ODES ALL AROUND
Celebrate National Poetry Month with one of these statewide events
Expect more than a handful of poetic bursts in New Mexico in April. That’s because April is National Poetry Month. There are two unofficial, though simultaneous, kickoff events at 6 p.m. Monday, April 1. One will be at Bookworks, 4022 Rio Grande Blvd. NW, in Albuquerque, and the other is at Collected Works, 202 Galisteo St. in Santa Fe.
At Bookworks, six poets whose works are in the recently published “Open-Hearted Horizon: An Albuquerque Poetry Anthology” will read.
They are Anna C. Martinez, who is the current Albuquerque Poet Laureate, past Albuquerque poet laureates Mary Oishi, Michelle Otero and Hakim Bellamy, wellknown Albuquerque poet/essayist V.B. Price and former Santa Fe Poet Laureate Valerie Martínez.
Martínez and Shelle VanEtten de Sánchez edited the anthology.
Sánchez, the city of Albuquerque’s arts and cultural director, will emcee the Bookworks event.
Sánchez said invitations were sent out for inclusion in the anthology informing poets that their poems had to be about Albuquerque, or inspired by Albuquerque, or that the poets had to have a connection to
Albuquerque.
“Everyone in the anthology has (lived) or does live here,” she said in a phone interview.
A famous former Albuquerque resident in the collection is Joy Harjo, the 23rd Poet United States Poet Laureate and the first Native American to have that honor. She is Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
“So it was pretty inclusive. … There are a lot of different voices in our city. We wanted to have a range of voices, of ages and experiences. I think we accomplished that,” Sánchez added.
Anthology co-editor Martínez said in a separate interview that the anthology emphasizes Albuquerque as a “vibrant, diverse community (where) poets often read together, collaborate, and in general, respect each other’s similarities and differences. Often, they are generous with each other, sharing readings, stages and events.”
That sense of sharing, she said, carried over to the collaborative approach the editors took in the anthology. The introduction, for example, is presented as a conversation between the two editors and there’s also what could be considered a literary innovation: The concluding work is a collaborative poem titled “Our Names are Water, Our Names are Mud.” It has a line taken from all the poems printed in the collection.
In his preface to the anthology, Mayor Tim Keller wrote this, “In the day of increased book banning and as fires of censorship burn on, books matter more than ever, and poets continue to act as a force for liberation.”
The city of Albuquerque and the University of New Mexico Press are co-publishers of the anthology.
The 6 p.m. Monday, April 1, poetry event at Collected Works in Santa Fe features Lauren Camp, the current New Mexico Poet Laureate, and the current Santa Fe Poet Laureate, Tommy Archuleta.
Camp believes the statewide community of poets is “varied, strong and communal in a variety of different ways. Poets come together in writing groups, in bookstores that support us and offering space for us to read, and at a variety of places to make sure poetry lives and grows.”
Camp said she’s been to about 12 smaller communities statewide to talk about the possibility of doing
an epic poem workshop. And she’s planning to visit more towns, including Raton, Los Alamos and Mountainair, to discuss the same subject.
“The fact that a month (April) is devoted to this is exciting. That’s the best way for people to connect. I’m excited that it’s a heightened time for poetry,” Camp said.
Archuleta said he will probably read from his award-winning fulllength poetry collection “Susto” and his chapbook “Fieldnotes.”
He said part of his job as Santa Fe’s poet laureate is to advocate for poetry in his hometown, “though there are poets all over the place here.”
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In Taos, the arts organization SOMOS will offer events throughout April in celebration of its 12th Annual Poetry Month Series:
At 5:30 p.m. Friday, April 5, poets Leslie Ullman and Dale Kushner will read from their writings. Ullman is professor emerita at the University of Texas at El Paso and remains a faculty member in the Vermont College of the Fine Arts. Kushner’s writings wrestle with the twin subjects of love and loss.
At 6 p.m. Saturday, April 6, writers from the SOMOS Young Writers Program will read from their poetry and prose. They are guided by Estelle Laure.
At 5:30 p.m. Friday, April 12,
SOMOS Writers Showcase poet Martin Espada gives an online Zoom-only reading from his collection “Floaters,” which won a National Book Award, and from some of his other books.
A Zoom link will be forwarded after registration at somostaos.org/ calendar.
At 9 a.m. Saturday, April 13, Espada will teach via Zoom a three-hour workshop exploring the many elements of contained in what is called “identity.”
At 5:30 p.m. Friday, April 19, four Dixon poets Judith Buffaloe, Robert Templeton, Cedar Koons and Tim Raphael read from their work.
At 4 p.m. Sunday, April 21, Santa Fe poets Katherine Seluja and Tina Carlson read from their poetry.
At 5:30 p.m. Friday, April 26, poets Veronica Golos, Will Barnes and Heidi Seaborn will read.
At 7 p.m. Saturday, April 27, Joshua Concha, an Indigenous multimedia artist and writer, and longtime tribal resident of Taos Pueblo, will present his rescheduled project “Taos Poetry in Motion” at the Harwood Museum, 238 Ledoux St.
Events are at the SOMOS Salon, 108 Civic Plaza Drive in Taos, unless otherwise noted.
All events are free except the Espada reading, which is $8 for SOMOS members, $10 nonmembers; and the Espada workshop, which is $75 SOMOS members, $85 nonmembers.