(Comic Creator)                "El Muerto"                                       7:06-7:18pm 

Rosa Maria Silva(Author)                            "Oropel"                                           7:18-7:29pm

LIVE MUSIC PRESENTATION BY: "LAS COLIBRI" till 8:00pm

Melinda Palacio (Poet/Author)                               "Ocotillo Dreams"    8:00-8:12pm

Reyna Grande (Author)                                        "The Distance Between Us"        8:12-8:24pm

David Reyes and Tom Waldman (Authors)              "Land of a Thousand Dances"    8:24-8:36pm

GustavoArellano (Author)                                      "Tacos USA"                            8:36-8:48pm

Lalo Alcaraz (Author)                                            "Latino USA"                            8:48-9:00pm

Book Signing with Authors/Illustrators: 9-10pm

Countdown to publication... Less than two months...

Less than two months until the release of How Fire Is a Story, Waiting, Tia Chucha Press October 2012.

Read all about Margaret Garcia's family at KCET. Garcia painted the above portrait for my poetry book.

Last, but not least...

Happy Birthday Michael Sedano!