In the Grove presents An Homage to Andrés Montoya, April 10 at Arte Americas

Pákatelas: An Homage to Andrés MontoyaFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Please join us for the publication release of a special issue of In the Grove: “Pákatelas,” an homage to the late poet Andrés Montoya, guest edited by acclaimed novelist Daniel Chacón. Chacón, author of and the shadows took him and Chicano Chicanery, is a Fresno native and currently teaches in the Bilingual MFA Program at the University of Texas, El Paso. Montoya’s first and only book, the ice worker sings and other poems, won the American Book Award after his passing. This special issue brings together work by Montoya’s teachers (including Juan Felipe Herrera, Philip Levine, Corrinne Clegg Hales, and Garrett Hongo), his friends (including Augustine Porras, Steve Yarbrough, Tim Z. Hernandez, and Lee Herrick, among many others), some of the many writers his work has influenced (including Sasha Pimentel Chacón, Mike Medrano, Marisol Baca, Bay area poets such as Oscar Bermeo, Javier Huerta, and Craig Santos Perez, and New York City poet and National Book Critics Circle board member Rigoberto González), in addition to a moving recollection by Andrés’ younger brother, novelist Maceo Montoya, and cover art by his father, Malaquias Montoya. And, we are very proud to publish “Pákatelas,” a new and unpublished long poem by Andrés Montoya.

Many of these contributors will be at the reading and celebration, and we hope you can join us as well. Please spread this message (and the attached flier) to your friends, listservs, blogs, and publications.

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IN THE GROVE: “Pákatelas,” a Publication Release Part and Homage to the late Andrés Montoya
Thursday, April 10, 2008
ARTE AMERICAS, Fresno, CA
6:00 to 8:00 pm

Free

http://inthegrove.net

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Contact: Lee Herrick
559-907-2858
http://leeherrick.com
e-mail leeherrick@hotmail.com

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For more information, please visit http://inthegrove.net. Copies of the issue will be on sale for $12 at the reading, and they will be on sale at the website after April 10. Thank you for your ongoing support.

X-Post: The New York Times covers the Jack Agüeros Benefit

Jack Agüeros

A Puerto Rican Poet’s Fight With Alzheimer’s
By David Gonzalez

At various points of his career, he has been a community activist, translator, poet and administrator. In Latin America, such people are celebrated for their versatility and value as public intellectuals and defenders of culture. In New York City, such people are often ignored, at least if they come from East Harlem. But those who know Jack treasure his hard-to-pigeonhole passions and accomplishments. More than 100 of his friends and fans gathered on Tuesday night at East Harlem’s Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center, not just to celebrate his work, but also to help him in a time of need.

More here

MEME: Six-word Memoir



Originally uploaded by Badison

Debbie tagged, so I will pass it on.

Here are the rules:
1. Write your own six word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere
4. Tag five more blogs with links
5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

Mine:
Mi storia in my own voice.

Yours:
?

Tagging: Rich, Tara, Patricia, Guy, Maile, and Craig

Benefit and Reading for Jack Agüeros–Tuesday, March 18th


Jack Agüeros
Originally uploaded
by geminipoet

[Many thanks to Rich Villar for writing this press release. Please spread it far and wide, on your own blogs and to any to any media friends you may have.]

Lord,
on 8th Street
between 6th Avenue and Broadway
there are enough shoe stores
with enough shoes
to make me wonder
why there are shoeless people
on the earth.

Lord,
You have to fire the Angel
in charge of distribution.

–“Psalm For Distribution”
by Jack Agüeros
(from LORD, IS THIS A PSALM?, Hanging Loose Press 2002)

Dear friends and colleagues:

I’m writing to you about a friend of ours: Jack Agüeros.

I say “friend,” not because I have known Jack for decades (I haven’t), but because of what Jack’s work has meant to the writers, artists, and activists here in New York City’s Puerto Rican communities. In these decades, through his work as a poet, translator, fiction writer, and community organizer, Jack Agüeros has spoken to us with clarity, humility, intensity, and dignity about our shared experiences as Puerto Ricans.

As a community activist, he worked with the Henry Street Settlement, the Puerto Rican Community Development Project, and various city agencies. As a journalist and essayist, he has written about the alliances between Chicano and Puerto Rican activists, and about his own life as a Puerto Rican in New York. As an invaluable historian, he has translated and researched the work of Jose Martí and Julia de Burgos. Through his ingenious use of the sonnet and psalm forms, he has perfected the very human art of advocacy, conveying our struggles with unflinching imagery and a smart comedic sensibility. As a cultural worker, Agüeros brought art, music and a Three Kings’ Day parade (with real camels) to East Harlem through his stewardship of El Museo del Barrio.

Jack Agüeros has committed his life to the educational and social wellbeing of his people. Now is our chance to contribute to his wellbeing.

For quite a while now, Jack and his family have been dealing with the onset of his Alzheimer’s Disease. It’s been a difficult time, but the family has always been able to count on the support of friends and loved ones. That support will be made palpable on Tuesday, March 18th, when Jack’s friends and family will come together for a benefit reading at Taller Boricua, in the Julia de Burgos Center, in the heart of Jack’s birthplace, East Harlem. The location—1680 Lexington Avenue at the corner of 106th Street–is particularly appropriate, since the Center is named for the famous Puerto Rican poet whose work Jack translated, and is also the former home of P.S. 107, where Jack attended grammar school.

Scheduled to appear that night will be fellow poets, fiction writers, and kindred spirits who know and love Jack, many of whom are longtime friends of his: Martín Espada, Sandra Maria Esteves, Naomi Ayala, Aracelis Girmay, Lidia Torres, Robert Hershon, Donna Brook, Hettie Jones, Lynne Procope, Rich Villar, Tara Betts, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Julio Marzán, and Edgardo Vega Yunqué. His children, Kadi, Natalia, and Marcel Agüeros, will also be on hand.

The event starts at 7pm with a special performance by the young students of Taller Boricua’s Tuesday dance class, who were gracious enough to move their gathering in order to accomodate this event.

The authors will have books for sale, the proceeds for which will go toward Jack’s care. Signed copies of Jack’s books, including DOMINOES, SONNETS FOR THE PUERTO RICAN, and LORD, IS THIS A PSALM? will also be available, courtesy of Hanging Loose Press and Curbstone Press. In addition, Sandra Maria Esteves has graciously donated one of her prints, which will be bid upon in a silent auction that night.

A $10 suggested donation will be collected at the door. No one will be turned away.

If you cannot make it to the fundraiser, but would still like to make a contribution toward Jack’s care, you can send along a check payable to Marcel Agüeros at the following address:

Marcel Agüeros
Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory
Mail Code 5247
550 W. 120th Street
New York, NY 10027

This is our chance to pay tribute to a true giant of Puerto Rican, Latino, and U.S. literature. Please distribute this letter far and wide, to as many as possible. We hope to see you all in East Harlem on March 18th, 7pm sharp.

Pa’lante,
Rich Villar.

*****************************************************
Tuesday, March 18th @ 7pm
A Reading and Benefit for Jack Agüeros
Please join us as we honor the work of a dear friend and raise funds for the treatment of his Alzheimer’s Disease. Scheduled readers include Martín Espada, Sandra Maria Esteves, Naomi Ayala, Aracelis Girmay, Lidia Torres, Robert Hershon, Donna Brook, Hettie Jones, Lynne Procope, Rich Villar, Tara Betts, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Julio Marzán, and Edgardo Vega Yunqué.

Taller Boricua @ The Julia de Burgos Cultural Center
1680 Lexington Avenue (corner of 106th St.)
6 Train to 103rd Street, two blocks north on Lex.
Hosted by Rich Villar of Acentos Bronx Poetry Showcase
Suggested Donation: $10 (no one will be turned away)
For further inquiries or questions, please call 845-598-8654 or email rich@louderarts.com.

Luis J. Rodriguez @ at the SF Mission Branch Public Library


Tonight!
Originally uploaded by geminipoet

Let me tell you what’s really good: A standing room only venue; an attentive audience of adults, teens and kids from every demo you could think of; excited organizers giving away(!) books from the feature; and a featured reader who is ready to drop poems from his best of, some new hotness and then speak openly on a life of literary/political activism. Yeah, that’s what’s really good.

The featured reader was Luis J. Rodriguez who quickly set the tone for the evening by coming out with a handful of titles from Tia Chucha Press and speaking on Tia Chucha’s commitment to quality multi-cultural literature. More importantly, Luis let the audience know that this reading was going to be a two-way street, where he was not just going to share from his extensive collection of work but was also very interested in the room’s response to the work. “Afterwards, I really want to have a dialogue,” he stressed.

The first part of the set was poems from My Nature is Hunger: New & Selected Poems, including “The Rooster Who Thought It Was A Dog,” “Tia Chucha,” and “Meeting the Animal in Washington Square Park.” All the pieces had the right mix of imagery, humor, place and social commentary to keep both the youth and adult portions of the audience engaged and piqued for more.

Luis paused for a second to speak on the richness of language in poetry and how some audience may feel overwhelmed at times. “Poetry is meant to be heard many times and read many times,” Rodriguez told the audience. “For now, juts get a detail here and there to grab on to. And the next time, maybe another detail will get you.”

Luis reads from My Nature is HungerHis second set was all new work. “Making Medicine,” a reflection on the sweat lodge ceremony; “”Moonlight to Water,” an ode to his youngest sons and their sibling dynamic; “Machu Picchu or What I Should Have Become When the Shadows Called My Blood,” a poem in the truest tradition of Pablo Neruda, favorite line: a father when my father ate the hearts of his own children. Rodriguez also recounted the story of the first poetry reading he ever attended. The reading was in Berkeley and the features were José Montoya, David Henderson, and Pedro Pietri. “Feed the Shapes” paid homage to these men, their work, and how it changed Rodriguez’s conception of American Poetry from an Anglo-based bland form to a vibrant musical ethnically diverse landscape.

As promised, Luis did dialogue with the audience who was curious about his spiritual awakenings (Rodriguez credits the movimiento of Chicano consciousness with giving him “power in a world where I felt powerless”), the number of books he has written (currently: 13, with a new memoir coming soon), his favorite poet (“Neruda”), which book was the hardest to write (Always Running since it hurt his family and others but the obligation “to the scary truth” won out even when it pitted him against old allies and enemies).

A good portion of the Q&A revolved around the related issues of gentrification, community and gang life. Rodriguez laid out a five point gang reduction strategy that focused on community involvement to youth that worked to fill in the gaps misdirected youth fall into. Rodriguez challenge: “Every person should mentor at least one young person to get them ready for the world.” He also spoke on American gang history and how “gangs” like the Black Panthers and Young Lords were stamped out because of their commitment to political change while other gangs with longer histories continue to thrive even in the face of police efforts. Efforts that amount to concentrated assaults on communities in an effort to clear them for greedy developers while pushing hostile criminal gangs into other areas.

I asked Rodriguez if he ever experienced any conflict between the oral tradition (experiences in the sweat experiences, and tales from the vida loca) and the written word (desire to publish his own works and those of others). Rodriguez credits that conflict as a source of his creativity.

The last and best question of the night came from a pre-teen skateboarded from the front of the room. “I hear what you’re saying and have heard a lot of the same history from many of my teachers. I say all this to ask will the revolution take violence?” The young man’s articulate and pointed question was received with nodding heads and broad smiles from the audience. Luis’s answer was to expand the definition of resistance. “Expand your imagination. We are in the arms struggle but expand the definition of arms. Use your body, hearts and minds. Use it all. Use all your arts. Before you give a man a weapon, give him your heart.”

Mission Branch Library Mission Branch Library Luis J. Rodriguez: Partial Bibliography

More Luis J. Rodriguez:
The author’s website
Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural
Audio poems at e-poets.net