Webcasts Home
Browse:
- Biography, History
- Culture, Performing Arts
- Education
- Government
- Poetry, Literature
- Religion
- Science, Technology
More Audio, Video Resources at the Library
TITLE: 450 Years of Spanish Poetry in the United States
SPEAKER: Tino Villanueva, Luis Alberto Ambroggio, Naomi Ayala, Maricel Mayor Marsan
EVENT DATE: 09/22/2006
RUNNING TIME: 88 minutes
DESCRIPTION:
The Hispanic Division and Argentinian-American poet Luis Alberto Ambroggio sponsored the celebration of "450 Years of Spanish Poetry Written in the United States." Poet and translator Moraima de Semprun Donahoe read poems by Odon Betanzos, who could not attend due to health reasons. Other readers included Chicano poet Tino Villanueva, Ambroggio, Puerto Rican poet Naomi Ayala and Cuba-American poet Maricel Mayor Marsan.
Speaker Biography: Born on December 11, 1941, in San Marcos, Texas, Tino Villanueva worked as a migrant worker, assembly-line worker and an army supply clerk. He is the founder of Imagine Publishers, Inc., and editor of "Imagine: International Chicano Poetry Journal." Author of the book length poem "Scene from the Movie GIANT" (Curbstone, 1993), Villanueva has published three other volumes of poetry, "Hay Otra Voz Poems," "Shaking Off the Dark" and "Chronicle of My Worst Years/ Cronica de mis anos peores." Villanueva won the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for "Scene from the Movie GIANT" in 1994. He teaches at Boston University.
Speaker Biography: Luis Alberto Ambroggio is the author of nine collections of poetry published in Argentina, Costa Rica, Spain and the United States. He was recently appointed to the Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Espanola (North American Academy of the Spanish Language). His poetry has also been selected for the Archives of Hispanic-American Literature of the Library of Congress.
Speaker Biography: Naomi Ayala makes her residence in Washington, D.C., where, until recently, she served as the coordinator for curriculum and instruction at the National Council of La Raza's Center for Community Educational Excellence and the program director for Celebra la Ciencia: The Hispanic Community Science Festivals Project of the Self Reliance Foundation and the Hispanic Radio Network. As a freelance writer and consultant, Ayala currently helps develop, edit and promote curricula and other educational materials - in both her native Spanish as well as English - for innovative education programs and national organizations. She runs professional development workshops for teachers, conducts specialized residencies in public and private schools (K-12), while presenting her poetry to diverse audiences around the U.S. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Teaching for Change, and serves as an advisor on its Teaching for Equity advisory board. Ayala is the author of one book of poetry, "Wild Animals on the Moon" (Curbstone, 1997), selected by the New York City Public Library as one of 1999's Books for the Teen Age. Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies around the U.S. and beyond - among them, Callaloo, The Village Voice, The Caribbean Writer, The Massachusetts Review, Red River and Potomac Reviews, Hanging Loose and Terra Incognita. Ayala is the recipient of the 2001 Larry Neal Writers Award for Poetry of the District of Columbia's Commission on the Arts and Humanities, received Special Congressional Recognition for Community Service from U.S. Congresswoman Rosa deLauro, the Connecticut Latinas in Leadership Award, the Trailblazer Arts Award and the 2000 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Legacy of Environmental Justice Award.
Speaker Biography: Maricel Mayor Marsan is a Cuban-American poet.