October, 2015

FEATURED POET: JUAN FELIPE HERRERA- 2015 U.S. Poet Laureate
The son of migrant farm workers, Herrera was educated at UCLA and Stanford University, and he earned his MFA from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His numerous poetry collections include187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border: Undocuments 1971-2007,Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems(2008), and Border-Crosser with a Lamborghini Dream (1999). In addition to publishing more than a dozen collections of poetry, Herrera has written short stories, young adult novels, and children’s literature. In 2015 he was named U.S. poet laureate.
 
In 2012, Herrera was named California's poet laureate, and the U.S. poet laureate in 2015. He has won the Hungry Mind Award of Distinction, the Focal Award, two Latino Hall of Fame Poetry Awards, and a PEN West Poetry Award. His honors include the UC Berkeley Regent’s Fellowship as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Stanford Chicano Fellows. He has also received several grants from the California Arts Council.

He has taught at California State University-Fresno and at the University of California-Riverside. He lives in California. 

(Bio adapted from Poetry Foundation.  Poem used by permission from A Arreguín: Correspondencías)

JUAN FELIPE HERRERA- VIDEO

TASMANO

Tasmano

         tasmano

                 let me

                           hold you

                                     & let me

                           bury myself

                 into your seasonalsalmon skin

        ice disappearance

blackness lips

caballera máscaras cholula culebra gold spattered spiral breasts la

humbre michoacana

de las cumbres brujas ripping spirit flesh blue madness locuras dentro

greener yellowness tehuana tehuanasalt storms arms i bow to

your tejido king kodiak spirit in your sacred belly egg

man woman flayed scales fins gone lives

gone face destroyed turquoise

azar albedrío

love will

love unto infinity

WRITE YOUR POEMA

(VIDEO BELOW)

CORAZON- CARLOS SANTANA Y ESPOSA

This prompt will be short and sweet.  PBS and everybody loves to hear how nuestro maestro de poesia has been influenced by Ginsberg y Jackson Pollock.

Screw that.  Viva la Raza.  Escucha Carlos Santana.  Escucha nuestro maestro Juan Felipe Herrera.

Escribe su poema.  Baile.  Canta.  Viva la Raza. Si se puede.  Write your poem.  Dance. Sing.