Celebration: Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home/Ars Topográfica

An exploration of 'home' through the lens of Central American poets, as part of the national humanities initiative, Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home, celebrating the rich legacy of Latino poetry across the country.

Leticia Hernández-Linares hosts and moderates this one of a kind poetry event featuring Claudia Castro Luna (Seattle, WA), Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta (San Francisco, CA), Melinda Palacio (Santa Barbara, CA)  and Yenia Jimenez (San Francisco, CA). This panel of Central American writers, representing multiple cities, will read from their work and engage in a discussion on themes such as first and second homes, eco-consciousness, gentrification, and what home means to them. 

Claudia Castro Luna is an Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate fellow (2019), WA State Poet Laureate (2018–2021) and Seattle’s inaugural Civic Poet (2015-2018). She is the author of Cipota Under the Moon (Tia Chucha Press, 2022) and Killing Marías (Two Sylvias Press, 2017) both shortlisted for the WA State Book Award in poetry (2023 and 2018 respectively). She is also the author of One River, A Thousand Voices (Chin Music Press, 2020) and the chapbook This City (Floating Bridge Press, 2016). Born in El Salvador, Castro Luna arrived in the United States in 1981. Living in English and Spanish, she writes and teaches in Seattle on unceded Duwamish lands. 

Claudia Castro Luna - Website | Claudia Castro Luna - Instagram

Leticia Hernández-Linares is an interdisciplinary, bilingual writer, artist and racial justice educator.  She is the author of Mucha Muchacha, Too Much Girl and Alejandria Fights Back! ¡La lucha de Alejandria!  An Assistant Professor in Latina, Latino Studies at San Francisco State University, she received the Community Appreciation Teyolía Award from the San Francisco Flor y Canto Poetry Festival in 2023.  She has lived, created, taught, performed and protested in the Mission District for thirty years. 

Leticia Hernández-Linares - Website | Leticia Hernández-Linares - Instagram

Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta (they/them/ellx) is a cuír anarquistx virgo Jewish Latinx artist, poet, café worker and sexual health educator from unceded Tongva lands, now living in unceded Yelamu Ramaytush Ohlone lands. Their first book, The Easy Body, was published by Timeless, Infinite Light in 2017; their second book, La Movida, is available now at SFPL.  

Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta - Instagram

Melinda Palacio is the City of Santa Barbara’s Poet Laureate. She is the author of the novel, Ocotillo Dreams (ASU Bilingual Press 2011). Her first full-length poetry collection, How Fire Is a Story, Waiting, (Tia Chucha Press 2012) was a finalist for the Milt Kessler Award, the Paterson Prize, and received First Prize in Poetry at the 2013 International Latino Book Awards. In 2015, her work was featured on the Academy of American Poets, Poem-a-Day Program. Melinda's latest poetry collection is Bird Forgiveness (3: A Taos Press 2018). She writes a poetry column for the Santa Barbara Independent. Poem-a-Day Program.

Melinda Palacio - Website | Melinda Palacio - Instagram

Yenia Jimenez is a mother, poet and educator who was born and raised on occupied Ohlone Ramaytush land. As a community advocate and self-published author, she has released two collections of poetry and prose. Her first book, Visualize What You Read, was published during the pandemic in 2020, followed by her second collection, An Ode to Resilience, in May 2024. Yenia is passionate about amplifying BIPOC stories, believing they are often overlooked and deserving of greater recognition. Through teaching writing workshops that emphasize the history of Jazz, Blues and their connection to the African Diaspora, she hopes to continue inspiring others, especially the youth.

Yenia Jimenez - Website | Yenia Jimenez - Instagram

English: 

This program is presented as part of Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home, a major public humanities initiative taking place across the nation in 2024 and 2025, directed by Library of America and funded with generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Emerson Collective.

Español:

Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home (Lugares que llamamos hogar) es una gran iniciativa pública en el campo de las humanidades, que se proyecta para el 2024 – 2025. Es dirigida por Library of América con el generoso apoyo del Fondo Nacional para las Humanidades y Emerson Collective.