Latina Poetry is Focus of Álvarez Seminar

The Mexico, the Americas, and Spain (MAS) Program at Trinity University will present the 2018 Álvarez Seminar under the theme of “Latina Poetry Across the Americas,” featuring three distinctive presentations by Latina poets. Events will occur Feb. 1, March 1, and April 19 – all are free and open to the public.

Denice Frohman, a poet, writer, performer, and educator, who will present "In Between Worlds: Poetry of Reclamation" at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb.  1 at the Holt Center, 106 Oakmont Court. Light refreshments will be served at 5:30 p.m.

Frohman’s work explores the intersections of race/ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. She is the 2013 Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion, 2014 CantoMundo Fellow, and 2013 Hispanic Choice Award Winner. Her work has been featured on ESPN, in the Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Refinery29, and is forthcoming in Nepantla: An Anthology of Queer Poets of Color. She has performed and taught at more than 200 colleges and universities; hundreds of high schools, non-profits, and cultural arts spaces; and at The White House in 2016. She has a master’s degree  in education and works with the Philly Youth Poetry Movement.

Amalia Ortiz, a poet and playwright, who will present excerpts from “The Canción Cannibal Cabaret” at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 1 in Northrup Hall 040. Light refreshments will be served at 5:30 p.m.

The work Ortiz will present is a musical and poetry experiment that is part radio play and part concept album inspired by current issues of social injustice. NBC Latino named her poetry book  Rant. Chant. Chisme. one of “10 Great Latino Books of 2015,” and it received the 2015 Writers' League of Texas Poetry Discovery Prize. She was awarded the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation Grant and a writing residency at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. She is a CantoMundo Fellow and a Hedgebrook writer in residence alumna. Ortiz received her MFA in creative writing from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Analicia Sotelo, author and poet, who will discuss “Virgin Territory: Latinidad, Femininity & Artistic Practice” at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 19 at the Holt Center, 106 Oakmont Court. Light refreshments will be served at 5:30 p.m.

Sotelo ’08 is the author of Virgin, the inaugural winner of the Jake Adam York Prize, selected by Ross Gay, to be published by Milkweed Editions in February. She is also the author of the chapbook Nonstop Godhead, selected by Rigoberto González for the 2016 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship 30 and Under, and her poem “I’m Trying to Write a Poem About a Virgin and It’s Awful” was selected for Best New Poets 2015. Sotelo is the 2016 DISQUIET International Literary Prize winner in poetry. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Trinity and an MFA in poetry from the University of Houston. She works for Writers in the Schools in Houston.