In preparation for City of Austin's
Mexican American Cultural Center's grand opening September 15, 2007:
The Public is invited to a MEET and GREET Sneak Preview
honoring raulrsalinas.
AMORINDIO:
Tributo y Celebracion for raulrsalinas:
Join us to honor and celebrate the life of Austin's elder Xicanindio
poet/human rights activist.
2pm - 7pm Saturday, August 25, 2007
Mexican American Cultural Center
600 River Street, Austin, Tejas
$10 dollar suggested donation
A veterano of Chicano literature/letters, raulrsalinas' writing
and activism have earned him international recognition
as a spokesperson for a diversity of political causes, ranging
from prisoner rights and national liberation struggles to gang
intervention and youth arts advocacy.
raulrsalinas is the author of three collections of poetry: Un Trip
Thru the Mind Jail y Otras Excursions (Editorial Pocho-Che, 1980;
Arte Publico Press, 1999), East of the Freeway: Reflections de mi
pueblo (Red Salmon Press, 1995), and Indio Trails: A Xicano
Odyssey thru Indian Country (Wings Press, 2006). Recently,
UT Press published a selected collection of his prison wirtings,
raulrsalinas and the Jail Machine: My Weapon Is My Pen (edited
by Louis Mendoza, 2006).
The tribute will feature performances and presentations by
renowned Chicana/o and Latina/o writers and scholars:
Miguel Algarin (NYC), Sandra Cisneros (San Antonio), Carmen
Tafolla (San Antonio), Norma E. Cantu (San Antonio), Alejandro
Murguia (San Francisco), sharon bridgforth (Austin), Roberto
Vargas (San Antonio), Tammy Gomez (Fort Worth), Rosemary
Catacalos (San Antonio), Levi Romero (Albuquerque, NM), Tony
Spiller (NYC), Celeste Guzman Mendoza (Austin), Jessica
Torres (San Antonio).
Presenters on raulrsalinas' life include:
Antonia Castaneda (San Antonio), Roberto Maestas (Seattle,
WA), and Alan Eladio Gomez (Corpus Christi).
There will be an opening ceremony by Danzantes Concheros y
musica movimiento Chicano by Conjunto Aztlan.
The celebracion will also include a Silent Art Auction, curated
by Chicana artist Jane Madrigal, with over 30 pieces by artists
throughout the Southwest, and Food/Refreshments provided
by Alma de Mujer Catering Dept.
All proceeds will support Red Salmon Arts, a Native American/Chicana/o
based cultural arts organization with a history of
working within indigenous communities of Austin since 1983.
This event is sponsored by Red Salmon Arts, Alma de Mujer,
and UT Press. For more info: 512-416-8885/ [email protected].
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Bios for Performers:
Miguel Algarin (NYC) is the "poet laureate" of the Lower East
Side - and founder of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York
City, where he has nurtured the spoken and written word
for nearly three decades.
Sandra Cisneros (San Antonio) is an American novelist,
short-story writer, essayist, and poet, whose works helped
bring the perspective of Chicana women into the literary
mainstream.
Carmen Tafolla (San Antonio) is an internationally acclaimed
writer and regarded as one of the masters of poetic code-switching.
She often employs the bilingual idiom of her native San
Antonio's Westside in her poems.
Dagoberto Gilb (Austin) is the author of The Magic of Blood
(University of New Mexico Press), which won the 1994 PEN/Hemingway
Award, The Last Known Residence of Mickey Acuña, Woodcuts
of Women, and Gritos, which was a finalist for the National
Books Critics Circle Award.
Norma E. Cantu (San Antonio) currently serves as professor of
English at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She is the
author of the award-winning Canicula Snapshots of a Girlhood
en la Frontera, and co-editor of Chicana Traditions:
Continuity and Change.
Alejandro Murguia (San Francisco) is is a two-time winner of
the American Book Award, most recently (August, 2003) for This
War Called Love: NIne Stories, City Lights Books. His memoir
The Medicine of Memory: A Mexica Clan in California, University of
Texas Press, has been nominated for the Victor Turner
Prize in Ethnographic Writing.
sharon bridgforth (Austin) is the Lambda Award winning author
of the bull-jean stories (RedBone Press), and love conjure/blues
a performance/novel (RedBone Press). Bridgforth has broken
ground in the creation and presentation of the
performance/novel and in doing so has advanced the
articulation of the Jazz aesthetic as it lives in theatre.
Roberto Vargas (San Antonio) is a community/labor organizer
and author of two poetry collections: Primeros Cantos and
Nicaragua, yo te canto besos, balas y sueños libertad. He
was a founding member of The Pocho Che Collective, a loose
coalition of writers who published some of the first books of
the contemporary Latino literary renaissance taking place
in San Franisco.
Tammy Gomez (Fort Worth) is a native Texas writer and
performance poet, is featured in the PBS documentary
"Voices from Texas." She has published the work
of Yoniverse, a women's poetry group she founded, in the
anthology In a Loud Kitchen (Tejana Tongue Press, 1998); a
second anthology, North Texas Neruda
Love, published as Tejana Tongue Press, was released in
January 2006.
Levi Romero (Albuquerque, NM) is an Embudo Valley poet &
author of In the Gathering of Silence (West End Press).
Jessica Torres (San Antonio) is a youth filmmaker, activist,
visual artist, and singer/musician. Her short film, Los Punkeros,
Chicano punk rock movement with a twist of Conjunto, appeared
on San Anto TV, a TV Magazine produced by local
youth through the San Anto Cultural Arts Multi Media Institute
(SAMMI).
Bios for presenters:
Antonia Castaneda (San Antonio) is a Chicana feminist historian,
teaches in the Department of History at St. Mary's University. Her
research and teaching interests focus on gender, sexuality, and
women of color in California and the Borderlands from the
16th century to the present.
Roberto Maestas (Seattle, WA) is the co-founder and
Executive Director of El Centro de la Raza, a center for
Seattle's Latino Community. He has long been involved in
the ongoing struggle for civil rights in the city.
Alan Eladio Gomez (Corpus Christi) earned a Ph.D. in
History and an M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University
of Texas at Austin. A community organizer, scholar, and radio
journalist, Gómez studies post WWII social movements involving
multiracial and transnational alliances of U.S. Third World
peoples, prison rebellions, political theater, and Latin America
revolutionary movements.
Bio for Conjunto Aztlan:
Conjunto Aztlan (Austin) represents a spiritual and
musical journey expressed through poetry and song. The
Conjunto was born of the Xicano Movement in Austin, Texas,
in 1977. Their purpose is to celebrate, defend, and expand the
musical, cultural, and spiritual legacy of the Chicano people.
Official Website: http://www.resistenciabooks.com