ORGANIZER: Daniel Garcia Ordaz
CONTACT: wegotwords@hotmail.com OR poetmariachi@hotmail.com
Poetry Flash Mob: 100 Thousand Poets For Change (Global Event)
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Saturday, September 24 · 8:00pm – 10:00pm
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McAllen Creative Incubator
1001 S. 16th Street
McAllen, Texas
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The Rio Grande Valley will be one of the hosts and participants of the global event, “100 Thousand Poets For Change,” being held simultaneously on Sept. 24 in 650 cities and 95 countries as part of the largest poetry reading in history to promote environmental, social, and political change.
A “flash mob poetry reading” is planned for 8 to 10 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 24, at the McAllen Creative Incubator (1001 S. 16th St., McAllen, Texas.) Poets reading in the Valley will be focusing on local environmental issues and speaking against the proposed expansion of the Border Wall, which is cutting off access to ecotourism for the region as well as cutting off access to water for ocelots and other felines and other mammals, cactus wrens and other birds, such as chachalacas. For more information, contact Valley event coordinator Daniel García Ordaz at poetmariachi@hotmail.com. For information about 100ThousandPoetsForChange visit the site @ http://www.bigbridge.org/100thousandpoetsforchange/ |
A QUIEN CRUZÓ EL RÍO BRAVO Y NO VOLVIÓ
Venía ridícula el hambre
ridícula la sed
de cerveza
de ser alguien
venían estas ganas hirvientes de vaticinar el desastre
y reconstruirlo en fragmentos donde sólo cabe el miedo
El silencio fluyó / río abajo
venía ridículo el viento
mientras tú te inmiscuías en su corriente de boca
de profundidad traidora
Ridículo el deseo de dinero
de ser alguien
venían estas ganas insómnicas
por pasar al otro lado
y caminar como brújula
al norte sin torcer el cuello
sin sentir el vértigo de lluvia
que se traga a quien va tocando
Ridícula la compasión
a tus hijos que gemían
de ganas / ridícula el ansia
por pasar al otro lado
El cielo fue tu único techo
el río un murmullo de voces
que te rodeó de lamentos
mientras tu cuerpo se ahogaba
E ibas perdiendo la vida
ridículo el nerviosismo en aquél último instante
en que despertaste a la orilla de otro río de aguas mansas
un lugar sin fronteras
el confín de lo que vive
el principio de lo que no muere
perdido en el correr del agua
Control
Why is it that men work so hard to control
The Free
Freedom
The Soul
A chastity belt was locked in place
To control a woman’s freedom
The key was kept by him
From her
Have you ever seen these belts of metal
So cruel, harsh, demeaning deadly
Many women died from this torture
Yet still we have not learned
A huge metal chastity belt
Slowly encircles our Gaia, our land, our home
to control
The Free
Freedom
The Soul
So cruel, harsh, demeaning, deadly
Yet still we have not learned
Yet still we have not learned
(c) Kate McSwain, a reader at the Rio Grande Valley event of the inaugural 100TPC, held in McAllen, Texas!
[file]http://www.bigbridge.org/100thousandpoetsforchange/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/100ThousandPoets2011ElManana.pdf[/file]
This is a PDF of an article/newspaper coverage after the event held in the Rio Grande Valley of deep South Texas; aticle is from a Reynosa, Mexico, newspaper written by a reporter who is also a poet who participated in the event, Erika Said–pronounced (Saw-Eed). Article is at bottom right of PDF; photograph is of award-winning poet Katie Hoerth performing one of her pieces. Article title: Participan poetas en movimiento histórico.
The New Colossus
Though data demands that I exist
My mathematics do not compute
Programmed to divide
Instead I subtract
I keep the cats of prey encaged
I keep the flightless birds enraged
My skin, it shines,
since no one climbs
I give no life
I am ashamed
No songs I raise
No waters flow
I block the way
I seal the door
I find solace in the sighs of the wind
caressing my beaded seams
I find mercy in the beating sun
Tanning my hide, my dying dreams
I cry no peals of joy at church
Nor “slip the surly bonds of earth”
I sail no fair-wind open sea
I live to kill
In infamy
Not a bridge
Not a tower
Not a soul
Just a briar
I hide my lamp
Beside the golden door
Since those like you
Aren’t welcome anymore.
© Daniel García Ordaz, organizer of inaugural 100 Thousand Poets For Change, Rio Grande Valley
In America
(a found poem from an article about Jim Henson’s Muppets and Sesame Street)
technology has evolved
racist people have not
superimposed images on maps
they created of lands they did not
real people have also appeared
on this continent
a regular paradise
in the Land of the Gorch
with no puppeteer in sight
no papers
only their underwear and hopes—
the Electric Mayhem continues
© Daniel García Ordaz, organizer of inaugural 100 Thousand Poets For Change, Rio Grande Valley
empty lot next door
empty lot next door, I knock baseball cores out of worn
leather with a wooden bat, careful of camouflaged
art, eggs in a killdeer nest, precocial plovers
imitating their parents’ movements the next day,
tripping over
silverleaf nightshade, xeric upright plants
of dusty green-grey leaves supporting dry flowers–shriveled
bright purple petals framing strong yellow stamens.
I pick them because they’re pretty. thorns stick my thumb.
the plant smells light brown like the dirt around, hardly
any green. I slice moons into the berries, small and striped
like dwarf melons. My mom has told me not to eat them
and she was right. My native roots couldn’t warn me
these were only used for coagulating milk and tanning hides.
Killdeers, 2 inches tall, tumble down a curb,
fuzz smaller than the pebbles
where they stand in height like a man
compares to an 18-foot concrete levee, slash border wall.1
I trespass over the wooden gate behind the empty lot next door.
climbing over is more fun than climbing through
the large triangular gaps where my 9 year old body still fits.
tiptoe ‘round that fresh horse signature scent, approach my
true pot of gold after arching over the fence–
the magnificent brown horses.
powerful muscles, powerful hooves, beautiful even as they kick
my knee backwards and I
step back in surprise. Back when
flocks of lime green parrots in the RGV were also a surprise, I
admire the low mesquite tree, marvel
at the verdant branches’ squawking silhouette
of leaves, burgeoning seemingly overnight but not as quick
as the feathery foliage flew away, like today–
the low mesquite trees,
the magnificent horses,
the modest fence
are all gone,
but the parrots
and the silverleaf nightshade
have multiplied.
1 I refer to the concrete levee system and border wall on the United States side of the Rio Grande River in south Texas as Emmy Pérez did in her essay presented at the AWP conference in Washington D.C. on February 3, 2011.
(c) 2011 by Tiffany Cerese Anderson, participant of inaugural 100 Thousand Poets For Change, Rio Grande Valley
Readings for the first-ever 100 Thousand Poets For Change (www.100TPC.org)–a global event focused on social change–were held on Sept. 24, 2011 at over 700 events in 95 countries. This event set a world record as the largest poetry reading in history. In the coming days we’ll be uploading documents–such as photos, fliers, and poems–that will be archived by Stanford University, in recognition of significant Web-based events; i.e., Stanford archives important Web sites for posterity.
The Rio Grande Valley focused on environmental issues and protesting the proposed expansion to the Border Wall. We had a cozy crowd, but it allowed us to make new friendships, make new connections, and start conversations about future collaborations between artists, activists, organizers, teachers, and advocates.
Our readers included Katie Hoerth, Kate McSwain, Kamala Platt, Tiffany Anderson, Erika Said, Jose A. Cardenas, Rossy Lima, Monica Ramirez, and Daniel Garcia Ordaz–local event organizer.
We met at the McAllen Creative Incubator. The audienc also included Chris Pauley, a metal sculptor from Washington State now in the Valley, Rachel Udow, Kenton White, Lynn Brezosky, Gerald Padilla, Michael Gerleman, Sandra Cano, Cheli Sierra, and Alan Padilla, among others. Lady Mariposa was also with us, in spirit, along with several other poets who weren’t able to make it due to previous committments or other issues. We will definitely be back again next year!
Special thanks to Jamie Tabak and Sunfish Records for your support.
Michael Rothenberg, global event creator, has already decided to begin planning to make this an annual event. Join us!
Enseñanzas Ancestrales.
Vengo de tierras ancestrales
Mi cultura me proclama,
El Aztlan perdido y mitológico
Existe en mi corazón.
Vengo de tierras limpias,
Vengo de tierras espirituales,
Vengo de tierras cultivables
Que provienen desde el corazón
el problema fue “Nuestra Evolución”
Que daño nuestro Planeta GAIA
Olvidamos de donde provenimos
Adonde partiremos
Tenemos la enseñanza de nuestros ancestros
Que está en nuestros adentros
Cuando compartiremos esa enseñanza
A nuestros nietos
Como fue ensenada
A nuestros adeptos.
Nuestra tierra nos necesita
Nuestra tierra nos aclama
Nos pide por compasión
Para los nuestros
Despertemos,
Sin ser ineptos.
(c) 2011 by Monica Ramirez, participant of inaugural 100 Thousand Poets For Change, Rio Grande Valley
Sept. 21, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Rio Grande Valley will be one of the hosts and participants of the global event, “100 Thousand Poets For Change,” being held simultaneously on Sept. 24 in 350 cities and 70 countries as part of the largest poetry reading in history to promote environmental, social, and political change.
A “flash mob poetry reading” is planned for 8 to 10 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 24, at the McAllen Creative Incubator (1001 S. 16th St., McAllen, Texas.)
Poets reading in the Valley will be focusing on local environmental issues and speaking against the proposed expansion of the Border Wall, which is cutting off access to ecotourism for the region as well as cutting off access to water for ocelots and other felines and mammals, cactus wrens and other birds, such as chachalacas.
For more information, contact Valley event coordinator Daniel García Ordaz at poetmariachi@hotmail.com.
Flash Poetry Reading as part of 100 Thousand Poets For Change–an international event happening simultaneously across the globe. Rio Grande Valley event will be to protest Border Wall & focus on environmental issues in RGV via poetry on Saturday, Sept. 24 @ 8 p.m. Looking at Mission location. Let me know if y’all can make it. Contact Daniel Garcia Ordaz, the organizer for local event. Location ToBeAnnounced soon. REPOST!
Hit me up if you’d like to jump onboard in the Rio Grande Valley of deep South Texas!!!