Because We Come From Everything: Poetry and Migration

30 Minutes features a panel from the Pima County Public Library/ Nuestras Raices Presentation Stage from the 2017 Tucson Festival of Books entitled “Because We Come From Everything: Poetry and Migration.” Renowned United States Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017 Juan Filipe Herrera and Arizona State Poet Laureate Alberto Alvaro Ríos discussed their work and experiences through a border lens. University of Arizona’s Interim Director of the Institute for LGBT Studies Adela Licona introduced and moderated this extraordinary discourse.

The panel explored the relationship between imaginative language and migration, particularly as it relates to the border region, bilingualism, and cultural growth. Today’s program includes a performative, impromptu call-and-response reading by both Ríos and Herrera of one of Herrera’s new poems, modeled on Allen Ginsburg’s famous “America.”

The panel was a feature program of the Poetry Coalition, a group of aligned poetry organizations, and their national collaborative effort in March 2017 was “Because We Come From Everyting: Poetry and Migration.” The University of Arizona Poetry Center is a founding member of the Poetry Coalition.

Recorded and produced by Amanda Shauger.