Subtexts Poetry readings at Teatro Paraguas
Teatro Paraguas (3205 Calle Marie) celebrates National Poetry Month by highlighting local presses and local writers. The first event, a reading by two Cuban poets on Saturday, April 8, at 6 p.m., addresses what some writers see as a literary disconnect between U.S. and Cuban poetry with two books published by Santa Fe’s Red Mountain Press. Laura Ruiz Montes, the winner of Cuba’s National Critics’ Prize, reads from Diapositivas/ Transparencies, and Alfredo Zaldívar, who holds Cuba’s Honor of Distinction in National Culture, reads from Trillos/ Precipicios/Concurrencias — Pathways/Precipices/Spectators. Both were translated by Margaret Randall, the co-founder and co-editor of the 1960s-era bilingual literary journal El Corno Emplumado/The Plumed Horn. The readings are followed by conversations with the poets, both of whom are expected to share a candid and detailed picture of the current Cuban literary scene.
At 5 p.m. on Sunday, April 30, Debbi Brody, Kenneth Gurney, Vijali Hamilton, Kyle Laws, Jane Lipman, John Macker, Georgia Santa Maria, Basia Miller, Mary McGinnis, and RD Armstrong read from Lummox #5, a poetry anthology series edited by Armstrong that publishes “poets with game, not fame.” Armstrong, also known as Raindog, founded Lummox Press in 1995 and has published a wide range of chapbooks, poetry, essays, and short fiction collections. Though Lummox is located in Long Beach, California, several of the poets featured in the new anthology are from New Mexico — some of whom return to Teatro Paraguas at 6 p.m. on Sunday, May 7, for a reading honoring Malpais Review, a quarterly poetry journal based in Placitas, New Mexico, that is ending operations this spring. Additional readers are H.M. Aragon, Janet Eigner, Argos MacCallum, Karen Petersen, Jane Shoenfield, Debby Stehr, Judith Toler, Linda Whittenberg, and Gary Brower, editor of Malpais. All readings are free, with donations gratefully accepted. For more information, call 505-424-1601. — J.L.