Blood, Family and Tears / Sangre, Familia y Lágrimas at Palabra Pura, Wednesday, June 19

Estoy sumamente emocionada de regresar a la tarima de Palabra Pura como curadora de la serie de poesía bilingüe, el miércoles, 19 de junio de 2013. Tuve la suerte de conseguir a dos magníficas poetas caribeñas que se presentarán por primera vez en Palabra Pura: Dinorah Cortés Vélez y Teresa Vázquez. Aquí les incluyo sus biografías y un poema para que las conozcan mejor. I hope to see you there!

Event:

 

Palabra Pura: “Blood, Family, and Tears / Sangre, Familia y Lágrimas"

Venue:

 

La Bruquena Restaurant 

Address:

2726 W. Division, 2nd floor

  

Start:

 

06/19/2013 7:30 PM

End:

06/19/2013 9:00 PM

Cost:

         FREE

 

Dinorah Cortés-Vélez is from Isabela, Puerto Rico. She has resided in Wisconsin since 1997. She is an Assistant Professor of Latin American literature at Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA. She earned her doctoral degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a dissertation on the ethical and political uses of humor in Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Her research interests include Colonial and contemporary Latin American literature. In 2011, she published her first novel, El arca de la memoria: una biomitografía, (The Chest of Memory: A Biomythography) with Isla Negra Publishers (San Juan, Puerto Rico). Her second book of fiction, Cuarentena y otras pejigueras menstruales (Quarantine and Other Menstrual Trifles) is about to be published.

Secuencia de Eva

En el Jardín del Edén

palidece la serpiente.

Siseante de ponzoñas,

a Eva dirige su inquina,

no porque a menos la tenga,

sino que, formidable rival,

más a Dios se le parece

en su poder gestar vida.

Dispensador de menstruos

y parturientos dolores,

Dios dizque pasa factura

a la imprudencia de Eva.

Pletórica de lunas,

sincronizada su hora

con el divino reloj:

en un tic tac reverbera

sapiencia del acto creador.

Sequence of Eve

In the Garden of Eden

the serpent turns pale.

Hissing poisons

it directs its spite at Eve,

not because it thinks less of her, 

but instead because, formidable rival,

she better resembles God

in her ability to gestate life.

God, dispenser of menses

and labor pangs,

makes Eve pay, so they say,

for her imprudence.

Bursting with moons,

her hour synchronized

with the divine clock,

the wisdom of the creative act

reverberates

in one tic toc.

by Dinorah Cortés-Vélez

Teresa Vazquez is an Assistant Professor and the Humanities Program Chair at Ivy Tech Community College Northeast in Fort Wayne. In 2000, she released a CD Chapbook of poetry and soundscapes entitled “A Woman Loving”, with funding from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.  Her work has also appeared in March Abrazo Press’s Between the Heart and the Land / Entre el corazón y la tierra, an anthology of Midwest Latina writers. Teresa has performed at the Printer’s Row Book Festival, the Guild Complex, the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Def Poetry Jam Showcase, the Green Mill, The HotHouse and N.A.M.E. Gallery in Chicago, and the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, TRIAAC’s Acoustic Spokenword Café and at IPFW in Fort Wayne.  She holds a Bachelor’s in Creative Writing from Oberlin College, and an MFA in Studio Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 

Skating

We could play one another

By ear

For months upended,

Disregarding seasons,

Ignorance, cloud

covered bodies

But we

we have an orgasm to settle

Gone froze further

Than all forgetting

How dare

this trifling poem

feign to be about skating

flawlessly,

essence of the glider, shape of water

Because we

we have come to convince

none but our fool selves

X-ray Spex outlines

Repeat after me, we

We       are not failing

This is the last

Possible moment, I

 I snatch this poem

Up against me, it offers

No resistance

No fears

About gliding

above fear,

Because this

This poem

IS

Sovereign, ready to die for bounty

Or bust

Past settling dis

Satisfaction

Resplendent

There, it is leaping!

And cracks quick splits

when it dashes ice.

 by Teresa Vázquez