Palabra Pura

Palabra Pura Special Event with Maria Luisa Arroyo & Roger Bonair-Agard


Wednesday, July 21, 2010
7:30 p.m.
Admission is free
Décima Musa, 1901 S. Loomis, Chicago


With this event, the Guild Complex will take a step toward enhancing the dialogue and awareness of work coming out of the Latino and African American poetry communities. Palabra Pura, Chicago’s monthly bi-lingual reading series, initiates Palabra Pura Special Events by inviting African American poets to share its stage.

Palabra Pura Special Events are the brainchild of Francisco Aragón, poet and Director of Letras Latinas at the Institute for Latino Studies at Notre Dame, and Quraysh Ali Lansana, poet and Director of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature & Creative Writing at Chicago State University. The vision is to have writers from these two communities come together to share their work and respond to each other’s work.

The first Palabra Pura Special Event will be Wednesday, July 21, with acclaimed Latina poet María Luisa Arroyo reading alongside noted African American poet Roger Bonair-Agard. This is the first time a non-Latino poet will be featured on the Palabra Pura stage. After the reading there will be a moderated conversation and audience Q&A.

A short Open Mic will begin the evening.


Born in Puerto Rico, bi-lingual poet and translator Maria Luisa Arroyo won a 2004 Massachusetts Cultural Council poetry grant. Her collection of poetry, Gathering Words: Recogiendo Palabras was published in 2008. A chapbook, Touching and Naming the Roots of this Tree, was published in 2007. Maria Luisa Arroyo writes for The Springfield Institute, blogs at Maria Luisa Arroyo's Blog, leads writing workshops, teaches GED courses.


Roger Bonair-Agard is a native of Trinidad and Tobago, a Cave Canem fellow and co-author of Burning Down the House. He is a two-time National Slam Champion and is co-founder of The louderARTS Project. Roger's work has been widely anthologized and commissioned and he has appeared on HBO's Def Poetry Jam and the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour. His publications include Tarnish and Masqueradepublished in 2000.