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.

Cohort Residency Reading

COHORT RESIDENCY READING
SHERYL LUNA and DAWN LUNDY MARTIN
This WEDNESDAY, July 23
California Clipper, 1002 N. California, (Augusta and California), Chicago
Doors open at 8:00 p.m. Reading begins at 8:30 p.m.
Free admission. 21 and over show. You must have i.d.

What is a cohort residency you ask? The Guild Complex in partnership with Cave Canem and the Andres Montoya Prize of Letras Latinas has arranged for two premier poets -- one Latina, one African American -- to be placed in residency together at Ragdale. Our aim is to expand the diversity of residency programs, to open professional creative opportunities for writers of color, and to enrich the exchange between writers. Sheryl Luna read in our inaugural year of Palabra Pura. Her collection Pity the Drowned Horses was selected by Robert Vasquez for the 2004 Andres Montoya Prize and published by the University of Notre Dame Press. Dawn Lundy Martin is the winner of the 2006 Cave Canem Prize. Her collection of poetry A Gathering of Matter/A Matter of Gathering was selected by Carl Phillips and was published by the University of Georgia Press. You don’t want to miss the inaugural reading of this groundbreaking collaboration.

PALABRA PURA - XAVIER & IRASEMA

Palabra Pura Series: Emanuel Xavier and Irasema González
Start: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 7:00pm

Time: Reading starts at 7:00 PM PM
Cost: Free admission.
Location: Center on Halsted, Chicago's LGBT Community Center, 3656 N. Halsted, Chicago


Emanuel Xavier is author of the poetry collection Americano, editor of Bullets & Butterflies: queer spoken word poetry and Mariposas: an anthology of modern queer Latino poetry. He has been featured on Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry on HBO, appeared as guest host of PBS's In The Life and co-starred on MTV LOGO's feature film, The Ski Trip.He most recently selected finalists for Best Gay Erotica 2008 and is currently working on a new poetry collection and a reprint of his fiction novel, Christ like . He is recipient of the Marsha A. Gomez Cultural Heritage Award, a NYC Council Citation and the Outstanding Excellence in Performance Arts Award from the World Pride Power conference.

Emanuel Xavier es el autor de la coleccion de poesia Americano, editor de Bullets and Butterflies:queer spoken word poetry and Mariposas:an anthology of modern queer Latino poetry. Emanuel ha sido destacado en Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry en HBO, ha sido presentado como invitado en In the Life en PBS y ha actuado en el largometraje The Ski Trip de MTV LOGO. Muy recientemente ha seleccionado los finalistas para Best Gay Erotica 2008 y actualmente esta trabajando en una nueva coleccion de poesia y una reedicion de su novela de ficcion Christ like. Emanuel ha recibido el premio Marsha A Gomez Cultural Heritage Award, una mencion en NYC Council y el premio Outstanding Excellence in Performance Arts de la conferencia World Pride Power.


Irasema González After working as a cubicle drone and toiling away vainly under bad fluorescent lights and glass ceilings Irasema Gonzalez combusted. The mid-twenties melt-down that followed resulted in extraordinary things: she quit her job, awarded herself a sabbatical, and ultimately opened Tianguis, the bookstore she always longed to walk into. She is a founding member of the Proyecto Latina reading series, a collaborative between Tianguis Books, Teatro Luna and Mariposa Atomica Ink. Her poems appeared in Between the Heart and the Land, an anthology by March Abrazo Press featuring Midwestern Latina poets. 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 husband and two cats.