Palabra Pura
Palabra Pura promotes literary expression in more than one tongue through a bilingual poetry reading featuring Chicano and Latino artists. With an aim to foster dialogue through literature in Chicago and beyond, these evenings pair local poets and visiting writers, and feature open mics to encourage the interaction of diverse voices, ideas, and aesthetics. The readings are generally held the third Wednesday of the month four times a year.
Palabra Pura se enfoca en la expresion literaria en varios idiomas a traves de una serie de lecturas bilingues con artistas Chicanos y Latinos. Nuestra meta es promover el dialogo a traves de la literatura en Chicago y mas alla. Con este fin, cado lectura combina un poeta local con uno invitado, ademas de un open mic para cultivar la interaccion de voces, ideas y esteticas diversas. Las lecturas se ofrecen el tercer miercoles del mes cuatro veces al año.
Upcoming Palabra Pura:
Palabra Pura: In conversation with Luis Rodriguez
Interviewed by Logan Lu
Included as part of the Lit & Luz Festival, in partnership with Make Magazine
This event is supported in part by Poets & Writers
When: October 14, 2020
7:00pm – 8:00pm
Where: Virtual: Register on Eventbrite
Luis J. Rodriguez has 16 award-winning books in poetry, children’s literature, fiction, nonfiction, and essays. He was a co-founder of the Guild Complex and founding editor of Tia Chucha Press in Chicago. For 40 years he’s been teaching, doing poetry, talks, or healing circles in prisons, jails, and juvenile lockups. He’s also spoken at festivals, conferences, libraries, bookstores, schools, college, universities, migrant camps, homeless shelters, and Native American reservations throughout the United States as well as Canada, Mexico, Central America, South America, Europe, and Japan. His writings have also appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, The Guardian, The Nation, Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, Grand Street, US News & World Report, and Huffington Post, among others. Since moving back to Los Angeles in 2000, he co-founded Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley. From 2014-2016, he served as the city’s official Poet Laureate. His last poetry book is “Borrowed Bones” from Curbstone Books/Northwestern University Press. His newest book is “From Our Land to Our Land: Essays, Journeys & Imaginings from a Native Xicanx Writer,” released in 2020 by Seven Stories Press, New York City.
Luis Tubens, a.k.a “Logan Lu,” was born in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood and raised in Logan Square. In 2014, he earned a B.A. in Communications, media and theater from Northeastern Illinois University. Luis has performed poetry across the United States including with the GUILD COMPLEX, Tia Chucha Press, and the National Museum of Mexican Art. He has toured Mexico City in 2016 and 2018 presenting his work at the acclaimed “Show Socrates MX” (2016) and the National Book Fair of Leon GTO (2018) and featured in Puerto Rico at “Poets Passage” and “Gathering of Cities” at Libros AC (2019). He was the 2017 Artists in Residence at Oak Park Public Library. He has also held workshops for the residents of the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center and students in the Chicago Public Schools. On stage, he has opened for notable acts including Saul Williams and Calle 13. He represented Chicago in the 2014 and 2018 National Poetry Slam. He is the author of Stone Eagle (2017) published by Bobbin Lace Press, Chicago. Currently, Luis is the resident poet for ESSO Funk (2016 Best New Band and Best International Music Act, Chicago Reader).
Earlier this summer:
Guild Complex and ContraTiempo Present:
Palabra Pura: Afro-Latina Voices
When: Wednesday, September 16, 2020
6:30 pm
Where: Livestream on Facebook
Reader Bios:
Tiffanie Clark
Born in Canton, Ohio in 1988, Tiffanie Clark is a writer, researcher, and professor of Latin American literature at the University of Ashland. In 2020, Dr. Clark authored Central Americans in Movement: A Diasporic Revival of Poesia Comprometida, one of the first comprehensive studies of diasporic poetry written by Central Americans in the United States. Her current research focus is expressions of diaspora in the contemporary poetry and autobiographies written by Central American and African American women. Her scholarly work has been published in Borderlines, Crónicas de una inquilina, Cincinnati Romance Review, and Reflexiones. Apart from research, she writes short stories, poems, blogs, and translations. So far, her work has been featured Inklings, Spring Street, Cincinnati Magazine, and The News Report.
Kianny N. Antigua
[República Dominicana ~ 1979] Escritora y traductora. Trabaja como profesora titular en Dartmouth College (New Hampshire, EE. UU.). Ha publicado trece libros de literatura infantil, cuatro de cuento, dos poemarios, una novela, una antología, una revista y un libro de microrrelatos. Ha ganado dieciséis premios literarios y sus textos aparecen en diversas antologías, libros de texto, revistas y otros medios. Algunos de sus relatos, además, han sido traducidos al italiano, al francés y al inglés.
Ilka Oliva Corado
Ilka Oliva Corado es escritora y poetisa. Nació en Comapa, Jutiapa, Guatemala, el 8 de agosto de 1979. Desde muy niña vendía helados en el mercado de Ciudad Peronia, en la periferia de la capital guatemalteca.
Se graduó de maestra de Educación Física para luego dedicarse al arbitraje profesional de fútbol. Hizo estudios de psicología en la Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, carrera interrumpida por su decisión de emigrar a Estados Unidos en 2003, travesía que realizó como indocumentada cruzando el desierto de Sonora en el estado de Arizona.
Es autora de quince libros, entre ellos Historia de una indocumentada travesía en el desierto Sonora-Arizona; (2014) traducido al francés, sueco, italiano y portugués, su primer poemario Luz de Faro (2016), y su más reciente publicación por Ilka Editorial, Norte (2019)
Click here for information about past Palabra Pura events from 2018 & 2019