Angel Dominguez and Hannah Kezema: October 14, 2021

Hannah Kezema in the course of her reading reflects on how her writing practice allowed her to deal with the experiences she's had in the workplace, as an insurance claims investigator. She reads poems from the manuscript of her forthcoming book Case Files: “Find the Fraud,” “Reports from a Room,” “The Factory Worker,” “The Carpenter,” “Find the Fraud,” “Anonymous,” “Harriet the Spy,” “The Roofer,” “The Airport Waiter,” “Building Rapport,” “Find the Fraud,” “The Property Manager,” “Auto- Interview,” “Evidence,” “The Insurance Worker,” “Off the Record,” “Safety,” “Auto Interview,” and “The Questions.” 

Angel Dominguez reads the opening section of Black Lavender Milk, then passages from RoseSunWater, and finally from their forthcoming book, DESGRACIADO (The Collected Letters). They explain the origin of this book as, at its inception, a chapbook of “love letters to my worst enemy,” Diego de Landa, whose role in the Spanish Inquisition in the 16th century led to the destruction of Mayan people and their codices. 

Dominguez and Kezema respond to questions from the audience. Kezema talks about how writing poetry helped her recover a sense of humanity during difficult times at work in the midst of the global pandemic. Dominguez is asked about their beginnings in poetry and their connection to the city of Van Nuys, CA, and describes being inspired by writing projects to consider “the responsibility we have of documenting undocumented histories.” They discuss the significance of the Spanish text being left untranslated in Dominguez’s works, aspects of “giving voice to the voiceless,” documenting precarious cultures in the face of gentrification, their practice regarding performance and rehearsal, “investigative poetics” as taught at Naropa University, and use of the term “Latinx” as regards Spanish-speaking people.