Poetas con Cafe–Reading on Friday
Hello all,
Below is the information for a reading/performance to be held on Friday downtown. Performance artist and colleague Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz (aka Chuleta–pictured below–and Wepa Woman) of the Art Department is the coordinator and I will be participating too.
I will read from Everyday Chica and Marielitos, Balseros and Other Exiles; if you are the Central Florida region Friday night, please stop by. I’d also appreciate any help friends can offer to promote/publicize this event. It would be lovely to see some friendly faces there.
Cubanarama Radio Blog Show on Friday, 1/13/12 at 9:00 EST
Calling all friends, fans, readers and even the mildly curious:
Friday night, I’ll be on the Cubanarama Blog Talk Radio-we’ll be chatting about my recent trip to Cuba in August 2011 as well my writing and spoken word/performance poetry.
Palmas Cubanas in my father's hometown--Taguayabón, Villa Clara (formerly Las Villas Province)
Call in number to speak with me and the host, Marta Sosa at (347) 843-4717.
Happy New Year!
Feliz Año Nuevo! Hope this new year brings you and yours an abundance of blessings. I will strive to post more often and keep folks updated. For the last few months, I’ve been focussed on my teaching at the University of Central Florida. In November, in celebration for the Day of Dead, students in Latin American Popular Culture and Art class created an ofrenda–a beautiful display of assorted items significant to people in their lives.
Students created this ofrenda for Day of the Dead
Later on in November, I attended the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) Convention in Chicago to present on a couple of panels, one was with current and former students. Our topic was on Teaching Latino/a Literature Twenty-Five Years After Fronteras/Borderlands and to discuss the possible impact of the Norton Anthology of Latino Literature.
- Discussing the impact of Latino/a Literature
It was a busy semester, but to be honest, I can’t recall a semester that wasn’t. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed my classes, the students and look forward to the spring semester. I will be teaching a large section of Women in Literature–100 students! This promises to be an adventure and I hope to make it enjoyable and productive for all. I leave you now to finish preparing for my classes. Below is a photo of another one of my former students, Bronwen West, who invited me to visit with her English and Creative Writing Classes at Wekiva High School in December. We had a grand time and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to share my writing with young writers.
- After a day of visiting with Bronwen’s students
Longleaf Press website
Hello friends,
Just wanted to let you know that the publisher of my chapbook, Everyday Chica and the spoken word CD Everyday Chica, Music and More, has finally updated its website. It has a few kinks in it but at least my book is on the homepage–yea! And, no, that cover image is not me; it’s my daughter though we do look alike.
I will be adding audio links to this blog as soon as W.W. Norton completes its website for the Norton Anthology of Latino Literature–there may be as many as three pieces by me on the site! The launch date keeps getting postponed.
El Centro Iberoamericano Para El Estudio de la Décima
Pedro Acevedo and Barbarita Hernandez graciously welcomed meThe walls of the Centro's patio are covered with murals
The second day I was in Cuba, I made my way to El Centro Iberoamericano Para El Estudio de la Décima in the Vedado neighborhood of Havana. My goal for my trip was to visit with the educators who help promote the décima poetic form throughout the island. I was lucky enough to meet with Pedro Acevedo and Barbarita Hernández for the good part of the morning on August 2, 2011. They taught me about the different manifestations of the ten line form (usually 8 syllables per line) which can be recited, declaimed, improvised or sung. I was shown a video the Centro produced for UNESCO highlighting some of the youth décimistas and invited to a festival featuring the country’s best young women and girl décimistas to be held on Friday, August 5 at the Pavellóm Cuba en La Rampa for the Arte en La Rampa summertime cultural series. I am so grateful for the kindness shown to me and am indebted to them.
In my next post I’ll include photos from the patio behind the Centro. The walls of the patio are covered with beautiful murals.
United Arts Grants–redux
United Arts of Central Florida supports writers!
I am indebted to United Arts of Central Florida for helping me get to Cuba. I applied for an individual Professional Development Grant in the fall of 2010 and this spring was awarded $1,000 towards the costs of the travel.
My goal was to visit the Centro Iberoamericano Para el Estudio de la Décima and interview practicioners of the art of singing, reciting, declaiming and improvising the ten line poem form (usually eight syllables per line). Since 2000, the décima has been promoted and taught throughout the island as a way to involve youth in the maintenance of the culture. I will talk more about my visit to El Centro and the performances I watched in my next post but for now I wanted to say THANK YOU to United Arts of Central Florida. A special gracias to Mary Patrick who was so very helpful to me whenever I had questions.
Visit the United Arts page ( www.tinyurl.com/artistgrant ) to see all the resources, programs and opportunities they offer and get on their mailing list to get updates. There are many different events and activities going on all over Central Florida and often thanks to United Arts.
Photo album from Cuba
Lary, Namivia, Danny, Chino, Lety and me
Below is the link to 54 photos from the 2,000 I took in Cuba between August 1 and August 8, 2011. Highlights from Habana, the beaches east of the city and some shots from the interior (el campo). Enjoy and tell me what you think or post any questions.
Day one in Cuba
We had to be at the Miami International Airport at 4:00 a.m. for the 8:00 a.m. flight; this experience begins with being bombarded with “wrappers” who will wrap your luggage with green plastic for $15 a piece. These wrappers, mostly young men but also some women, are waiting for travelers as soon as they step inside the terminal. I asked, “Is it required?” The answer, no. So, why do so many do it? Because it makes them think their bags are safe. In reality, the wrap can be undone and your bags checked at any time but the green wrapped bags are rewrapped while the clear plastic wrapped bags (done for $5 a bag off site) will not.
We didn't wrap our bags
- Lary, Namibia, me, Lety and Chino
We were taken to a little “rancho” which is more like a backyard bar/restaurant called El Pellisco where locals with cars go for delicious, plentiful and relatively inexpensive food. We liked it so much we went back twice. There were beautiful roosters next to the sitting area–lots of them rumored to belong to VIPs.
Visiting Cuba
- This is the beach where my parents met
I just returned from 8 days in Cuba; it was wonderful and amazing and often sad. My brother Danny accompanied me; he hadn’t been to Cuba since 1979 when we went with our parents–to meet our grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and assorted relatives. I returned in 1999 to attend a conference at Casa de las Americas; that time my mother went with me. This time my purpose was to visit the Centro Iberoamericano Para El Estudio de la Decima.
Summertime, writing time
Isn’t this a cute typewriter? I got my first typewriter when I was around nine years old; my brother’s godfather worked in some sort of office/business and he gifted one just like this to me–it was pink! And I loved it. I still love typewriters though I gave away my last one a few years ago–it wasn’t anything special–electric with those clunky cartridges and it made a loud ugly noise when running, not the lovely tap tap tap ding! of the old-fashioned manual types. I got so good at typing that by the time I was in high school I could type faster than most anyone in my Cooperative Business Education class–without looking at the keys.
More on my early typing/writing days to come . . .
