Palabra Pura: Inspiration

Poets meet muse at the September installment of our monthly bilingual poetry series, Palabra Pura, curated by Irasema Gonzalez and featuring poets Diana Pando and Xánath Caraza. “Inspiration” takes place Wednesday, September 18, 2013, at 7:30 PM at La Bruquena restaurant, 2726 W. Division. The program will be spoken in English and Spanish. Admission is free.

The dynamic between artist and inspiration is at times a lovely dance and at others a bitter duel.  Join us as we discover how two poets responded when Federico Garcia Lorca’s version of duende, “that mysterious power that everyone feels but no philosopher can explain,” extended a hand for a dance on the page.

Irasema Gonzalez  has presented work at 2nd Story, the Poetry Performance Incubator and Palabra Pura.  Her story Love in the Time of Crushed Cherries and Aqua Net broadcasted on Vocalo on WBEZ.  Her poems appeared in the chapbook, Afternoon Wine: Vicios, Sueños y Confesiones, Ariel XXVIII, and Between the Heart and the Land: An Anthology of Midwestern Latina Poets by March Abrazo Press. She is a founding member of Proyecto Latina, a multi-media project that spotlights the work of Latinas and she shares an essay in their recently published anthology Rebeldes.

Xánath Caraza is a traveler, educator, poet and short story writer. Her published works include Sílabas de viento (Mammoth Publications, 2014), Lo que trae la marea/ What the Tide Brings, Conjuro, and Corazón Pintado: Ekphrastic Poems. Caraza was the winner of the 2003 Ediciones Nuevo Espacio international short story contest, an International Book Awards finalist in 2013, and was named a 2013 Top Ten “New” Latino Authors to Watch by Latinostories.com.

Diana Pando is a poet, writer, and a founder of the Proyecto Latina Reading Series. In 2012, her poem Coatlique Rising was selected to be part of the Rites of Passage anthology and was a finalist for the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Competition. In 2010 her ten-minute play Thirst was presented at Teatro Luna’s 10X10 play festival. Currently she is part of the Con Tinta literary advisory board
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