Filipinx Latinx Poesía Event

Filipinx Latinx Poesía: Interrogating Language and History Through Verse

Join us for an immersive evening of poetry and reflection as we open a space to explore and celebrate the intersection of Filipinx and Latinx identities, histories, and languages. This event will highlight the richness of our shared experiences through the lens of Chicana/o/x, Flip/Pinay/Pinoy/Pinxy, and Nuyorican arts, literary traditions, and political movements.

Featured poets:

• Urayoán Noel is the author of eight poetry books, including Transversal (University of Arizona, 2021), named a Book of the Year by the New York Public Library. His critical work In Visible Movement: Nuyorican Poetry from the Sixties to Slam (University of Iowa, 2014) earned the LASA Latino Studies Book Award and MLA honorable mention. A renowned translator and Mellon Letras Boricuas fellow, Noel has performed internationally and teaches at NYU, where he serves as Director of Graduate Studies for the MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish.

• Michelle Peñaloza is the author of All The Words I Can Remember Are Poems, winner of the 2024 Lexi Rudnitsky Editor’s Choice Award, and Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire, which won the 2018 Hillary Gravendyk National Poetry Prize. A proud daughter of Filipino immigrants, Michelle’s work explores themes of identity and diaspora, and she currently resides in rural Northern California.

• ire’ne lara silva, 2023 Texas State Poet Laureate, is the author of five poetry collections, including furia and Blood Sugar Canto, as well as a short story collection, flesh to bone, which won the Premio Aztlán. ire’ne is a multi-award-winning poet and is the current Writer at Large for Texas Highways Magazine. Her next short story collection, the light of your body, will be published in 2025.

• Josiah Luis Alderete is a Spanglish-speaking Pocho and a key figure in the Bay Area’s spoken word scene for over two decades. He curates and hosts the Latinx reading series Speaking Axolotl and is the author of Baby Axolotls & Old Pochos and Fuchi Faces de los Estados Jodidos. In 2023, Josiah was the Poetry Center’s Mazza Writer in Residence at San Francisco State University.

• Jason Magabo Perez is the author of I ask about what falls away (Kaya Press, 2024) and This is for the mostless (WordTech Editions, 2017). His work has appeared in numerous publications, and he currently serves as San Diego’s Poet Laureate (2023-24) while teaching Ethnic Studies at Cal State San Marcos.

• Aimee Suzara is a Filipino-American poet, playwright, and performer whose work fosters dialogue and social change. Her book SOUVENIR was a Willa Award finalist, and her play THE REAL SAPPHO has been supported by major grants. Based in Oakland, Aimee teaches at San Francisco State University and College of San Mateo, and she continues to inspire through her poetic and theatrical contributions.

Hosted by Filipino American International Book Festival and YPSP.