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Sunday, December 14, 2008 From 2-4 pm

LA PALABRA

Monthly Poetry Readings and open mic

Hosted by Laura L. Longoria & Don Newton

 

This month featuring:

Ron Baca

Born and raised in Boyle
Heights, Ron is a life-long
resident of Los Angeles’
Eastside.

Every summer he makes a
road trip to Albuquerque,
New Mexico, the birthplace
of his parents and where
the Baca family roots reach
back more than 400 years,
and where family members carry on the
tradition of oral story telling.

Strongly influenced by the letters written
between his mother and his grandfather
living in Albuquerque, Ron began his own
tradition of letter writing. Beginning in
the late 1960s Ron wrote to life-long
friends, and his brother, then serving in
the military and stationed throughout the
U.S., Turkey, Japan, Germany, South
Korea, and Vietnam.

Ron draws inspiration from the writings
and activism of Jimmy Santiago Baca,
Luis Rodriguez, Sandra Cisneros, Amiri
Baraka, artist Linda Arreola’s “Vaguely
Chicana”, Paul Robeson’s “Here I Stand,”
and the vibrancy of the Chicano
Movement for self-determination. His all
time favorite poem “Stupid America” by
Abelardo Delgaldo continues to inspire his
Chicano awareness and perspective and
helps define his own poetry, underscoring
the importance of knowing one’s
historical roots.

••

A 1965 graduate of

Cathedral High

School, he earned
an AA Degree from
ELAC, a degree in
Chicano Studies
from CSULA where
he worked for 15
years and was a
founding member
and president of The Chicano Writers
Workshop. In 1994 Ron began teaching
Special Day Classes at Roosevelt High
School.

Ron is a regular reader at La Palabra and
The Eastside Café, and he is a founding
member of The Echo Space Poets
Collective. He’ll be reading from “Red
Line & Other Poems,” a loose collection
of his work.

He lives in University Hills in the 90032
zip code area with his aviary of
parakeets, his hillside garden…and his
grown son and daughter.

Open mic! Bring your work to read
before the featured poet!

••

 

 

 

Sunday, December 14, 2008 Time: 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Verse & Beat:

Joël Tan w/Chris Guttmacher, Irene Soriano

& Darren de Leon

Hosted by: Rafael J. Alvarado

Joël B. Tan debuts his latest collection of verse on blood, type O negative, with master musician Chris Guttmacher. Writer and art critic, Kevin Killian praises Type O Negative as, "at turns abrupt and languorous, harsh and seductive, Tan's verse in Type O Negative flows like no other in contemporary California writing." Also reading, poet and independent curator, Irene Suico Soriano who will read past and new works from her forthcoming collection, "Not a Certain Death" along with poet, dj and KPFA radio personality Darren J. de Leon.

About the Artists:

Recently featured as one of Out Magazine's 2009 People of the Year, Joël Barraquiel Tan is an award winning poet, librettist, cultural and AIDS activist and the Director of Community Engagement at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Ca. His publications include El Canto de Animal (Noice Press, 2006) and Monster- Poems (Noice Press, 2002).

Drummer and percussionist Chris Guttmacher was a founding member of Boston-area avant-rock group Cul De Sac. Since moving to California, he has performed and recorded with many other musicians including Nick Castro and Damo Suzuki. He currently plays with Choncey Langford in the improvisational duo Guam.

Irene Suico Soriano is an award-winning poet and independent curator based in Los Angeles. She founded and coordinated the reading series "Wrestling Tigers: Asian Pacific American Writers Speak" at the Japanese American National Museum and was literary curator for the LA Festival of Philippine Arts & Culture from 1994-2000. She was recently featured in the Los Angeles Times for her curatorial participation in the groundbreaking NEA funded "World Beyond Poetry Festival" that featured over 100+ poets from the diverse communities of Los Angeles. She is currently working on a collection of poems titled Not A Certain Death.

Darren J. de Leon is an award winning poet from San Bernardino, playwright, radio producer, street DJ, high school teacher, and community activist. He has published poetry in various publication including New Chicano/Chicana Writings (University of Arizona Press), Cipactli, and Fourteen Hills. In 1995 he founded Los Delicados: Poetas del Sol. Together they established themselves as a leader in the Latino Spoken Word scene, touring throughout the country. Currently, he works at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts as the Youth Arts manager and produces Radio 2050, a Latino Arts Radio Magazine at KPFA in Berkeley, CA.