 |
| Haymarket Books |
The
mezcla, or the remezcla, is where we are going to find our strength, our
vision, our power, and it’s in these pages where you’ll find the blueprint,
which is simultaneously frightening, magical, and real.
Welcome
to this somos mas moment.
–Willie Perdomo
LatiNEXT
The
BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4
Edited
by
Felicia Rose Chavez
Josè Olivarez
Willie
Perdomo
LatiNEXT
celebrates the embodied narratives of Latinidad.
A
BreakBeat Poets anthology that opposes silence and re-mixes the soundtrack of
the Latinx diaspora across diverse poetic traditions. Poets speak from an array
of nationalities, genders, sexualities, races, and writing styles, staking a
claim to our cultural and civic space. Like Hip-Hop, the book honors what was,
what is, and what’s next.
The
LatiNEXT anthology is broken up into sections of the Mexican loteria – La Muerte,
El Bandolon, El Mundo, La Bandera, and La Sirena.
Each
section is full of poetry by the Who’s Who of International Latino poets,
including Elizabeth Acevedo, Jaquira Diaz, Carlos Andres Gomez, fèi Hernandez, Antonio
Lopez, Jennifer Maritza McCauley, Jasminne Mendez, Lupe Mendez, Nancy Mercado, Mario
Josè Pagán Moralès, Reyes Ramirez, Julian Randall, Joseph Rios, Peggy Robles
Alvarado, Sofia Snow, Elisabet Velasquez, and Javier Zamora.
Vivid.
Powerful. Provocative. Disturbing. Enraging. Empowering. These poems will
resonate with readers. Some eyes will be opened. Some will cry. Some will rage.
Some will shout in solidarity. All will be moved. All will be happy to claim
the title of LatiNEXT.
Here are
some of my favorite lines:
i need
breath and un pastelon calientito
and representation
in the senate this is big stick mi
pana speak
softly
---Tonight’s
Blackout by Karl Iglesias
When we
first left
the bigots
cheered, it took them long enough.
Said,
this is our great nation again,
even as
it turned to ash beneath their greed.
And what
a sad world they were left
without our
spices, our sweet lotions and loud laughs,
our thick
bodies and poetry.
---Parable
of the Mustard Seed by Octavia Butler
i once
walked into
my
grandfather’s shadow
dug for Spanish
with a
stick of dynamite
felt it
explode
on my mother
tongue
i bruised
& he
called them flowers
i spoke English
& he
fed me more Spanish
---Where I Inherit My Silence by Karla
Cordero
am i
fucking up your language?
maybe i mean
to.
maybe i mean
to remind spanish that it’s as uncomfortable on my tongue
as english
french and latin before it.
maybe i
mean to remind U this is nobody’s country.
maybe i mean
to remind U that we haven’t heard the future yet,
maybe i do
mean to fuck up your language
---A
Letter from the X in Latinx by Wren Romero
Editors
Felicia
Rose Chavez is a native New Mexican with an MFA in creative nonfiction from the
University of Iowa. An award-winning educator, she is currently at work on THE
ANTI-RACIST WRITING WORKSHOP: HOW TO DECOLONIZE THE CREATIVE CLASSROOM,
forthcoming from Haymarket Books. Visit Felicia at www.feliciarosechavez.com.
Josè
Olivarez is the son of Mexican immigrants. His debut book of poems, CITIZEN
ILLEGAL, was a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Award, and won the 2018 Chicago
Review of Books Poetry Prize. Visit Josè at www.joseolivarez.com.
Willie
Perdomo is a Nuyorican from East Harlem. He is the author of THE CRAZY BUNCH;
THE ESSENTIAL HITS OF SHORTY BON BON, a finalist for the National Book Critics
Circle Award; SMOKING LOVELY, winner of the PEN Open Book Award; and WHERE A
NICKEL COSTS A DIME, a finalist for the Norma Farber First Book Award. Visit
Willie at www.willieperdomo.com.
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