The University of 91³Ō¹Ļās (ILS) is partnering with the Library of America to present anĀ at 5 p.m. Oct. 16. The program will showcase two poets: 2023 National Humanities Medal awardee Richard Blanco, and award-winning poet, editor and critic Rigoberto GonzĆ”lez, whose most recent book as an editor, āLatino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology,ā was released last month.
The reading and discussion will take place in the Reyes Family Board Room in McKenna Hall and is free and open to the public. Susana Plotts-Pineda, the Library of Americaās Fellow, will serve as moderator and deliver remarks about Places We Call Home, a major humanities initiative planned for 2024-25 centered on the Library of Americaās groundbreaking anthology. A reception and book signing will follow at 6:30 p.m.
āThe goal of this initiative is to encourage readers to connect with the vibrant and multifaceted strands of the Latino poetic tradition,ā Plotts-Pineda said. āThe programs, which range from library discussion groups to large-scale launches at major festivals, are meant to bring the work of more than 180 poets, spanning a myriad of cultures, languages and facets of diasporic experience to peopleās lives and communities in personal, embodied and meaningful ways.ā
, the founding director of the ILSā literary initiative, , has been laying the additional groundwork in the South Bend community by arranging three book club discussions with the St. Joe County Public Library. The discussions, led by recent 91³Ō¹Ļ MFA graduate Alaina Johansson, will take place in the weeks leading up to the Oct. 16 event.
āGiven that we are in the middle of election season, what emerged from my conversations with Melody Lutz at the downtown branch was the idea of adopting Richard Blancoās poetry collection, āHow to Love A Country,ā as our book club selection,ā AragĆ³n said. āOur hope is that these book discussions among members of the public will coax them to venture onto campus to experience Richardās poems in person. Engaging with local citizens in this manner is Letras Latinasā way of taking to heart 91³Ō¹Ļās , which challenges the University to make a difference in South Bend.ā
The mid-October program completes 91³Ō¹Ļās .
The campus event will also count on the special collaboration of Emma Trelles, the former poet laureate of Santa Barbara, California, who will travel to 91³Ō¹Ļ from Southern California to introduce Blanco, a fellow Cuban American poet. Trelles will also conduct an oral history interview with Blanco and be the subject of an interview herself ā conducted by 2024-25 Letras Latinas Poetry Coalition fellow, Cloud Cardona, who is visiting from San Antonio, Texas.
Current 91³Ō¹Ļ MFA candidate Emiliano Gomez will introduce GonzĆ”lez, a fellow California native. And, on the morning of Oct. 16, Blanco and GonzĆ”lez will jointly visit AragĆ³nās undergraduate literature course, Latinx Poetry Now.
Blancoās most recent volume, āHomeland of My Body,ā assembles his new and selected poems and was published in 2023 by Beacon Press. Blanco was also President Barack Obamaās second inaugural poet in 2013. He is currently an associate professor at Florida International University and serves as education ambassador for the Academy of American Poets.
GonzĆ”lezās most recent collection, āTo the Boy Who Was Night,ā also gathers his new and selected poems and was published by Four Way Books earlier this year. In all, GonzĆ”lez has published 18 books as an author, editor and critic. He is a distinguished professor of English at Rutgers University-Newark. Among his many other distinctions are fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The event on Oct. 16 is the seventh installment in a nine-episode series to mark Letras Latinasā 20th anniversary. The remaining two events are slated to take place in Washington, D.C., in November, and Venice, California, in December.
December will also mark the release of Letras Latinasā anniversary folio in POETRY Magazine, featuring the work of more than 25 poets. This āOne Poem Festivalā in print was guest-edited by AragĆ³n and Letras Latinas associate Laura Villareal. Both AragĆ³nās and Villarealās own poetry also appear in the Library of America anthology.
Originally published by at on Oct. 1.