Arts & Culture
SA's first poet laureate Carmen Tafolla on literature, literacy, and the music of bus stops
Courtesy photo
SA Poet Laureate Carmen Tafolla
Published: April 4, 2012
I see San Antonio absolutely brimming over with poetic and literary talent. Some of it is in the expected places, like in its published poets, university writing programs, journals, its independent publishers, its poetry groups and poetry readings like the Sun Poet's, its writer's workshops like Macondo and Canto Mundo. But I also see it in some very unexpected and unrecognized places, like in the words of songs that are written by people who think they have no real connection to formal literature. I see it in the rich and colorful turns of phrase, anecdotes that people tell at the bus stop, on our city's streets, in the jokes created by very eloquent but perhaps not formally educated young kids and everyday people. I think that we have a lot of talent, and that we also have a lot of raw talent, and it's undeveloped. If we allow it to continue to go undeveloped we're losing one of our greatest resources in this city. •
Palabra Punch
Free
4pm Sat, April 7
Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center
1300 Guadalupe
(210) 271-3151
guadalupeculturalarts.org
> Email Veronica Salinas
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