Poetry is like a song, like a
psalm, like a prayer. Poetry is different things to many people, and April
being Poetry Month,
The Latina Book Club is
celebrating by featuring Latino poets all week long.
We welcome poet Orlando Ferrand
to our site.
I ask myself: is there a need for skin
when you wear your soul inside out
protected
by the celestial
skeleton
of an umbrella?
--From The
Fool of Bronx Park East
CHATTING WITH ORLANDO FERRAND
Q: Tell us about your first
award-winning collection of poetry, Citiwalker.
Is it about Cuba? the US? both?
ORLANDO: My first book and
the award-winning collection of poetry, Citywalker,
is my personal journey both geographically and psychologically in search of my
identity as a construct of choice. Because I consider myself a hyphenated
identity (Cuban-American), it's impossible to dig into my ethnic and cultural
roots without considering the other part of my heritage, the Cuban component
that has also shaped and informed my notion of identity. In that sense, Citywalker, which received the
Gold Medal by Readers' Favorite Book Review and Award Contest is as much about Cuba as it is about the U.S.
Q: You write poetry in Spanish and English.
Do you prefer one language over the other? is it the same process in both?
ORLANDO: Writing creatively in both languages, English and Spanish, is not as much a matter of choice as it is of necessity for my soul. I prefer to write in English because the process of reconstituting my sense of identity happened within the linguistic context of English-speaking cultures--England, Canada, Jamaica and the U.S. I am a Cuban of Jamaican and French heritage primarily. The Spanish heritage came to me via my mother's paternal side and in actuality, they weren't really Spanish; they were Sephardic Jews kicked out of anti-Semitic Spain who ended up in the Caribbean converting to Catholicism. I learned Spanish in my childhood years when I lived under the totalitarian regime in Cuba in the '70s. It took me years to be able to make peace with Spanish as a language and culture in order to feel that I had a voice in that language as a writer and that it was worth an effort to master it. The process of writing in a specific language is never the same because every language has its own specificities and mandates not only in terms of morphology and syntax but also in terms of how we position ourselves under their creative spell.
ORLANDO: Writing creatively in both languages, English and Spanish, is not as much a matter of choice as it is of necessity for my soul. I prefer to write in English because the process of reconstituting my sense of identity happened within the linguistic context of English-speaking cultures--England, Canada, Jamaica and the U.S. I am a Cuban of Jamaican and French heritage primarily. The Spanish heritage came to me via my mother's paternal side and in actuality, they weren't really Spanish; they were Sephardic Jews kicked out of anti-Semitic Spain who ended up in the Caribbean converting to Catholicism. I learned Spanish in my childhood years when I lived under the totalitarian regime in Cuba in the '70s. It took me years to be able to make peace with Spanish as a language and culture in order to feel that I had a voice in that language as a writer and that it was worth an effort to master it. The process of writing in a specific language is never the same because every language has its own specificities and mandates not only in terms of morphology and syntax but also in terms of how we position ourselves under their creative spell.
Q: What are your
favorite poems? who are your favorite poets?
ORLANDO: When I think of
poetry I think of absolute perfection in terms of embroidery of passion, form
and linguistic finesse. My favorite poets are the English Romantics
(particularly the Anglo-Scot Lord Byron), Alexander Pushkin, Ana Akhmatova, Marina
Tsvetaeva, José Lezama Lima, Jorge Luis Borges, Eliseo Diego, Fina García
Marruz, Belkis Cuza Malé, Heberto Padilla, Anne Sexton, Emily Dickinson, Sylvia
Plath, Maya Angelou, Barbara Louise Ungar, Gregory Pardlo, the poets of the
Harlem Renaissance, Edgar Allan Poe and the French Symbolists. My favorite
poems are:
a.) "Darkness," Lord Byron
b.) "Muerte de Narciso," José Lezama Lima
c.) "Song for the Old Ones," Maya Angelou
d.) "Escribiré," Belkis Cuza Malé
e.) "Dead Letters," Barbara Louise Ungar
Q: What are you working on now?
ORLANDO: I just finished a new, still unpublished collection of
poetry and I'm working on my 5th book right now. I've been also working on and
off on short plays, a collection of short stories and creative
non-fiction.
Q: Please share with us
your social media addresses.
ORLANDO: Find me at:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: ORLANDO FERRAND is
a Cuban-American award-winning poet, writer, and multidisciplinary artist. He
is a graduate of City College, Columbia University, and Parsons. A professional
member of PEN American Center, he’s been recently featured at TEDx with his
poetry recital and talk, Underneath the Accent of My Skin. Ferrand received the 2017 SU-CASA fellowship from the
New York Department of Cultural Affairs and BCA, the 2015 Artist in Community
Grant from NYSCA/BCA, and the BRIO Award for Excellence in Poetry from the
Bronx Council on the Arts in 2014. His memoir, Apologia: Cuban Childhood in My Backpack, received a 5-stars rating
by Readers’ Favorite in 2012, and was selected as the Book-of-the-Semester by
Hostos Community College, CUNY, in the spring of 2012. He is the author of
three poetry collections, a memoir, several plays, and has contributed to
various anthologies of poetry and creative non-fiction. He teaches creative
writing and fine arts at various colleges and universities in New York, and also
works as an editor, literary translator, production designer, script
supervisor, script analyst, and writer's coach.
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