Nuestra Palabra Turns 21

Nuestra Palabra Turns 21 and Transforms Houston & Latino art                        

Houston, Texas, February 22, 2019.  With two decades under its belt, Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say has made a significant impact on the city and its arts. Now, as the group celebrates its 21st anniversary, Nuestra Palabra is poised to take Latino Art and Literature to the next level and fuel a city a wide movement to make Houston the nation’s leader in delivering Latino Art and Culture.  Nuestra Palabra plans to accomplish this by helping the community take advantage of new technology to work more closely together. One example of this is the new website www.MANTECAHTX.com. This is the nation’s first online directory for Latinx artists ranging from visual artists to writers, to musicians and filmmakers. “We are cultural accelerators,” said writer, Tony Diaz, the founder and director of Nuestra Palabra. “We have worked to cultivate our community’s voice through literature. We are now collaborating with other art forms through technology to multiply our efforts and reach more of our community. Houston will be seen as the nation’s leader for supporting and delivering our community’s art.” MANTECAHTX.Com is a collaboration with Houston Latina visual artists. It is made possible in part through a grant from City Initiatives. Nuestra Palabra is also the fiscal sponsor for Macondo Writers, the writers retreat founded by writer Sandra Cisneros over 20 years ago. Nuestra Palabra helped the group launch, maintain, and market its website. Over 100 applicants apply for the annual workshops which take place in San Antonio and are conducted by the leading Latino writers in the nation, take place annually in San Antonio. Nuestra Palabra will soon be making a major announcement with Texas A & M University San Antonio about The Macondo Writers Workshop. Nuestra Palabra’s 21st anniversary showcase will reflect all of these influences as well as the group’s dedication to literature and literacy. The literary celebration is funded in part through a grant from City Initiatives. It will take place Wednesday, April 3, 2019 from 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston’s Brown Auditorium. Admission is free. RSVP at www.NuestraPalabra.org. The evening will feature: The Godfather of Chicano Literature, Dagoberto Gilb who is the author of nine books, including The Magic of Blood, The Last Known Residence of Mickey Acuña, Woodcuts of Women, Gritos, The Flowers, and Before the End, After the Beginning. He is also the editor of two canonical anthologies, Hecho en Tejas: Texas Mexican Literature and Mexican American Literature, and the founding editor of Huizache, the country’s best Latino literary magazine Mari Carmen Ramirez is The MFAH Wortham Curator of Latin American Art. She will discuss the museum’s holdings of Mexican American and Latino art. Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garciawill make a special announcement on a new Latino Art Initiative. The evening will feature leading Latino writers, thinkers and leaders, as well as 3 Nuestra Palabra 2nd Generation Writers who began writing with Nuestra Palabra and are now nationally published authors. Poet Lupe Mendez will present his his new book “Why I Am Like Tequila”. Poet Jasminne Mendez will read from her new book “Night-Blooming Jasmin(n)e: Personal Essays and Poetry”. Poet Leslie Contreras Schwartz will read from her book “Nightbloom & Cenote”.   Who: Latino leaders, thinkers, and writers What: Celebrate Nuestra Palabra’s 21st Anniversary When: Wednesday April 3, 2019. 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm. Where: Museum of Fine Art, Brown Auditorium 1001 Bissonnet St, Houston, TX 77005 Why: Nuestra Palabra has transformed the landscape for Latino Literature and is now changing Latinx art for the next generation. Contact:  Tony Diaz Tony@NuestraPalabra.org (713) 867-8943 Librotraficante, P.O. Box  41628, Houston, 77241