Palabra Pura: Inner Landscape Queens

Please note this month’s Palabra Pura is taking place at a special location: the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center (4048 W Armitage Ave).

Three fearless and unique feminine voices with Chicago roots come together for an evening of poetic expressions. Inner and outside landscapes, light, sounds and ultimately, words transmit each artist’s expressions. Arica Hilton, former president of the Poetry Center of Chicago and current gallery owner, is a multi-media artist. Born in Turkey where she studied architecture her working philosophy now leads her to where “one form of art media melds into another.” Lah Tere, former member of rap group, Rebel Díaz, co-founder of Momma’s Hip Hop Kitchen: The Soup Kitchen for the Hip Hop Soul, is also the founder of Inner City Queens, an organization that provides provides a mobile safe healing space for victims from war torn and/or Third World countries through events and the arts. Curator for this evening’s event is Ana Castillo, whose long career has produced works that continuously defy women stereotypes.

“‘We write what we know, and this is what we do know,’ says Ana Castillo — novelist, essayist, poet, teacher, truth-teller, and, as she has come to be known, one of the first generation of highly visible Chicana writers. ‘They describe us as ‘Chicana writers, in search of their identities.’ We’re not looking for identities — we have this identity.”—The Huffington Post.

 All “mother” tongues are welcome! Arrive early to sign up for the open mic.

Palabra Pura is pay-what-you-can ($5 suggested donation). Audience contributions support honorariums for the curators and featured authors.

This event is supported by Poets & Writers, Inc.

ABOUT OUR FEATURED AUTHORS

Arica Hilton is a Chicago based multi-media artist and poet. Born in Turkey, many of her collaborations are with international artists. Much like the Luminists, the poetic art movement that captured light as it moved across the American Landscape, Hilton’s works are inspired by the European Romanticists, who depicted cool waterscapes reflecting nuanced skies. Hilton’s paintings and installations are intricately woven with her poetry and three-dimensional materials, which transports them to the present while still capturing a timeless quality that is ever present in her works. Hilton is co-owner of the Hilton/Asmus Contemporary Gallery. Until recently, she was the president of the board of the Poetry Center of Chicago. Her book LUMINISIM REVISITED will be released in May 2015.

Lah Tere is a writer, activist, emcee, and songstress. As a spoken word and hip-hop performer, she has produced various albums, including International Pearls of Wisdom (with Guerrilla Republik), and has appeared on a wide variety of compilations, including The Illest Female Rappers (Volume 8). From Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, she has performed around the United States and in Azua, Chile, Spain, Dominican Republic, Germany, Guatemala, Ireland, Palestine (West Bank), Venezuela, and elsewhere. Lah Tere is a co-founder of Momma’s Hip Hop Kitchen: The Soup Kitchen for the Hip Hop Soul (MHHK), a multifaceted hip hop event designed to showcase intergenerational women artists, especially women of color. MHHK serves as a social justice community-organizing platform that educates and empowers women of color on issues that impact their lives, including Health, HIV/AIDS and reproductive justice. She is also a founding member of the Rebel Diaz Arts Collective (RDAC), a multimedia arts and music community center in the South Bronx. www.lahtere.com

ABOUT OUR CURATOR

Ana Castillo is a celebrated poet, novelist, short story writer, essayist, editor, playwright, translator and independent scholar. Castillo was born and raised in Chicago. She has contributed to periodicals and on-line venues (Salon and Oxygen) and national magazines, includingMore and the Sunday New York Times. Castillo’s writings have been the subject of numerous scholarly investigations and publications. Among her award winning, best sellling titles: novels include So Far From God, The Guardians and Peel My Love like an Onion, among other poetry: I Ask the Impossible. Her novel, Sapogonia was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. She has been profiled and interviewed on National Public Radio and the History Channel and was a radio-essayist with NPR in Chicago. Ana Castillo is editor of La Tolteca, an arts and literary ‘zine dedicated to the advancement of a world without borders and censorship and on the advisory board of the new American Writers Museum in D.C. Castillo held the first Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Endowed Chair at DePaul University, The Martin Luther King, Jr Distinguished Visiting Scholar post at M.I.T. and was the Poet-in-Residence at Westminster College in Utah in 2012, among other teaching posts throughout her extensive career. Ana Castillo holds an M.A from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D., University of Bremen, Germany in American Studies and an honorary doctorate from Colby College. She received an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for her first novel, The Mixquiahuala Letters. Her other awards include a Carl Sandburg Award, a Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in fiction and poetry. She was also awarded a 1998 Sor Juana Achievement Award by the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in Chicago. Dr. Castillo’s So Far From God and Loverboys are two titles on the banned book list controversy with the TUSD in Arizona. 2013 Recipient of the American Studies Association Gloria Anzaldúa Prize to an independent scholar. Dr. Castillo will hold the Lund-Gil Endowed Chair at Dominican University (IL) in 2014. www.anacastillo.com

ABOUT THE SEGUNDO RUIZ BELVIS CULTURAL CENTER (SRBCC)

SRBCC realizes its mission to preserve and promote appreciation of the culture and arts of Puerto Rico and its African heritage, through innovative programing and cultural events for the community. Formerly the Karlov Theater, their current space was built in 1925 and includes five retail spaces, two apartments, and a theatre area. SRBCC currently completed the conversion of the former theater into a multipurpose space. www.srbcc.org