poesía y burritos
March 25, 2014

Poets and non-poets, shy people and extroverts were all invited to participate in a Spanish language poetry workshop during Spring 2014. Nineteen students joined together to read, write and critique poetry. Each week we read poems by notable Latin Americans such as Julia Esquivel (Guatemala), Juan Gelman (Argentina), Pablo Neruda (Chile), Claribel Alegría (Nicaragua) and Humberto Ak'abal (Guatemala). We had the privilege of a visit by the Colombian National Poetry prize winner, Carlos Satizábal where he guided us in a hands-on opportunity to write together while exploring and comparing the sources of poetic inspiration.

The core of the collective experience, though, was the development of our own writing practices, claiming poetic voices, making connections and finding poetry in expected places. This culminated in the first ever poesía y burritos on Tuesday March 25th at the McKeown Center on the SJU campus. We served vegetarian burritos (with all ingredients from the Minnesota Street Market) to a capacity crowd. Then we enjoyed an evening of poetry, laughter, sighs, cheers and more poetry.

Sponsored by the Department of Hispanic Studies and SJU Residential Life.

	voces múltiples * libertad * perspectiva * posibilidad Joe Balder Guillermo Blanco Erin Jones María López Who is a poet? ritmo * voz * luz Julianna Coil Miguel Hillhombre Jota Jota Roske What is the sound of a flame?
	lo cotidiano: concreto y abstracto Nate Engel LeRoy Forbes Alex Reid What is the texture of poetry?   la belleza en lugares inesperados Anna Klonowski Kaitlin Knapp Melissa Torgerson Where is poetry?
	ambigüedades intensas: sueños * vulnerabilidad * voz Jillian Andresen Haleigh Linn Amber Warner When does nonsense become clarity and illuminate the way?    transformaciones: ave * aguacate * luna Katherine Redmon Mariah Railsback Bridgette Springer How does poetry change you?
	Some student comments: "... fue una experiencia muy bonita el escuchar a los estudiantes recitar su poesía." -audience member "It was a fun opportunity to speak artistic Spanish in front of a medium sized bilingual audience." "Era evidente que todos los alumnos habían crecido como poetas desde el primer día del taller. La poesía es para todos, como demostró la audiencia." "... the event was unforgettable and a lot of fun." "beautiful, foreign" -audience member