To write or pay rent?

Stephanie Elizondo Griest, the author of Mexican Enough, Around the Bloc and 100 Places every woman should go talks to us about writing and travel and the creative ways she has managed to finance her writing. Below is a two part interview and a segment from a reading of Mexican Enough.

Part I: Interview with Stephanie Elizondo Griest, 8:12



Part II: Interview with Stephanie Elizondo Griest, 6:04



Part III: Reading from Mexican Enough, 7:41


*This interview first aired on Proyecto Latina Radio on Radio Arte, 02/08/09.

La Mocosas Gritan

La Mocasas Gritan was the name of a panel that included former participants of Sandra Cisnero's Macondo workshop in San Antonio. I was thrilled when I saw this panel listed in the AWP program book. Making my way through the throngs of conference attendees I began to think of how fortunate I was to be able to attend the conference with the support of of Dra.Cardenas (mil gracias).

When I get to the room it is already packed and I grab a seat in the back. Looking at the audience I'm excited to see so many Latinos. I try not to look at the carpeting or the wall paper in this room because it gives me anxiety.

I peek at the women on the panel that include: Lorraine Lopez, Gabriela Jaurequi, Angie Chau, Daisy Hernandez, Erin Badhand and Laura Negrete.

The panel begins and they all begin to read their work. I felt so proud to be listening to the works of these writers. Their work all varied and I walked away feeling inspired by their creativity.

The moderator mentioned that the Macondo workshop is now has open applications and the deadline is in April.

The Macondo Foundation works with dedicated and compassionate writers who view their work and talents as part of a larger task of community-building and non-violent social change. Macondo is a community of poets, novelists, journalists, performance artists, and creative writers of all genres whose work is socially-engaged. What unites us is a commitment to serve our under-served communities through our writing.

Officially incorporated in 2006, the Macondo Foundation has its roots in the Macondo Writing Workshop (named after the sleepy town in Gabriel García Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude), which began in 1995 in the kitchen of poet and writer Sandra Cisneros. The Workshop rapidly grew from 15 to more than 120 participants in less than nine years. During that time, the Macondo Workshop expanded its community involvement through annual events with the Our Lady of the Lake University, UT-San Antonio, Trinity University, Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, Jump-Start Performance Theatre, Casa de Maria y Marta and the Bexar County Juvenile Detention Center. Macondo currently makes its home at Our Lady of the Lake University.

Malinche's Daughter Comes To Chicago

Proyecto Latina: Reading series & open mic

Monday, February 16th @ 7 p.m.

Michelle Otero arrives from New Mexico to feature at the next evening of Proyecto Latina. We are honored to have her and hope you will join us to discover the power of her work.

Proyecto Latina: Reading Series & Open Mic Monday, February 16th, 2009 @ 7 p.m. Featuring: Michelle Otero author of Malinche's Daughter PROYECTO LATINA TAKES PLACE THE THIRD MONDAY OF EVERY MONTH Proyecto Latina is held at Radio Arte, 1401 W. 18th Street, Chicago, IL on the corner of 18th and Blue Island.

Michelle Otero is the author of Malinche's Daughter (Momotombo Press, 2006), an essay collection based on her work with women survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in Oaxaca, Mexico. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Artful Dodge, Puerto del Sol, Upstreet, Brevity, Great River Review, and Metamorfósis, a Spanish-language anthology published by the National Hispanic Cultural Center. Her awards include a Fulbright Fellowship, an Association of Writing Programs Intro Journal Award, and fellowships from the Anderson Center, the McCune Foundation and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. Otero is a founding member of The Women Writers' Collective, an El Paso-based group that showcases the talents of women writers and artists while raising awareness of women's issues. In Albuquerque, she performs with Las Meganenas, a repertory theatre troupe that uses performance to raise awareness of issues facing Latinas. She holds a B.A. in History from Harvard University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Vermont College.

Read more about Malinche's Daughter, including an interview with Michelle Otero at our Momotombo Store.

Proyecto Latina is a collaboration between Tianguis Books, Teatro Luna and Mariposatomica Ink.

Latino Writers @ AWP Conference

Tianguis / Proyecto Latina's very own Irasema Gonzalez will be on the move this February doing the magic at this year's AWP conference held in Chicago. We hope you will come out and support some of these events. You can register for the conference at http://www.awpwriter.org

Thursday, February 12, 2009 @ 1:30 p.m.

Building, Breaking, Rebuilding: Six Chicago Literary Landscapers (Ellen Placey Wadey, Erin Teegarden, Krista Franklin, Joel Craig, Jennifer Karmin, Irasema Gonzalez) We are the bold sluggers who run Chicago's independent reading series. Set vividly against the established grid, we build literary communities in neighborhoods from the ground up. How are we thriving in the face of our challenges? Less like a panel and more like a virtual show-and-tell, organizers from a diverse group of popular, D-I-Y reading serieses discuss building, breaking from, and rebuilding Chicago's literary landscape.

Thursday, February 12, 2009 @ 6 p.m.
Con Tinta Celebration
An evening to celebrate the Chicano/Latino literary community. This year's Con Tinta Award recipient is Carlos Cortez, artist, poet, printmaker, photographer, songwriter and lifelong political activist. Special recognition will also be made to Patti Hartmann, editor of Camino del Sol Series at the University of Arizona Press. Literary tributes to Carlos Cortez will be made by Carlos Cumpian, Lisa Alvarado, and Ray Gonzalez. Held at COCO Restaurant, 2723 W. Divison, Chicago, IL. Free. Open buffet and cash bar.

Friday, February 13, 2009, 6 to 7:30 p.m.
Palabra Pura, Special Edition: One Poem Festival
Following up on the multi-voiced reading hosted by ACENTOS in NYC last year during AWP, the Guild Complex, Letras Latinas, and Poetry Magazine will be hosting a "One Poem Festival" featuring an ample roster of Latino and Latina poets from Chicago and out of town, including: Lisa Alvarado, Carlos Cumpian, Silvia Curbelo, Gina Franco, Gabe Gomez, Irasema Gonzalez, Maurice Kilwein Guevara, Gabriela Jauregui, Olivia Maciel, Carl Marcum, Valerie Martínez, Orlando Ricardo Menes, Achy Obejas, Daniel A. Olivas, Johanny Vasquez Paz, Paul Martinez Pompa, Linda Rodríguez, Jacob Saenz, Jorge Sánchez, Juan Manuel Sanchez Rich Villar. Held at Jazz Showcase, 47 W. Polk St. Chicago, IL.

Proyecto Latina - 2009

Proyecto Latina enters its 4th year!

Monday, January 19, 2008 @ 7 p.m.

We invite you to join us for the first Proyecto Latina of 2009, we are celebrating with cake and wine and kicking off our fourth year with our featured poet Yolanda Cardenas.

In a city known as a mecca of arctic cold, bizarre weather and medicine, a modern day Dr. Zhivago emerges. While Dra. Yolanda Cardenas completed her family medicine training, this Chicago native also honed her writing. Although there's no Russian revolution in her future, she's primed for social change and a medical revolution. Read full bio.

Proyecto Latina is held @ Radio Arte, 1401 W. 18th Street
on the corner of 18th and Blue Island.

January 2010 - PROYECTO LATINA

Proyecto Latina is thrilled to announce the first Latina to kick off our reading series in January! Stephanie Diaz Reppen will be reading an excerpt from her novel-in-progress You Can't Call The Indians Maria Anymore. She will also be premiering a new Bunraku-based puppetry piece called Dichos as well as bringing along the book her mother made me when she was little- The Seven Little Goats-- for people to look at.

Save The Date & Spread The Word!

Monday, January 18 @ 7PM - FREE
Cedahlia's 1010 -12 S Western
Chicago, IL 60608 (312) 733-0885
Street Parking Available
http://www.transitchicago.com
http://www.mapquest.com

Stephanie Diaz Reppen is delighted to share her own stories with Proyecto Latina, as she has been busy for the past 20 years telling others' stories in her career as an actress. As such, she has performed at theatres big and small in California, Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis, Kansas City and Milwaukee, and has also enjoyed a career as a voice-over artist, lending her voice to audio books, video games, commercial spots-- at one time, she was the Spanish voice of the Puget Sound Light Rail system (and may still be, for all she knows)! She is also a puppeteer specializing in the Bun Raku style, and most recently performed with Blair Thomas and Company in Millennium Park.

However, Stephanie's first love has always been writing, and she comes by the predilection honestly-- on display at Proyecto Latina, you will find a hand-bound book created for her by her mother, illustrations and all. She is currently at work on a novel, "You Can't Call The Indians Maria Anymore", based on 3 generations of mujeres in Guatemala and the U.S. spanning over 50 years. She is a member of Teatro Luna's Playlab workshop and is developing a play called "Boogey Women," featuring La Llorona, La Siguanaba, and Bloody Mary. She is also currently exploring the duality of her identity as an first-generation Guatemalan-American through personal essay and character sketches of her Gringo and Latino familia.

She is inspired and intrigued by courage and cowardice, strength and weakness, beauty and ugliness, joy and despair, and all things shiny and colorful. She looks forward to adding her voice to the canon of Latina writers in 2010.

We also want to thank Jesse Iniquez for generously donating his space. Mil Gracias!