Back from Macondo--Part Three

After the Friday vision session

Friday began with a vision and planning session where members of the foundation board and this year's participants looked at what worked and what didn't and planned for future growth to keep the foundation and the workshop strong and supple enough to meet the needs that the future would bring.

This discussion continued at a long lunch. Then the final afternoon seminar on translingual writers (those who write in a language other than their first language), which engendered an energetic discussion because we had so many translingual writers there.

Friday evening was our culminating public event. It was held at Casa Navarro, an historic building complex in downtown San Antonio. It kicked off with live music by Orqestra Tropicante.

Josslyn as Lady Day

Josslyn Luckett, emcee of many disguises, was in Billie Holiday mode as she hosted the evening. The dynamic writers reading were Liliana Valenzuela, John Olivares Espinoza, Jessica Lopez, Elaine Beal, Francisco Aragon, Deborah Miranda, and the magnificent Ruth Behar, introduced by Sandra Cisneros.

Liliana Valenzuela reading

Jessica Lopez reading

Francisco Aragon reading

Elaine Beal reading

Deborah Miranda reading

Ruth Behar reading

An after-hours party

Macondo is the brainchild of the incredible Sandra Cisneros, author of the novels, The House on Mango Street and Caramelo, the short fiction collection, Woman Hollering Creek, and the poetry collections, My Wicked, Wicked Ways and Loose Woman. She started the Macondo Foundation to help talented mid-career writers who were also involved in community-building. She started the Macondo Writing Workshop around her kitchen table. Sandra is still at the core of what Macondo is, although she has a dedicated board that makes decisions and sets direction for the foundation now and has done the necessary planning to ensure that the foundation will survive long after she is gone. But Sandra is the soul of Macondo.

La Sandra

Sandra having fun with Jennifer De Leon

Sandra and the Macondistas, those who belong to the Macondo community and return year after year, have written a code of conduct that every writing workshop/class/community would do well to study, The Compassionate Code of Conduct. And they are serious, very serious, about adhering to it. To read it, go to the Macondo website. This community that Sandra has fostered is like an ideal family--if your family were other writers who were also committed to creating a better world in one way or another. And I feel privileged and proud to be a member of that community.

Thank you to the Macondistas who took photographs--Deborah Miranda, Liliana Valenzuela, Jennifer De Leon, and any other I've forgotten.

Catching Up--Book and Reunion--Amid Pre-Macondo Jitters

I'm resigned to being a lazy blogger. This summer has been so packed with activities and tasks, and I've been in and out of town so much that I have not kept this blog up the way I had hoped. I have nothing but the highest respect for those people who blog daily. I can't even seem to manage weekly, which is what I was hoping for originally.

Part of what has made this summer a madhouse has been all the attention my new book has been getting--a very good thing from my point of view. Interviews and readings take time, and when placed in an already crowded schedule, they will squeeze out things like updating a blog. But aside from being important to sales of the book, they are just plain great fun. Here's a link to a radio interview on KCUR, Kansas City' NPR station.

I also did something I've never done before. I went back to Manhattan, Kansas, for my high school reunion. I had been out of touch with my graduating class. They couldn't find me, and when I would leave my contact information with the high school (as I did several times), it never made its way to those organizing reunions. Finally, an old friend from high school found me on the internet and reconnected me with my high school class. (Thanks big time, Bill!)

Manhattan High School (Old that we attended on right)

Konza Prairie, the landscape surrounding Manhattan, KS
(c) Bill Curnutte

I don't know that I expected much out of the reunion. I wanted to see people again that I had known when we were very young, and that was about it. What was so surprising was the instant sense of connection with these folks I hadn't seen for decades. And my own teary sentimentality when Norman Byers, our class vice president, led us in the school anthem! We toured the old school, and when we walked into the auditorium where I had performed so often with many of these same classmates, it almost felt as if I ought to be walking up onto the stage to sing and whirl with Pops Choir or walk with exaggerated hip swings (that always embarrassed me), pig in arms, downstage singing Moonbeam McSwine's part in Li'l Abner. Very eerie sense of deja vu!

It was terrific fun, though, to reconnect with so many classmates, who have turned into very successful--but more importantly, truly nice--people. It's very odd but very satisfying to feel this sense of connection to these people who have not been a part of my life for so many years but who are nonetheless important to me, though I had not realized it. Now, we're planning the next reunion in five years and trying to stay in touch in the meantime. Go, MHS Class of 1964!

Part of why things have been so hectic lately is that I'm trying to take care of everything that needs doing before taking off to San Antonio and the Macondo Workshop next week. Very exciting! I've been fortunate enough to get into the Famosa workshop with Ruth Behar and Marjorie Agosín, Casa/Hearth/Diaspora. (My husband's incredibly jealous since he knows Behar's and Agosín's work from his own work in Jewish studies!) They've given us some interesting preparatory work, and the manuscripts from the other workshop members are widely varied in style and universally fascinating.

I'm looking forward to seeing the fabulous Sandra Cisneros (founder of Macondo) again and other friends, Francisco Aragón and Ellen Placey Wadey, as well as people I only know from email or from their work, such as John Olivares Espinoza, Margo Chavez-Charles, Rachel Jennings, Levi Romero, Vincent Toro, and Richard Blanco. I'm nervous, of course. I sent in drafts of poems I'm working on, as requested, not finished work. I hope that in the workshop I'll get a better handle on this book I'm writing. It seems as if I'm writing in two very different styles--and each is a departure from my usual style. I don't know at this point if I'm breaking important new ground for myself or wandering down dead-end roads stylistically.

So back to trying to get everything taken care of before I leave, especially getting all the content for Tercera Pagina to Tina Landis for the Latino Writers Collective blog. We're growing so--with new members all the time. It's wonderful to see an organization that used to just be five or six of us about to hit 50 members in number and grow beyond that.

I'll try to get an entry up soon after I return from Macondo about that experience. Until then, read and write and be happy!

Tercera Pagina, Latino Writers Collective Reading Series, Ends With Fiction Anthology Launch

Xanath Caraza reads one of her mystical stories.

Natalie Castro Olmsted reads a story about growing up Mexican-American in Wichita, KS.

Jason Biggers reads poetry about the Juarez murders and the death of teenaged friends.

Juanita Salazar Lamb, husband Bill, Sofiana Olivera, husband Tim

The new Latino Writers Collective fiction anthology,
Cuentos del Centro: Stories From the Latino Heartland

It was a dark and stormy night--well, actually it was. Monsoonlike torrents of rain, heavy thunder and lightning, and tornado watches and warnings. Still, we finished our third annual Latino Writers Collective reading series, Tercera Pagina, on a high note, celebrating with advanced copies of our new fiction anthology, Cuentos del Centro: Stories From the Latino Heartland. Two of our long-distance members who appear in the anthology, Juanita Salazar Lamb from Houston and Natalie Castro Olmsted from Wichita, drove up to Kansas City to read at the event. Some of our audience members came from as far away as southern Colorado. In spite of the dangerous weather, over fifty people turned out to celebrate the end of our most successful series ever and the birth of our second book. And the news, received just before the reading began, that LWC had achieved our official federal 501(c)3 status finally.

So, while the sky turned black, lit by strobelights of lightning, and the wind roared around the old stone castle of The Writers Place, we partied. Dramatic and funny readings, good wine, lots of delicious nibbles, a fascinating mix of people, and the first copies of our gorgeous new books.

This series was our biggest-to-date, and right after it began, we had grant funding pulled due to the economic crisis. We decided we'd make it work anyway. Calamities like this kept striking at each individual event in the series also, yet each event was more successful than the other successful ones we've had in past years. No one has any fingernails left, but we've got big smiles. Almost 1500 people turned out for various events in the series this year. And this was the year we brought the wonderful Sandra Cisneros to Kansas City.

Also to be celebrated is the fact that our first anthology (poetry), launched at the end of last year's series, has been named a finalist for three national book awards, coming in second in one (the 2009 Eric Hoffer Book Award in Poetry), and we're still waiting to hear results from several others. So the new baby on the block has a lot to live up to, but we think it will surpass its older sibling.

So, with our diehard fans who braved the elements for us, we had a terrific fiesta, and all the good times drove the storm away. We all left the building late to find clear night skies outside. One last little grito of joy here.

Report on Sandra Cisneros' Visit to Kansas City

Gabriela N. Lemmons introduces Sandra Cisneros Thursday, April 16.

Sandra Cisneros holds up photo of herself when she first wrote The House on Mango Street.

I'm late getting up any coverage of Sandra Cisneros' visit to Kansas City. Mainly, it's because of a continuing overload of work and deadlines. But I don't want to let too much time go by without scribbling a few lines about what was a phenomenal experience, both for me and for the Latino Writers Collective. And for that matter, for Kansas City!

Kansas City loves Sandra. There's no doubt about that. Over 800 people turned out at the Central Library (a huge refurbished bank with marble halls and wood paneled offices) to hear Sandra talk about the books she's currently working on and read from the new preface to the 25th anniversary edition of The House on Mango Street, as well as a wonderful excerpt from a new book talking about the pivotal role libraries played in her life and success.

Sandra Cisneros shows audience photo of her late parents.

Later during the long, stimulating question and answer session, the dialogue ranged from the need to write down the stories of the people we love or someone else will write them without knowing the truth to how to balance one's desire for creative success and one's need to serve the community to "female agency." ("Do you mean feminism?" Sandra asked as the audience roared in approval. "Well, yes, I'm a feminist.")


After the standing ovation that she had truly earned, she sat for hours and signed books, giving so generously of herself when she was very tired. Every person who came through the line that snaked around the entire interior of the library to the entrance, got to talk to her as long as s/he wanted, was allowed to hug her and have a photo taken with her. And she gave the same consideration to the ones carrying their old books as to the ones with the new edition just purchased at the table run by Rainy Day Books--and just as much to the young people carrying no books and asking her to sign their flyers of the event. I have seen and brought in a lot of writers and speakers, some very famous, and I have never known anyone to give so much of herself to her audience and fans.





The next day was the same as she spoke to over 200 high school students at the Plaza Library and then spoke to each individually as they lined up as everyone had the night before, even though there were no books for sale. I watched those kids, many of whom had come in with sullen faces or trying to look blasé and cool, walk away starry-eyed and full of ambition and hope.



Later that evening, she spoke and read in Spanish to new immigrants on Southwest Boulevard, giving a dramatic performance from her novel, Caramelo. And again, she ended by speaking and listening to each of the 60-some attendees with exquisite focus and attention on every one of them.


It's no wonder that Kansas City loves Sandra Cisneros-- and wants her to come back. I've been receiving emails and phone calls ever since from people wanting to know when she will appear again. Word is circulating quickly around the city about this remarkable visit. In talking with the Library folks, who also want a return visit, we decided that next time we'd have to get an even bigger venue just to hold all the people who will show up for la Sandra.

Also, as the Latino Writers Collective has learned, Sandra is a true mentor of writers. She has given much encouragement (read: a real push) to members to apply to the Macondo Workshop. She has said she will help us bring in other great Latino writers. She has shown real interest in our work in the community and in our books.

Phenomenal visit, phenomenal writer, phenomenal speaker, phenomenal woman. One of a kind.

(Photos copyrighted and courtesy of Oscar Pedroza.)

Sandra Cisneros comes to Kansas City in Tercera Pagina Reading Series

The Latino Writers Collective presents

Tercera Página Reading Series

with

Sandra Cisneros

“Poetry is the forbidden room in the house of the spirit. It’s where you write about the things you cannot speak. For me it’s about breaking taboos. It’s the place where you think the unthinkable, say the unsayable and, even worse, set it to paper. It’s the most subversive act I know.” --- Sandra Cisneros

Sandra Cisneros is a national treasure in Latina literature. Her The House on Mango Street (1984) is required reading in schools across the nation and is celebrating its 25^th anniversary in 2009. The founder of the Macondo Foundation and Writers Conference and the organizer of the Latino MacArthur Fellows, los MacArturos, for over thirty years Cisneros has published stunning poetry, novels and short stories. 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 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.

Reading, Reception, and Book Signing

6:30-9:30 p.m.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Central Library, 14 W. 10^th Street

Call 816-701-3407 to RSVP. Reservations required.

Latino Writers Collective Tercera Página Reading Series Presents Gloria Vando March 27

For the third year, the Latino Writers Collective brings to Kansas Citians local and national Latino writers in the Tercera Página (Third Page) Reading Series, which offers four events in 2009. 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 nationally known, award-winning poet, Gloria Vando, a Los Angeles resident who has longtime roots in Kansas City. 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. RSVP to llrodriguez@sbcglobal.net or 816-333-6349.

Next in the series will be nationally acclaimed author Sandra Cisneros at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 16, at the Central Library, 14 W. 10th St., for a reception, reading, and book signing. To be assured a seat, RSVP soon to llrodriguez@sbcglobal.net or 816-333-6349 for this event which is expected to reach capacity early and be closed to reservations.

The series finale will feature Latino Writers Collective members Juanita Salazar Lamb, Jason Biggers, Natalie Olmsted, and Xánath Caraza reading at the launch of the Latino Writers Collective fiction anthology, Cuentos del Centro: Stories From the Latino Heartland at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, May 15, at The Writers Place, 3607 Pennsylvania. RSVP to llrodriguez@sbcglobal.net or 816-333-6349.

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.

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.

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.

The Past and More Poetry (What Else?)

I had an e-mail from one of those classmate/reunion websites today about one of the girls I went to high school with--Manhattan, KS, High School. It’s been very odd, but after many years of having no contact with anyone I went to high school with, in the past year I’ve wound up back in touch with three of them, two girls in the class before me and a guy from my class who I dated in my junior year. That’s been very interesting, seeing how we’ve all changed with the years. Now, I hear about Jeanie, but not in any way that I can let her know how to contact me. I knew her better than the other two girls since she was in my class and we were in most of the same activities. I find myself wondering how her life has turned out.

I’m probably trying to get away from all the things I need to do. I need to do press releases and a million other things for Tercera Página, the Latino Writers Collective’s third annual reading series—and I will; I’ve just been distracted by writing major grants for LWC and for The Writers Place and other things like that. I also need to decide what poem I’m going to read for Palabra Pura’s Special Edition: “One Poem Festival” at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago. It’s an AWP off-site event that Francisco Aragón is curating.

I’ve talked with wonderful, supportive husband, Ben, about it. He says I have two choices—go with a poem that’s good with audiences or go with an “AWP poem.” I ask, “What’s an AWP poem?” (Can you tell I’m just not sophisticated, even after all these years?) He says, “It’s a poem that gets pulled out to impress people with your literariness.” Well, that makes it easy! I don’t have any of those. I took a different road from that one a long time ago when I decided I wanted my work to be accessible to any reasonably literate reader. So I’ll probably be a bust as far as AWP is concerned. Francisco’s another matter—he has higher standards than that, I believe.

I would really like to read a poem that I think is one of my best, but it’s also one of my longest. I’m not like my friend, Joe, who writes 15-page poems sometimes. Long for me is 3-4 pages. But I have never read this poem because I don’t think long poems go over as well with audiences—it’s too hard to keep it all in your head while you’re listening—and this poem deserves full concentration. So once again, I see, I’ve decided not to read “Considering Oceans.”

I’ve got about 500 poems, so this could be a long process. I’ll put it in my unconscious while I work on Tercera Página, which will run from March 4-May 15 and feature a student performance of a cultural piece with original poetry, drama, dance, and music, Gloria Vando headlining a reading with LWC members, Sandra Cisneros in both a public reading at the Central Library and an event with students at the Plaza Library, all culminating with the launch of the LWC fiction anthology, which is one of those things taking extra time and attention right now.

To work, Linda! Adelante!