June Jordan's Poetry for the People
Aya de Leon, Francisco X. Alarcon, Aimee Suzara, Rico Pabon
Thursday April 17, 2008
$15 gen. $7 students, youth, disabled, seniors - 7:30pm
Third Thursdays in South Berkeley. A multi-generational conversation in words & music hosted by P4P Director Aya de León. Poet Francisco X. Alarcon (Snake Poems: An Aztec Invocation, De amor oscuro/Of Dark Love), Poet Aimee Suzara, and Emcee Rico Pabon.
For more information on Poetry for the People click here.
Francisco X. Alarcón
Francisco X. Alarcón, award-winning Chicano poet and educator, is the author of ten volumes of poetry, including, From the Other Side of Night / Del otro lado de la noche: New and Selected Poems (University of Arizona Press 2002), Sonetos a la locura y otras penas / Sonnets to Madness and Other Misfortunes (Creative Arts Book Company 2001), Snake Poems: An Aztec Invocation (Chronicle Books 1992), De amor oscuro / Of Dark Love (Moving Parts Press 1991, and 2001).
Children’s Book Press of San Francisco will publish in May 2008 his new book of bilingual poetry for children titled Animal Poems of the Iguazú / Animalario del Iguazú. His previous bilingual book for children, Poems to Dream Together / Poemas para soñar juntos, (Lee & Low Books 2005) was awarded the 2006 Jane Addams Honor Book Award. He has also published four award-wining books about the seasons the years with Children Book Press. Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems / Jitomates risueños y otros poemas de primavera (1997) was awarded the 1997 Pura Belpré Honor Award by the American Library Association and the National Parenting Publications Gold Medal. He also received the 2000 Pura Belpré Honor Award for From the Bellybutton of the Moon and Other Summer Poems / Del ombligo de la luna y otros poemas de verano (1998), and the 2002 Pura Belpré Honor Award for Iguanas in the Snow and Other Winter Poems / Iguanas en la nieve y otros poemas de invierno (2001).
Francisco has been a recipient of the Danforth and Fulbright fellowships, and has been awarded several literary prizes, including the 1993 American Book Award, the 1993 Pen Oakland Josephine Miles Award, and the 1984 Chicano Literary Prize. In April 2002 he received the Fred Cody Lifetime Achievement Award from the Bay Area Book Reviewers Association (BABRA) in San Francisco. He was one of the three finalists nominated for the position of Poet Laureate of California three years ago.
He directs the Spanish for Native Speakers Program at the University of California, Davis, where he currently lives.
Francisco will signing books after the reading at La Peña, April 17th, 2008 7:30 pm
