A Big, Young Audience at "Breaking Piñatas" Last Night

Last night, we kicked off Tercera Página with "Breaking Piñatas"at Pierson Auditorium on the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus. Over 200 people showed up, many of them high school and college students (or in that age range). The show was high energy, as usual--poetry from talented, young writers (including some first-timers from Alta Vista High School's Poetry Club), comedy from wonderful Chato Villalobos, and dance from El Grupo Folklorico Atotonilco.

Every year, El Grupo does something special for this program. Last year, the dancers in the Viejitos number, while still in their old-man costumes, broke into hip-hop dancing for a number. This year, they came out in jeans and T-shirts to give some lessons on the Guerrero variety of dance and how it developed, then later in the show appeared in full Veracruz costume to dance four numbers, including "La Bruja," which I adore with all the women in their white flowing dresses dancing with lit candles on top of their heads. Mil gracias to the incredible El Grupo, still going strong after 30 years of working with kids and the community and keeping traditions strong!

I was especially happy to see so many young people--and guys, no less--not only attending but fully engaging with the poetry and performers. Too often, audiences for poetry events are basically graying audiences. And a number of these young adults were making reservations for the big Sandra Cisneros events we have coming up in April as part of the series. Most of them stayed after to talk to the poets and performers. A most convivial evening!

Kudos to the Latino Writers Collective's own Jason Biggers, Ignacio Carvajal, and Gustavo Adolfo Aybar, who performed their dynamite poetry. Also, congratulations to the other poets and performers, as well, especially the Alta Vista Poetry Club. And as always, felicitaciones and abrazos to Chato Villalobos, whose brainchild this program is. Chato is dedicated at the deepest levels to finding ways to give youth in the community a culturally relevant outlet in the creative arts, and it was great for these young people who know him as a KCMO cop to see him reciting his poetry, doing stand-up comedy, and dancing with El Grupo. Bravo, Chato!

As promised, photos, courtesy of Stephen Holland-Wemps. Mil gracias, Steve!

From top to bottom:

Some of the ladies of El Grupo prepare to dance La Bruja.

Gustavo Adolfo Aybar and Ignacio Carvajal perform their strong, dramatic poetry.

Jason Biggers and Jessica Ayala read their intense poetry.

Chato and Maria Vasquez Boyd try to dance with El Grupo.

Angie Tinoco reads powerful poetry.

Some of the Alta Vista poets with some of the artwork at the back of the hall in the background.

The Alta Vista Poetry Club with their final group reading.

Mr. Kazar, faculty sponsor, and the Alta Vista Poetry Club.

Chato Villalobos, emcee and general creative genius.

Here I am giving the welcome.

Ben Furnish at book table while audience files in.

Breaking Piñatas, Latino Writers Collective Tercera Página, March 4, 7:00 pm

If you're in Kansas City, you won't want to miss the kick-off event for the Latino Writers Collective's third annual reading series, Tercera Página. "Breaking Piñatas” is an exciting and original performance of poetry, drama, dance, and music that is the brainchild of LWC member, Chato Villalobos. Chato and his cast of students have worked long and hard to make this year's show bigger and better even than last year's smash success. So come out and join us. It's free and fun!

Breaking Piñatas, Latino Writers Collective Tercera Página Reading Series

Tercera Página and the Latino Writers Collective were created to offer the Kansas City community a chance to experience the usually unheard voices of local and national Latino writers. In “Breaking Piñatas,” the vibrant series opening, Kansas City will have a chance to hear the young people of the Latino community speak with passion and power about their experience.

“Breaking Piñatas,” the work of LWC member and KCMO police officer, Octavio “Chato” Villalobos and his young protégées, will open at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 4, at Pierson Auditorium, UMKC’s University Center, 50th & Rockhill. The program is free and open to the public. It features original art, poetry, drama, dance, and music with a cultural theme and will include a question and answer session with the student performers and a reception. “Breaking Piñatas” is recommended for ages 13 and up. For reservations or information, please call 816-718-1220 or email llrodriguez@sbcglobal.net.

Reading from their original poetry will be high school (and some college) students who range from first-timers to a few experienced readers, including the youngest members of the Latino Writers Collective. Many of the student poets belong to a poetry club Villalobos helped form at Alta Vista High School, La Sociedad Poetica de Alta Vista (the Alta Vista Poetic Society). Last year, Alta Vista’s yearbook included a poem the group had written for “Breaking Piñatas.”

“Our kids have a lot to say, and they need to be heard,” says Villalobos.

Also performing original work will be student musicians, singers, dancers, choreographers, and actors, with a special guest performance by El Grupo Folklorico Atotonilco, a folkloric dance troupe that has been working with local youth for over 30 years. The auditorium will also contain a display of original art by local Latino artists.

The series is co-sponsored by BkMk Press, Guadalupe Centers, Inc., Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City Hispanic News, Kansas Hispanic & Latino American Affairs Commission, Mattie Rhodes Latino Cultural Arts Division, New Letters, Park University, UMKC College of Arts & Sciences, UMKC Multicultural Student Affairs, and The Writers Place. The series is made possible in part by funding from the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.

Tercera Página (Third Page) Reading Series

Exciting Latino Writers Series Returns to Kansas City

For the third year, Kansas Citians will have a chance to hear some of the usually unheard voices of local and national Latino writers speak with passion and power about their experience in the Tercera Página (Third Page) Reading Series, which will offer four events in 2009. Over the past two years, the series has pulled standing-room-only audiences and received much publicity, bringing the community-at-large various pictures of the Latino experience at distinct odds with much of the anti-Hispanic, anti-immigrant rhetoric that has become all too common. Designed to showcase the work of Latino writers and provide role models for local youth, Tercera Página is coordinated by the Latino Writers Collective.

The first event—7:00 p.m., Wednesday, March 4, at Pierson Auditorium, University Center, UMKC, 50th & Rockhill—will feature a cast of high school and college students performing, “Breaking Piñatas,” a cultural performance of original poetry, drama, dance, and music, created and directed by Latino Writers Collective member, Chato Villalobos, a KCMO police officer in his day job. This will be a new, expanded version of the popular event (with guest performance by El Grupo Folklorico Atotonilco) that has moved to a larger venue since people had to be turned away last year for lack of space. The dynamic, dramatic show has garnered much praise in local arts and entertainment media and will include a question and answer session with the young performers afterward.

The second event in the series will take place at The Writers Place, 3607 Pennsylvania, at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, March 27, 2009. Reading from her work will be Gloria Vando. Vando’s most recent book of poems, Shadows and Supposes, won the 2003 Best Poetry Book of the Year Award from the Latino Literary Hall of Fame and the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America. She has won numerous other awards and fellowships. She reads her poem, “Fire,” on the 2007 Grammy-nominated CD collection, Poetry on Record: 98 Poets Read Their Work, 1888-2006 (which features Tennyson, Browning, Walt Whitman, who were recorded by Edison when he invented the phonograph). A Puerto Rican born in New York City, Vando has had her poems adapted for the stage and presented at Lincoln Center and Off-Broadway. She is publisher and editor of Helicon Nine Editions, a small press she founded 30 years ago and for which she received the Kansas Governors Arts Award. In 1992, she and her husband, Bill Hickok, founded The Writers Place, a literary center in Kansas City, where they lived for many years. They now live in L.A.

Also reading will be Latino Writers Collective members, Carlos Duarte, Ignacio Carvajal, Miguel Morales, and Sofiana Olivera. The event will also feature the music of Melek Ta’us.

The next event will bring in nationally known poet, novelist, and short story writer, Sandra Cisneros, at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, April 16, 2000, to the Kansas City Library’s Central Branch, 14 W. 10th St., for a reception, reading, and book signing. Sandra Cisneros is considered a national treasure in Latina literature. Besides the “Genius” grant from the MacArthur Foundation, her many awards include, among others, the American Book Award, the PEN Center West Award, the Lannan Foundation Award, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, a Texas Medal of Arts, and two honorary doctorates. Her work has become part of the canon in universities around the country and the world. This year will mark the 25th anniversary of her great classic, The House on Mango Street, which is required reading in schools across the nation. She is the founder of the Macondo Foundation and Writers Conference and the organizer of the Latino MacArthur Fellows, los MacArturos. Her books, The House on Mango Street, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, Bad Boys, My Wicked, Wicked Ways, Loose Woman, and Caramelo, have been published in over 20 languages and included in many anthologies and textbooks. The event will also feature the music of Melek Ta’us.

The final event—7:00 p.m., Friday, May 15, at The Writer’s Place, 3607 Pennsylvania —will be the launch of the Latino Writers Collective fiction anthology, Cuentos del Centro: Stories From the Latino Heartland, and will feature readings by LWC members, Juanita Salazar Lamb, Jason Biggers, Natalie Olmsted, and Xánath Caraza. The event will also feature the music of Melek Ta’us. Last year’s poetry anthology gained national attention and praise and was a finalist for the USA Book News 2008 Award in Poetry. The 2008 series finale and anthology launch was cited by The PITCH as “beautifully diverse, crowded, and festive” and led to naming the Latino Writers Collective as one of 2008’s Best of Kansas City.

The series is co-sponsored by BkMk Press, Guadalupe Centers, Inc., Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City Hispanic News, the Kansas Department of Hispanic and Latino Affairs, Longview Community College, Mattie Rhodes Latino Cultural Arts Division, New Letters, Park University, UMKC College of Arts & Sciences, UMKC Multicultural Student Affairs, and The Writers Place. The series is made possible in part by funding from the Missouri Arts Council.