Full program video: Vanessa Angélica Villarreal and Raquel Salas Rivera: November 21, 2019
Video highlight clips: Vanessa Angélica Villarreal reads "Malinche" from Beast Meridian | Vanessa Angélica Villarreal reads "To Actuate" | Raquel Salas Rivera reads "ataúd abierto para un obituario puertorriqueño / para pedro pietri" in its original Spanish | and in their own English translation, "an open casket for a puerto rican obituary / for pedro pietri"
The Poetry Center's In Common Writers Series welcomes two outstanding Latinx poets, Puerto Rican poet and activist Raquel Salas Rivera, with us from their present home in Philadelphia (before returning to Puerto Rico), and writer, filmmaker, and artist Vanessa Angélica Villarreal, here from Southern California. Both poets read from their work, then join in conversation with one another and the audience. This evening at The Poetry Center—co-sponsored with Latina/Latino Studies and Women and Gender Studies, SF State—will be followed by a second reading the next night, Friday November 22, across the Bay at Moe's Books on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. Supported by the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, both events are free and open to the public.
Raquel Salas Rivera es la Poeta Laureada de la ciudad de Filadelfia del 2018-19. Fue la recipiente inaugural del Premio Ambroggio y la Beca de Laureada, ambos de la Academia de Poetas Americanos. Cuenta con la publicación de seis plaquetas y cinco poemarios. Su cuarto libro, lo terciario/the tertiary, fue finalista para el Premio Nacional del Libro del 2018 y ganó el Premio Literario Lambda a una obra de poesía transgénero del 2018. Su quinto poemario, while they sleep (under the bed is another country), fue publicado por Birds, LLC en el 2019. Recibió su Doctorado en Literatura Comparada y Teoría Literaria de la Universidad de Pensilvania. Raquel ama y vive por Puerto Rico, Filadelfia y un mundo libre de la supremacía blanca. Por mas: raquelsalasrivera.com/es Foto por Kielinski Photography.
Raquel Salas Rivera is the 2018-19 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia. They are the inaugural recipient of the Ambroggio Prize and the Laureate Fellowship, both from the Academy of American Poets. They are also the author of six chapbooks and five full-length poetry books. Their fourth book, lo terciario/the tertiary, was on the 2018 National Book Award Longlist and won the 2018 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry. Their fifth book, while they sleep (under the bed is another country), was published by Birds, LLC in 2019. They received their Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory from the University of Pennsylvania. Raquel loves and lives for Puerto Rico, Philadelphia, and a world free of white supremacy. More at raquelsalasrivera.com Photo by Kielinski Photography.
Vanessa Angélica Villarreal is the author of Beast Meridian (Noemi Press, 2017), a recipient of a 2019 Whiting Award, a 2018 Texas Institute of Letters Poetry Prize, and a 2019 Kate Tufts Discovery Award finalist. Her work appears or is forthcoming in The New York Times, Poetry Magazine, BuzzFeed, The Boston Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in Los Angeles, where she is raising her son with the help of a loyal dog. More at vanessaangelicavillarreal.com Photo by Beowulf Shehan.
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