Arte Para La Gente: Adios Gonzalo

Chile is renown for being a land of great poets including Pablo Neruda, Gabriella Mistral and Nicanor Parra. Sadly, one of the country's top wordsmiths passed away earlier today.

Gonzalo Rojas died this morning at the age of 93 as the result of consequences from a stroke he suffered in February. “It was really a privilege for those who had the good fortune to know him”, Rojas’ son Gonzalo Rojas-May mentioned to a local radio station. “My father was a democrat against all the repressive systems of the world,” Rojas-May added in recognition of his dad who left Chile in exile for several years under the Pinochet regime. (Rojas would return in 1979 to live in central city of Chillan for most of his remaining years).

The Chilean government declared two days of mourning in commemoration of Rojas who received numerous honors for his work including the Cervantes Prize in 2003. “La miseria del hombre”, “Transtierro” and “Del ocio sagrado” were just some of the books of poetry created by Rojas who was especially prolific during the 1980s and 1990s.

The impact of Rojas’ work may’ve been best described by Cervantes Institute director Carmen Caffarel according to AFP:

“(He was) a vanguard poet who flirted with surrealism, a master of the written word and a prolific creator of works that earned him the highest literary recognition”, said Caffarel in a communiqué.

In the below video Rojas read “Asma es Amor” (“Asthma is Love”), a poem where he played with words to reveal his longing for a love lost:
http://youtu.be/1M0ldXv18a0

Rest in peace Gonzalo.

Video Source - YouTube
Online Sources- La Tercera, La Nacion, AFP, Europa Press

Arte para la gente: Peru’s prized poet

Yesterday Antonio Cisneros was announced as the winner of this year’s Pablo Neruda Ibero-American Poetry Prize, an honor chosen by the Chilean government in honor of the late Neruda. Cisneros is “a poet with notable influence over the younger generations” in the Americas according to a statement published by the awards jury.

Cisneros will receive a $30,000 prize from Chilean President Sebastian Pinera at a ceremony next month. Perhaps the biggest prize for Cisneros was the ideal timing of the award based on comments he made to the Peruvian press:

“I was driving my car after having gone to the doctor for a pneumonia vaccine and I was damning my luck for having reached such a senile age. Suddenly I received a call on my cell informing me of the award given by Chile’s Culture Ministry. That changed my mood very quickly.” – [ed. Translated text]

Below is Cisneros reading one of his more interesting works (to put it delicately) entitled “To make love”:

Online Sources- LAHT, RPP, YouTube, sify.com

Arte Para la Gente: Te quiero mama

Sunday is Mother's Day, a day in which we celebrate and honor all the madres and important female figures in our lives. Thus, we present a video of the poem "Si Dios fuera mujer" ("If God were a woman") by the Uruguayan wordsmith Mario Benedetti. Benedetti- who passed away last year- eloquently praised the virtues of a female God:

Online Sources - YouTube, New York Times

Arte Para la Gente: Peru's powerful poet

Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? Therefore please enjoy the following reading of "The Black Heralds", a brief but absolutely stirring poem by famed Peruvian wordsmith Cesar Vallejo:

Even though he only published three books of poetry in his lifetime Vallejo is critically recognized as one of Latin America's greatest poets along with the likes of Pablo Neruda and Alfonsina Storni.

Online Sources- YouTube, Wikipedia

Arte para la gente: Alfonsina Storni

In honor of International Women’s Day this past Monday we continue out look at women in the Americas with one of the region’s greatest poets.

Born in Switzerland and raised in Argentina, Alfonsina Storni was inspired by her own personal experiences to write poems on gender inequality, love, and death. Works like “Hombre pequeñito” (“Little Man”) and “Tú me quieres blanca” (“You Want Me Pure”) blasted male hypocrisy and the oppression of women, respectively. Storni has reached near mythical status in the over seven decades since her suicide and her work have influenced writers throughout the Americas.

“Voy a dormir” ("I'm going to sleep") was Storni’s last poem before she killed herself in 1937. It is, undoubtedly, one of her finest works:

Online Sources- YouTube, poesia-inter.net (translated), Wikipedia

A poem for America

One of the brightest spots in today’s Inauguration Day celebration was the poem recited by Elizabeth Alexander. Though her delivery was a little off, the poem itself spoke volumes in emphasizing the unity the U.S. needs in order to best move forward. It is the unsung heroes in Alexander’s poem that represent what this country is about, and it is through their efforts that this nation has grown and will hopefully continue to do so.

Praise song for the day.

Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others' eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.

A farmer considers the changing sky; A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."

We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, "I need to see what's on the other side; I know there's something better down the road."

We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign; The figuring it out at kitchen tables.

Some live by "Love thy neighbor as thy self."

Others by first do no harm, or take no more than you need.

What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.

Image- Baltimore Sun
Online Sources- New York Times

Event: "HOPE: Living and Loving with HIV in Jamaica"

Poet Kwame Dawes will read from several works inspired by his trips to Jamaica. His poetry came about as a result of his work with the Pulitzer Center’s HOPE project which looks at the impact of HIV/AIDS in Jamaica.

When:
Monday, September 22,
6 to 8 pm

Where:
Busboys and Poets
2021 14th Street NW
Washington, DC 20009
202-387-7638

Note: The event is free and open to the public.

The following video is based on the HOPE project and is a clip we featured last May:



Sources- The Latin Americanist, HOPE Project, Pulitzer Center, YouTube

Blind Guatemalan stuns Brit actress with poem

According to several gossip articles, British actress Siena Miller was taken aback by a poem handed to her by a blind Guatemalan man. Though none of the articles explain what she was doing in Guatemala at the time, they all affirm that she was awestruck when the man handed her a copy of the classic poem “Desiderata.” So much so that some of the poem’s lines have been allegedly engraved on an amulet the actress now wears.

The poem is eight stanzas long and includes the following lines:

“You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."

Sources- Times of India, DNA, conactmusic.com, Wikipedia, uiuc.edu

Image- noticias24.com (January 2007 photo of Sienna Miller)