CantoMundo Presents: Free Public Readings with Rodrigo Toscano and Yesenia Montilla

CantoMundo Presents: Free Public Readings with Rodrigo Toscano and Yesenia Montilla

Come join CantoMundo for two evenings of powerful poetry at Pima Auditorium, Memorial Union (MU 230). On Friday 5/31 at 7:00 pm, Rodrigo Toscano will be headlining. On Saturday 6/1 at 7:00 pm, our featured reader will be Yesenia Montilla. Both will be reading with current CantoMundo fellows or "CantoMundistas."

Please join us for this memorable celebration of the vitality and diversity of Latinx poetry. Book signing and receptions will follow the readings each night. Whether you are a poetry fan or a lover of culture, this in-person event promises to be an unforgettable elebration of creativity and expression. Mark your calendars and invite your friends.

CantoMundo

CantoMundo is a national poetry organization that cultivates a community of Latinx poets through workshops, symposia, public readings, and publications.

Founded around a kitchen table in 2009 by Norma E. Cantú, Celeste Guzmán Mendoza, Pablo Miguel Martínez, Deborah Paredez, and Carmen Tafolla, CantoMundo ["Song-World"] is a celebration of the worlds of song within Latinx communities, from its elders to its youth.

Since our founding CantoMundo has fostered supportive communities and professional networks among hundreds of Latinx poets who are enriching and reshaping the poetry of the Americas. Now housed at the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at ASU, CantoMundo is returning to its first in-person retreat since 2019. Please join us to celebrate the return of CantoMundo.

Our Readers

Rodrigo Toscano is the author of 11 collections of poetry, including The Charm & The Dread (2022). Hist Collapsible Poetics Theater project (2004-2010) was a traveling “test of poetry,” for which Toscano served as artistic director and writer for volunteer performances engaging the intersection of poetry and theater. His plays and body-movement poems have been performed at the Disney Redcat Theater in Los Angeles, Links Hall in Chicago, Ontological-Hysteric Poet’s Theater Festival, and elsewhere. Toscano’s work has been included in multipe anthologies and translated into seven different languages. He won the Edward Markham Prize for Poetry in 2019. He lives in New Orleans.

Yesenia Montilla is an Afro-Latina poet and a daughter of immigrants. She received her MFA from Drew University in Poetry and Poetry in translation. She is a CantoMundo graduate fellow and a 2020 New York Foundation for the Arts fellow. Her work has been published in Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, Prairie Schooner, Gulf Coast and in Best of American Poetry 2021 and 2022. Her first collection, The Pink Box, was published by Willow Books. Her second collection, Muse Found in a Colonized Body (Four Way Books), was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award in 2023. She is currently an adjunct professor at The Juilliard School and lives in Harlem N.Y.

A total of 23 other Latina/o/x poets from across the country, all current CantoMundo Fellows, will join the featured readers. These poets include: Aldo Amparán, Diannely Antigua, Oliver Baez Bendorf, María Fernanda, Cristina Correa, Maritza N. Estrada, Aerik Francis, Paul Hlava Ceballos, Jen/Eleana Hofer, Antonio López, Alexandra Lytton Regalado, Florencia Milito, Sebastián H. Páramo, Emily Pérez, Gabriel Ramirez, Reyes Ramirez, Kimberly Reyes, Iliana Rocha, Roberto F. Santiago, Michael Torres, Emma Trelles, David Joez Villaverde.

Host or Publisher The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at ASU