Palabra Pura: “Spanish Harlem”

Exploring Afro-Latino poetry – curated by Marta Collazo and featuring Jeanette.

Curator

Marta Collazo is a Puerto Rican woman born and raised in Lorain, Ohio. She has lived in the Chicago area for the last fourty years. Collazo studied Communications and Literature at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a social activist, a mother, an educator, an athlete, and a poet. She has performed her poetry at several venues throughout Chicago. She was included in the anthology Between the Heart and the Land / Entre el corazón y la tierra: Latina Poets in the Midwest published by MARCH/Abrazo Press in 2001.

Featured Poet

Jeanette,  born and raised in Humboldt Park , currently serves the Humboldt Park community professionally as a therapist/clinician for both the Association House of Chicago as well as C4. As a clinician Just Jeanette is engaged in her life’s purpose working with individuals and families in crisis. Jeanette attended Malcolm X College for her Associates in Social Science, Northeastern University for her Bachelor’s in Social Work and graduated from Dominican University with a Master’s in Social Work but is most proud of her graduation from The Family Learning Program @ The Puerto-Rican Cultural Center where she obtained her High School Diploma at the age of twenty six and learned to embrace her heritage, her people, and her voice. Jeanette was a member of The National Committee for the Release of The Puerto Rican Prisoners of War (Que Viva Puerto Rico Libre!) and is forever grateful for that experience and privilege. Jeanette’s written work mirror’s her professional work in that its intention is to provoke movement through self acceptance and self-empowerment. Jeanette is currently working on a series of children’s books designed to encourage the understanding of the beauty and importance of diversity and self love. Jeanette is also beginning the collection of works of young women of color in this and other communities in the hopes of compiling an Anthology that speaks to their diverse and similar experiences, dreams, and tears. Jeanette is the proud mother of four boys ages 22, 16,12, and 6 and the stepmother of a beautifully unique 23 year old daughter all of whom challenge her regularly to avoid settling… at all costs.

Tresalyn Bray is a full-time mother of five, writer, and graduate student at Chicago State University in the MFA Creative Writing program. She has been writing for over twenty years in a variety of genres, including but not limited to short stories, flash fiction, historical fiction, non-fiction, poetry, theater, and spoken word. She has performed with Performers or Writers for Women On Women’s issues (POWWOW) Performance Ensemble in the staged reading of Eve Ensler’s Any One of Us. Tresalyn has a passion for using both written and spoken word to give voice to those who cannot speak for themselves.