Javier O. Huerta, Lehua M. Taitano, Angela Narcisco Torres: April 21, 2016

Steve Dickison introduces the evening and its three readers, Javier O. Huerta, Lehua M. Taitano, and Angela Narciso Torres. Javier Huerta opens, remarking on creating new work with the Kuwentuhan artists and displaying a drawing of the U.S.-Mexico border zone he made in one of their sessions. He reads a guide for writing a corrido, then a new poem about visiting the Immigration Detention Center on Angel Island. He then reads his translations of two poems by Nicaraguan-American poet Leon Salvatierra, "Exit New York" and "Was Born the Day They Killed Somoza." He discusses Ken Gonzales-Day's art exhibition "Erased Lynchings" and reads a haiku sequence on the subject, titled "After," which he dedicates as an homenaje to recently deceased poet Francisco X. Alarcon.

Lehua Taitano polls the audience to choose what work she'll read, then proceeds to introduce and read a love poem titled "Sonoma," forthcoming as a chapbook from Drop Leaf Press. She then reads her short story "Makana," as presented for Narrative Witness: Indigenous Peoples, Australia-United States (The International Writing Program, University of Iowa).

Angela Narciso Torres remarks on the importance of naming, then reads from her book, Blood Orange (Aquarius Press, 2013), beginning with "Arateles." She remarks on her father, who worked in the medical field, and reads "Waiting For My Father at the University Hospital Lab." She reads "Thursday After Dinner at L'amie Donia," then reads "Relief Map," from manuscript, and "What I Learned This Week," published in Spoon River Poetry Review.