13 Portraits At A Literary Festival

Audiences gather in the first hour for five poets and writers earning attention and appreciation from ever-expanding readers, these the five faces of the well-promoted anthology, Somos Xicanas (link). 

The festival's second hour offers eight poets at the pinnacle of literary achievement, Poets Laureate of now fire-devasted Altadena who share timeless work and poems written with tears and ashes.

Pasadena Presbyterian church comes to the rescue of the venerable LitFest in the Denas. Held in recent years at Altadena’s ornate Mt. View Mausoleum, the Eaton Fire forces this year’s relocation to the landmark building housing the Pasadena church located on a popular stretch of Colorado Blvd.

 

Brenda Vaca

True to publicity claims, the richness of the program demands advance planning and hard decisions. Days before the event, I waver between panels. There’s “Poetry as Memory and Collective Processing”, but it’s the same time as “The Somos Xicanas Anthology: Understanding the Heterogeneity of the Xicana Character”. The next hour, there’s “Pasadena Rose Poets”, a La Bloga favorite, the same hour as “Altadena Poets Laureate Celebrate the Denas”.

 

Maria Elena Fernandez

Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo

Jesenia Chabemucho

Somos Xicanas joins a roster of Chicano and Chicana literature anthologies dating back to 1968's El Espejo: the Mirror, Selected Chicano Literature. While El Espejo is the first "chicano" anthology, Somos Xicanas stands among the very few books calling themselves "Xicana" or "Xicano." The anthology notably focuses on voices illustrating  "the enduring and new Xicana identity, presence and culture".

 

Altadena Poets Laureate

La Bloga has long championed (link) the Laureate program sponsored by Altadena Library as a model for communities across the nation to launch their own laureate programs. 

Past Laureates sit on a committee to select new poets for a two-year, co-Laureate term. Once selected, the co-Laureates plan a series of community events, workshops, readings, open-calls for publication in The Altadena Poetry Review (link), a print and online endeavor.

These accomplished poets reflect the diversity of the Altadena community. All share careers that include books, journals, awards and prizes, plus leadership roles outside their passion for writing and expression. Accomplishments in their "day job" mirror their literary achievements.