Palabra Pura: From the Margins of the Margins

In response to the hangover from colonialism still lingering in the United States, a new literary space has been carved out where historically marginalized bodies, narratives and histories finally have their say; it has been named “Latino/a literature”. What happens, though, when some of the loudest voices inhabiting that space reproduce the very conditions they are supposed to be subverting? Who counters the oppressed who have taken up the business of oppression? Two uprisings come to mind: Daniel Borzutzky and Justin Petropoulos. The work of these writers forces us to confront an uncomfortable but essential question: is Latino/a poetry a viable, subversive political logic, or is it merely a marketing strategy already co-opted and rendered ineffective in the face of capitalism?

An open mic is included in the event. For the Facebook event page, click here.

Co-sponsored by the following departments at Northwestern University: Poetry and Poetics Colloquium; the Latina/o Studies Program; the Department of Spanish & Portuguese; and the Center for the Writing Arts.

 

About the Artists:

 

Daniel Borzutzky‘s books include In the Murmurs of the Rotten Carcass Economy (Nightboat, forthcoming); The Book of Interfering Bodies (Nightboat, 2011); The Ecstasy of Capitulation (BlazeVox, 2007); and Arbitrary Tales (Ravenna Press, 2005). His poetry translations include include Raúl Zurita’s The Country of Planks (forthcoming, Action Books); Song for his Disappeared Love (Action Books, 2010); and Jaime Luis Huenún’s Port Trakl (Action Books, 2008). His chapbooks include Data Bodies (Green Lantern, 2013); Bed Time Stories for the End of the World! (Bloof Books, forthcoming); One Size Fits All (Scantily Clad, 2009); and Failure in the Imagination (Bronze Skull, 2007). His writing has been anthologized in Angels of the Americlypse: New Latin@ Writing; Telephone Books Anthology of English-to-English Translations of Shakespeare Sonnets; La Alteración del Silencio: Poesía Norteamericana Reciente; Malditos Latinos Malditos Sudacas: Poesia Iberoamericana Made in USA; Seriously Funny: Poems About Love, God, War, Art, Sex, Madness, and Everything Else; A Best of Fence: The First Nine Years; and The City Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century. His writing has been translated into Spanish, French, Bulgarian, Romanian and Turkish. His work has been recognized by grants from the PEN American Center, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council.

 

Justin Petropoulos is the author of two collections of poetry, Eminent Domain (Marsh Hawk Press 2011), selected by Anne Waldman for the 2010 Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize and <legend>   </legend> (Jaded Ibis Press 2013), a collaborative work with multimedia artist, Carla Gannis. His poems have appeared in American Letters & Commentary, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Columbia Poetry Review, Crab Creek Review, Gulf Coast, Mandorla, Portland Review, and Spinning Jenny. Justin is a contributing editor for Entropy magazine and the program director of an after-school program for at-risk, elementary age children. He is also an adjunct faculty member at New Jersey City University, where he teaches composition and creative writing.

 

 

About the Curator:

Paul Martinez Pompa is the author of My Kill Adore Him (University of Notre Dame Press 2009) and is a recent recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Literary Award. He teaches composition and poetry at Triton College and lives in the Dunning neighborhood of Chicago.

 

 

 

 

 

About our Co-Sponsors:

 

 

 

 

The Poetry & Poetics Colloquium is the principal forum for cross-disciplinary, transhistorical scholarship on poetics at Northwestern University, as well as a collection of arts initiatives that support the practice of poetry on campus and beyond. Founded in 2009, the consortium regularly convenes a group of core faculty and graduate students who share an interest in the long and varied traditions of poetry and poetics across languages and historical eras. http://poetry.northwestern.edu

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Latina and Latino Studies Program at Northwestern University engages in teaching, research, and service activities that represent current production of knowlege about Latina/o communities in the United States. It aims at building bridges with the diverse departments that are collectively working toward ameliorating social and political inequalities of Latino Chicago by holding public events in the pertinent communities. It ultimately seeks to embrace heterogeneous identities, socioeconomic status, racial, national, and generational differences, among others. http://www.latinostudies.northwestern.edu

 

 

 

 

 

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Northwestern University blends a community of scholars, whose strong research interests range across Spanish, Latin American and Latino literatures and cultures, and a community of instructors, who are dedicated to teaching a strong culture-based language program. Our faculty offers a rich array of courses in Spanish, Portuguese, and English and serves not only Weinberg College but all Northwestern’s schools. http://www.spanish-portuguese.northwestern.edu/

 

The Center for the Writing Arts at Northwestern sponsors undergraduate creative writing and literary courses, brings distinguished visiting writers to campus, presents and co-sponsors university-wide public events focused on writing, advocates for the centrality of writing in undergraduate education, and assists the MA/MFA in Creative Writing. http://www.northwestern.edu/writing-arts