Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the ILS, has joined twenty-two other nonprofit poetry organizations from across the United States to form a Poetry Coalition, which will present programs on the theme “Because We Come From Everything: Poetry & Migration” throughout the month of March. The theme borrows a line from U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera’s poem, “Borderbus.”
Now, more than ever, these organizations believe that poetry has a positive role to play in our country. It is through reading, writing, and discussing poems that we learn about one another on our most human level, inspiring empathy, compassion, and greater understanding. Poetry Coalition members believe that by collaborating on programs, they will spotlight the art form’s unique ability to spark dialogue, create opportunities to engage in meaningful conversation, discover unexpected connections with each other, and inspire new readers.
Letras Latinas, in collaboration with fellow coalition members CantoMundo, Kundiman, the Poetry Foundation, and Split This Rock, as well as with Best American Poetry Blog and Notre Dame’s Creative Writing Program, will present five programs:
1. Letras Latinas has partnered with CantoMundo, a national organization that cultivates a community of Latina/o poets, to post, throughout the month of March, essays, creative nonfiction, micro-reviews, and a conversation between writers at Letras Latinas Blog.
2. Letras Latinas has partnered with Kundiman, a national organization promoting Asian American poets and writers, and Split This Rock, an organization of poets and social justice activists based in Washington, D.C., to present a reading featuring poets Wo Chan and José B. González on March 19 at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C.
3. Letras Latinas has partnered with the Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine and an independent literary organization based in Chicago, and Kundiman, to present a reading featuring poets Tarfia Faizullah, Hieu Minh Nguyen, Emmy Pérez, and José B. González on March 29, at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago.
4 Letras Latinas has partnered with Best American Poetry Blog to present, throughout the month of March, poems by Latina/o poets that engage with the theme of migration.
5. Letras Latinas has partnered with Notre Dame’s Creative Writing Program to hold a campus-wide event on March 30 that will feature students, faculty, staff and local community members sharing poems around the theme of migration and in support of Notre Dame’s DACA students.
For more information, please visit Letras Latinas Blog:
http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2017/02/march-2017-wecomefromeverthing.html