Amanecía
en el naranjel.
Abejitas de oro
buscaban la miel.

-from "Cancioncilla sevillana" by F.G. Lorca

michelle otero writing workshop in ept

don't miss this workshop if you live in or near EPT. Michelle is an excellent writer and workshop facilitator:

El Paso Community College Spring Arts Festival
Welcomes Michelle Otero Author of Malinche’s Daughter

Writing Workshop Open to writers of all backgrounds & levels of experience
Thursday, February 28 @ 11:30 p.m.-1:00 p.m.
EPCC Valle Verde campus, 909 Hunter Dr., Rm. B240
Please reserve your spot by contacting Richard Yañez (ryanez4@epcc.edu)

Reception & Book signing
Thursday, February 28 @ 1:00 p.m. -3:00 p.m.
Valle Verde PaPaGaYo, Rm. A1116

Michelle Otero is the author of Malinche's Daughter (Momotombo Press, 2006), an essay collection based on her work with women survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in Oaxaca, Mexico. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Artful Dodge, Puerto del Sol, Upstreet, and Metamorfósis, a Spanish-language anthology published by the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

Co-sponsors: Humanities Texas, EPCC Spring Arts Festival & PaPaGaYo Literary Center

rigoberto gonzález on raúlrsalinas

"Those of us who had the privilege of spending time with him understood the man he had become -- humbled by his troubled youth, scarred by a 15-year ordeal with the American correctional system and reborn after a spiritual connection to the indigenous peoples of the Americas -- he was our venerable elder, wise padrino and beloved teacher."

"Salinas leaves us an important legacy. He was a citizen poet who led by example, and who did not succumb to the disappointing times we live in -- he confronted them, he overcame them, and he removed their many disguises to disclose for his readers, his listeners and his pupils, the difficult truths to be reckoned with.

Safe passage, querido maestro."

i haven't listened to this song "saturn" in a while. thanks to j. for making me a mix tape with this song and many others a long time ago.

Nueva Onda Poetry Nights

Nueva Onda Poets Café Presents
Nueva Onda Poetry Nights
Thursday, FEBRUARY 21, 2008
6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
at DUSTIN MICHAEL SEKULA MEMORIAL LIBRARY
1906 South Closner Blvd, Edinburg, TX 78539

Dedicated to raulrsalinas

* Sponsored by NOPC and Dustin Michael Sekula Memorial Library

The Red & Turquoise Moon

"TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE: On Wednesday evening, February 20th, the full Moon over Europe and the Americas will turn a delightful shade of red. It's a total lunar eclipse—the last one until Dec. 2010. When should you look? Click here for an animated timetable."

How do we come to consciousness, at age four and earlier? How do we know from the song, when we hear it, even if we don’t understand the complexities of the words at that age, that we are alive? How do we know that we are alive and that we are hurt even though nothing has happened in life to cause suffering, or so we think? There is happiness/sadness in not ever knowing whole narratives. That is where art lives for me, where the lyric poem or prose arrives. We are happy and we are sad at the same time. And we are hopeful that in feeling happy-sad that we will progress. Even at four years old, we know there will be progress, and sisters’ glossy 45 inch records turn round and round and you wonder how the woman’s voice could be captured through the needle that gathers lint on that shiny plastic disc that could be smashed if flung. How do we know that she is singing to herself, addressing herself? How do we know that she is singing to her lover, to her friend, to us, for us? How do we know, much later in life, that physical pleasure can be happy-sad-beautiful like this song? How do we know that this song is about our living and our dying and our living?

this song reminds me of childhood. never saw the film and have no desire to see the film. just remember this song part of early, early childhood (probably from my sisters' stacks of 45's) -- it's part of consciousness, part of feeling happy-sad-hopeful all at once. i like how quickly the bridge arrives in the song.

and you -- which songs from early childhood take you back to particular feelings that maybe at the time you couldn't explain or still can't?

rest in peace, raul, we will miss you

link to news

Writing Workshop in EPT

El Paso Community College
Salute to the Arts, Literary Ripples, & PaPaGaYo

Invite you to a Writing Workshop with
Aracelis Girmay
Author of TEETH, a collection of poetry

Monday, February 18
1:00 p.m.-2:30 p.m.

Little Temple, EPCC Rio Grande campus

Open to writers of all backgrounds & experiences

Contacts: Richard Yañez (ryanez4@epcc.edu) / Ysella Fulton-Slavin (915-831-4420)

Aracelis Girmay writes poetry, fiction, & essays. A Cave Canem Fellow, her work has been published in Callaloo, Ploughshares, Indiana Review, Bellevue Literary Review, & MiPOesias, among other journals. Her book of poems, Teeth, was published by Curbstone Press in 2007. Her collage-based book, Changing, Changing, was published by George Braziller in 2005. Originally from Santa Ana, California, Girmay currently lives in New York where she leads community writing workshops.

Jayne Cortez

Diana Washington Valdez's blog

Casa Amiga Fundraiser

SAVE THIS DATE!!!

V-Day: Until the Violence Stops
Benefit Concert & Slam Poetry Event for
Casa Amiga Crisis Violence Center
UTEP Women’s Studies and V-Initiative present:

Slam Poets AMALIA ORTIZ (HBO Def Poetry) & El Paso’s own ESTEBAN TERRAZAS
& Acoustic Musician CHRIS GARNEAU (‘Music for Tourists’ 2007 & ‘C-Sides’ 2007; songs featured on Gray’s Anatomy)

Wednesday, February 13, 2008
7:00PM
Magoffin Auditorium, UTEP
$7.50 UTEP Students with ID
$10.00 General Public

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
El Paso: (915) 747-5234; (915) 747-5481

Cd. Juárez: COLEF: Avenida Insurgentes No. 3708, Fracc. Los Nogales. (656) 616-7490. lunes-viernes 9:00-17:00, hasta el 7 de febrero.

www.ticketmaster.com

Día V: Alto a la Violencia
Concierto y Poesía Slam, a beneficio de
Casa Amiga Centro de Crisis

UTEP Estudios de la Mujer y La Iniciativa V presentan:
Músico Acústico CHRIS GARNEAU (‘Music for Tourists’ 2007 & ‘C-Sides’ 2007; canciones estrenadas en el programa Gray’s Anatomy) & Poetas contemporáneas AMALIA ORTIZ (HBO Def Poetry) & ESTEBAN TERRAZAS de El Paso miércoles, 13 de febrero de 2008 7:00PM
Magoffin Auditorium, UTEP
$7.50 Estudiantes de UTEP con ID
$10.00 Público general
¡COMPRA TU BOLETO YA!

El Paso: (915) 747-5234; (915) 747-5481

Cd. Juárez: COLEF: Avenida Insurgentes No. 3708, Fracc. Los Nogales. (656) 616-7490. lunes-viernes 9:00-17:00, hasta el 7 de febrero.

www.ticketmaster.com

Memorias del Silencio

Congratulations to editor Minerva Laveaga, BorderSenses, and EPCC's Community Education program for publishing the third volume of Memorias del Silencio: Footprints of the Borderland. I read it on the plane ride home from NYC and could not put it down. I continue to be impressed by all of the work that goes into this publication, from the GED students writing their stories/poems about immigration and much more, to the translations, to the artwork, to the editing -- I hope these voices reach a large audience. This is an excellent project.

Here is my favorite piece from Volume II by Cresencia Atayde "Desde el sur" /"From the South".

gina's excellent paper

"...we need to make it possible for all of us to go back home, wherever home is, on a regular basis, so that socioeconomic migration isn’t unidirectional. Without that return, there is only the inevitable drain on our home communities and familial relationships and a disparity in the writing that continues to explore loss." (i'm sorry i missed this panel, and grateful to read gina's paper online).

Sonia Sanchez

sonia sanchez

Voices Breaking Boundaries

Check out this video about Voices Breaking Boundaries in Houston, Tejas. Wonderful work by all involved and led by founding director, Sehba Sarwar, author of the novel Black Wings.