Little Village Literary Landscaper Irasema Gonzalez Is Featured In July Proyecto Latina Reading Series

Little Village Literary Landscaper Irasema Gonzalez Is Featured In July Proyecto Latina Reading Series

Join Us It's FREE on July 20th @7pm in Little Village

In a neighborhood on the South Side of the city that often gets over looked and arts funding is next to nonexistent Proyecto Latina will host its first reading series in Little Village to reach out to Latinas of all ages and encourage them to come out and share their own writing about their lives and neighborhood.

The feature includes local writer and Little Village resident, Irasema Gonzalez, on Monday, July 20th at 7pm at the Chicago Public Library Toman Branch, FREE and open to the public.

She will be sharing her reflections on growing up in the Little Village and what it means to be a woman in that part of the city. “I am really hoping that Little Village writers (I know they’re out there and I want to meet them) come out to join me in sharing their work through our open mic," says writer Irasema Gonzalez.

Irasema Gonzalez is a writer and merchant. She is the owner of Tianguis.biz the current incarnation of her former book and teashop in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood"which is also the exclusive distributor for Momotombo Press. She is passionate about books that tell the stories of the Latino community. Also, a founding member of the Proyecto Latina reading series and the co-producer for the Proyecto Latina Radio Show at Radio Arte. Her poems appeared in the Ariel XXVIII (Triton College, 2009), Afternoon Wine: Vicios, Sueños y Confesiones (Maravilla Writing Collective’s chapbook, 2006), and in Between the Heart and the Land: An Anthology of Midwestern Latina Poets by March Abrazo Press, 2000. She has presented featured readings at venues throughout the city including: Palabra Pura, the Sor Juana festival and Poetry Fest at the Chicago Public Library. She is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago, where she earned a B.A. in journalism and creative writing. She resides in Little Village with her family and is giddy about hosting and featuring at Proyecto Latina in La Villita this July.

The reading will be Monday, July 20 at 7pm (FREE) at the Chicago Public Library Toman Branch 2708 S. Pulaski Road Chicago, IL 60623 - (312) 498-4067 / Street Parking Available/60 Blue Island Bus / 31st S. Pulaski Bus

Proyecto Latina provides a platform to showcase work by Latina writers, poets and performers. In its fourth year, the reading series takes place the third Monday of every month, it includes a feature, an open mic and a chisme box! Proyecto Latina proudly features emerging and established artists like: Lisa Alvarado (Poet), Achy Obejas (Writer),Coya Paz (Poet/Performance Artist) Yolanda Cardenas (Poet), Vida Bella Ensemble (Performance) Stephanie Elizondo Griest(Author), Tanya Saracho (Playwright) Liz Ann Acosta (Writer) and many more!

Malinche's Daughter Comes To Chicago

Proyecto Latina: Reading series & open mic
Monday, February 16th @ 7 p.m.

Michelle Otero arrives from New Mexico to feature at the next evening of Proyecto Latina. We are honored to have her and hope you will join us to discover the power of her work.

Proyecto Latina: Reading Series & Open Mic Monday, February 16th, 2009 @ 7 p.m. Featuring: Michelle Otero author of Malinche's Daughter PROYECTO LATINA TAKES PLACE THE THIRD MONDAY OF EVERY MONTH Proyecto Latina is held at Radio Arte, 1401 W. 18th Street, Chicago, IL on the corner of 18th and Blue Island.

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, Brevity, Great River Review, and Metamorfósis, a Spanish-language anthology published by the National Hispanic Cultural Center. Her awards include a Fulbright Fellowship, an Association of Writing Programs Intro Journal Award, and fellowships from the Anderson Center, the McCune Foundation and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. Otero is a founding member of The Women Writers' Collective, an El Paso-based group that showcases the talents of women writers and artists while raising awareness of women's issues. In Albuquerque, she performs with Las Meganenas, a repertory theatre troupe that uses performance to raise awareness of issues facing Latinas. She holds a B.A. in History from Harvard University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Vermont College.

Read more about Malinche's Daughter, including an interview with Michelle Otero at our Momotombo Store.

Proyecto Latina is a collaboration between Tianguis Books, Teatro Luna and Mariposatomica Ink.

Latino Writers @ AWP Conference

Tianguis / Proyecto Latina's very own Irasema Gonzalez will be on the move this February doing the magic at this year's AWP conference held in Chicago. We hope you will come out and support some of these events. You can register for the conference at http://www.awpwriter.org

Thursday, February 12, 2009 @ 1:30 p.m.

Building, Breaking, Rebuilding: Six Chicago Literary Landscapers (Ellen Placey Wadey, Erin Teegarden, Krista Franklin, Joel Craig, Jennifer Karmin, Irasema Gonzalez) We are the bold sluggers who run Chicago's independent reading series. Set vividly against the established grid, we build literary communities in neighborhoods from the ground up. How are we thriving in the face of our challenges? Less like a panel and more like a virtual show-and-tell, organizers from a diverse group of popular, D-I-Y reading serieses discuss building, breaking from, and rebuilding Chicago's literary landscape.

Thursday, February 12, 2009 @ 6 p.m.
Con Tinta Celebration
An evening to celebrate the Chicano/Latino literary community. This year's Con Tinta Award recipient is Carlos Cortez, artist, poet, printmaker, photographer, songwriter and lifelong political activist. Special recognition will also be made to Patti Hartmann, editor of Camino del Sol Series at the University of Arizona Press. Literary tributes to Carlos Cortez will be made by Carlos Cumpian, Lisa Alvarado, and Ray Gonzalez. Held at COCO Restaurant, 2723 W. Divison, Chicago, IL. Free. Open buffet and cash bar.

Friday, February 13, 2009, 6 to 7:30 p.m.
Palabra Pura, Special Edition: One Poem Festival
Following up on the multi-voiced reading hosted by ACENTOS in NYC last year during AWP, the Guild Complex, Letras Latinas, and Poetry Magazine will be hosting a "One Poem Festival" featuring an ample roster of Latino and Latina poets from Chicago and out of town, including: Lisa Alvarado, Carlos Cumpian, Silvia Curbelo, Gina Franco, Gabe Gomez, Irasema Gonzalez, Maurice Kilwein Guevara, Gabriela Jauregui, Olivia Maciel, Carl Marcum, Valerie Martínez, Orlando Ricardo Menes, Achy Obejas, Daniel A. Olivas, Johanny Vasquez Paz, Paul Martinez Pompa, Linda Rodríguez, Jacob Saenz, Jorge Sánchez, Juan Manuel Sanchez Rich Villar. Held at Jazz Showcase, 47 W. Polk St. Chicago, IL.

Proyecto Latina - 2009!

Proyecto Latina enters its 4th year

Monday, January 19, 2008 @ 7 p.m.

We invite you to join us for the first Proyecto Latina of 2009, we are celebrating with cake and wine and kicking off our fourth year with our featured poet Yolanda Cardenas.

In a city known as a mecca of arctic cold, bizarre weather and medicine, a modern day Dr. Zhivago emerges. While Dra. Yolanda Cardenas completed her family medicine training, this Chicago native also honed her writing. Although there's no Russian revolution in her future, she's primed for social change and a medical revolution. Read full bio.

Proyecto Latina is held @ Radio Arte, 1401 W. 18th Street
on the corner of 18th and Blue Island.

Proyecto Latina y Adelita Pata de Perro

Happy Monday! I hope you will come by for this special version of Proyecto Latina.

Proyecto Latina:
More than Poetry open mic

Monday, November 17th, 2008 @ 7 p.m.

Featuring:
A Proyecto Latina
Post-election special
So you went out
and you voted...and now what?

PROYECTO LATINA TAKES PLACE
THE THIRD MONDAY OF EVERY MONTH

Proyecto Latina is held at
Radio Arte,
1401 W. 18th Street
on the corner of 18th and Blue Island.

We are switching things up a bit this third Monday of November and last Proyecto Latina for 2008. We are featuring YOU, and your thoughts and/or stories--how will you tell your children or future generations how you spent this last and most historic election day? Get on the open-mic list and share with us. We are also turning the chisme box into a suggestion/reminder box for the new leadership of our country.

Join us on Monday, November 17, 2008 @ 7 p.m. Held at Radio Arte, 1401 W. 18th Street.

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Tianguis Art Feature: Adelita Pata de Perro
Opens Saturday, November 29th @ 7 p.m.

Adelita pata de perro is Jennifer Priego's photograghic journal of Adelita, a character that was inspired by the women who fought in the Mexican Revolution. Priego's Adelita is a hyper-ethnic woman wandering the world on an ever changing journey, and on her voyage of discovery she encounters symbols of power, femininity, sex, and cultural imagery. She finds herself in different situations and places that take her from Paris, to Rome and sugar cane mills in Mexico. There are thousands of photographs that have been collected over the last six years, for the first time ever Priego will be exhibiting a small portion of embellished and adorned original pieces that were taken in Paris.

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Windy City Voting, Jitters and Sunshine!

Saludos from a small windowless office around the corner from where the rally will take place.

It's about 3 p . m. in the Windy City. At lunch time you could already feel the electricity downtown.

Vendors selling over priced Obama buttons that read: OBAMA WINS! I confess I'm sure by the end of the night I will fork over cash for that button

There isn't much going on in our office. I feel nervous and excited all at the same time. Even my anxiety eating has come to a complete halt.

I'm trying not to drink coffee because for sure I will go into cardiac arrest. What impact will this have on the arts in Chicago and the rest of the nation? I don't know but it's something to think about. My co-workers are all silent and typing away. I could use a dose of sunshine right now. When I was at lunch I spied the Obama T-shirt I want. Dang now I need a drink to calm my election day jitters. My brother Mark will be at a bar near the rally and my cousin Alicia (so jealous) will be in Hutchinson Park. She scored her Obama tix early! Meanwhile, my sister Ada will be drinking tea and watching the election on the news in Mexico City wondering how it will all turn out and in a small pueblo named Julimes my father will gather with the rest of our family and watch the elections and wonder how we are doing in the city he left behind? As for me, I will be your Proyecto Latina radio correspondent for the night live from downtown bringing you mini-updates. My first stop will be dinner on the rooftop of Cliff Dwellers on Michigan Ave. and then I will hit the ground running and be your eyes and ears for the evening.

To be continued...

Proyecto Latina - October

This month join us at Proyecto Latina Open Mic. Swing by for poesía, chisme y más! Join us on Monday, October 20, 2008 @ 7 p.m. Held at Radio Arte, 1401 W. 18th Street.

Proyecto Latina is a monthly open mic bringing together the best emerging and established Latina poets, writers and performers.

Diana Pando will be reading a selection of poems that she is compiling for a future chapbook called The Daze and Nights of Mariposa Atómica. She is a poet / writer and likes to flex her public relation skills to support Latinos in the arts and nonprofits impacting Latina women and girls.

Diana’s kryptonite includes: Cupcakes, military history, coffee, social media and dancing with her niece in the aisles of el Gigante supermarket in Mexico City.

Her current projects include: Co-producer of Proyecto Latina Radio on 90.5 WRTE and one of the founders of Proyecto Latina, open mic a collaborative project between Tianguis Bookstore, Teatro Luna and Mariposa Atómica Ink. Recently two of her poems have been selected for a Mexican/Chicano anthology being published through DePaul University.

Over the summer she became Teatro Luna’s newest artistic associate. She is part of a writing ensembles for American Theatre Company’s Border Project Initiative, Teatro Luna’s Restaurant Spanish and a future Teatro Americano production. At this time she maintains a blog called Art Botanas. She is a current member of the Latina Leadership Council of the Chicago Foundation for Women and the Latino Giving Circle of the Chicago Community Trust.

Her vision is to continue to build community between the arts and philanthropic community.
She is the former managing director for Teatro Vista and has worked with DeLaTorre Fine Arts, Teatro Luna and Luna Negra Dance Theatre as well as a former contributing writer for Dinero Magazine. She has been a local featured poet for Palabra Pura an open mic initiative through the Guild Complex.

She has also been a contributing writer for the critically acclaimed Teatro Luna show MACHOS. Currently, she is thrilled to be a Sr. communications trainer for the Community Media Workshop helping nonprofit organizations tell their stories and promoting news that matters.

Proyecto Latina Presents - DAWN TERRY HERRERA

PROYECTO LATINA PRESENTS DAWN TERRY HERERRA


Monday, August 18 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. @ Radio Arte 1401 W. 18th St.
(Use Side Door On 18th)

Dawn Herrera Terry is a lover of words--their sounds, their meanings and the spaces between them. A Teatro Luna Artistic Associate, Dawn presented her solo play Portales as part of the Oye/Listen! series and acted in the probadita presentation of Machos at San Antonio's Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. Dawn also works with Stillpoint Theater and with BESITOS (Bilingual Education Students Interacting to Obtain Success) at Kansas State University to develop community-written and performed shows that put everyday truths on stage. Most recently, she co-created Walkabout Theater's War Garden, a family-friendly show about conflict and vegetables that toured to community gardens across Chicago. She is a former writer and director with the Manhattan Experimental Theater Workshop.

Dawn will present poems from her work in progress, "Rosas Encendidas." For this chapbook project, Dawn is translating love poems written over the past seven years, from Spanish to English and from English to Spanish. The poems are intricate, dreamlike and passionate explorations of past lives and loves--chisme boxes in themselves! The title of the chapbook comes from the ranchera "Los Laureles," a mariachi standard and the one Dawn always requests second, after "Volver."

¡Ay, qué laureles tan verdes!
¡Qué rosas tan encendidas!
Si piensas abandonarme mejor quitame la vida;
Alza los ojos a verme
Si no estás comprometido.

Proyecto Latina is a monthly open mic bringing together the best emerging
and established Latinas poets, writers and is collaboration
between Tianguis Bookstore, Teatro Luna and MARIPOSA ATOMICA INK.

Proyecto Latina - April 21

Proyecto Latina: More than Poetry
open mic

Monday, April 21st @ 7 p.m.



Featuring:
Marcy Rae Henry
| writer |

PROYECTO LATINA TAKES PLACE
THE THIRD MONDAY OF EVERY MONTH

Starting March 2008
Proyecto Latina will be held at
Radio Arte,
1401 W. 18th Street
on the corner of 18th and Blue Island.

The April feature for Proyecto Latina is Marcy Rae Henry author of The CTA Chronicles and forthcoming novel Cumbia Therapy. Friendly reminder to join us at the studios at Radio Arte, 1401 W. 18th Street, on the corner of 18th and Blue Island for this event. Event details and Marcy's Bio.

Proyecto Latina @ the Sor Juana Festival

Join Proyecto Latina @ the Sor Juana Festival

Proyecto Latina will see you at the Sor Juana festival this Friday!

Entre Letras, Palabras, y Cantos
Fri., Oct. 12th @ 8 p.m.

Part of the Sor Juana Festival and held at the National Museum of Mexican Art. Chicago's local Mexicana poets will be opening for acclaimed author Felicia Luna Lemus, author of Like Son. These local poets include: Stephanie Gentry-Fernandez, Magda Banda, Yolanda Cardenas, and The Luna Blues Machine. This event is a collaborative between the National Museum of Mexican Art and Proyecto Latina. Details.

Look for number 11 @ Pilsen Open Studios

PROYECTO LATINA In the Garden!

Date: 08/09/07
Start Time: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Celebrate Latino literature with a series of readings by the artists of Chicago’s Proyecto Latina. Set to live music that fires the imagination and stirs the soul, featuring readings by Irasema Gonzalez, Diana Pando,Silvia Rivera,Yolanda Cardenas, Coya Paz, and the Luna Blues Machine!

Cost: free-suggested donation of $5 per adult

Location : Garfield Park Conservatory

The Chicago Park District offers two world-class conservatories, the Lincoln Park and Garfield Park Conservatories. With tropical palms, ancient ferns and velvety moss among other lush findings, these spots provide havens in the city. To enhance the experience, the conservatories offer special exhibits which integrate directly into the plant displays. Come and see these awesome exhibits, and expect to see our plants in a new and moving way.

The Conservatory is located at 300 N. Central Park Ave., 10 minutes west of downtown Chicago and easily accessible by automobile or public transportation. We are open everyday of the year and provide free parking adjacent to the museum. To help plan your visit please view the following maps and directions.