Poetry Connection: Latino Poetry Celebrations

National Hispanic Heritage Month continues with the festivities spread out over September and October. In conjunction with the heritage celebration is a national grant to promote a new book: Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home, an anthology from the Library of America. The Santa Barbara Public Library has at least three copies of the anthology. Some of the themes in it include: Ancestry & Identity, Voice & Resistance, Language, First & Second Homes, Family & Community, Music & Performance, Labor, and Eco-consciousness. The anthology, along with the grants offered for promoting the Latino Poetry anthology, has drummed up some exciting events that I hope will continue in years to come. Both Santa Barbara City College and the Santa Barbara Public Library have future programming associated with the Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home anthology.

Last month, I offered an hour-long poetry and music set for Palabras Vitales: Latiné Poetry Series at Santa Barbara City College. This was a kickoff series for the college’s participation in promoting the anthology and the grants celebrating Latino poetry. Since the themes include Voice & Resistance, Home, and Music, I decided to include poems about my own childhood home, especially those that feature my grandmother, as well as poems about children displaced at the border, who do not have a home. Since some of the poems have companion songs, I played a few of the songs on my guitar. I have really enjoyed sharing my poetry and music as part of my laureateship. Sometimes, I am graced with your poems. I am happy to receive poems from community members both in person and through email. Even if they are not published in this column, I read every poem I receive.

Another event that was part of the anthology program was a community open mic that I hosted along with the Santa Barbara Public Library and La Casa de la Raza. On September 26, community members were invited to read a poem that speaks to and from our Latino Community, as part of National Hispanic Heritage Month and the Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home Anthology. I asked Sofia De La Cruz to read her poems twice because her parents came in late. I think it’s important for young people to be supported by their parents, and everyone enjoyed hearing her powerful poems for a second time.

If you missed the opening events for Places We Call Home, you can join the hybrid event on Zoom. Leticia Hernandez has put together two days of programming in association with the anthology. Wednesday, October 9, 12:30-3 p.m. on Zoom and at San Francisco State University, featuring Claudia Castro Luna, MK Chavez, and Alexandra Lytton-Regalado. Thursday, October 10, the series continues at San Francisco’s Medicine for Nightmares Bookstore, 3036 24th Street at 7 p.m. and on Zoom, thanks to the San Francisco Public Library, Library of America, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Poets Leticia Hernandez, Melinda Palacio (me), Claudia Castro Luna, Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta, and Yenia Jimenez will discuss themes of home, eco-consciousness, and gentrification through their poetry. Here is the Zoom link to join the reading: sfsu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_CLv_NB2ISYCcYaMur28Fdw#/registration.

Writing Prompt:

The theme of Places We Call Home is universal. For this week’s poetry connection, I invite you to send in a poem that reflects your home to poetry@independent.com.

Upcoming Poetry Events:

October 13: The Poetry Zone, Open Mic, Karpeles Manuscript Library (21 W. Anapamu St.), patio, 1:30 p.m.

October 19: Writing in the Galleries with poet Luna Vallejo-Howard, Santa Barbara Museum of Art (1130 State St.), 2-3:30 p.m.

October 20: Santa Barbara Poetry Series, Mariano Zaro, Christine Penko, and BD Salvas, Santa Barbara Public Library (40 E. Anapamu St.), 2 p.m.

November 13: Blue Whale Series, Enid Osborn and Emma Trelles, Unity of Santa Barbara Chapel (227 E. Arrellaga St.), 5:30 p.m.