L.A. Double Book Launch: Ramón García & Mariano Zaro

Beyond Baroque presents an evening featuring Ramón García and Mariano Zaro as they present new books published by Walton Well Press.

Garcia’s book, Strange Signatures, maps a zone of contact between artistic creation and the dangers of identification. A neo-baroque, lyrical treatise on encountering the Other, the poems in Strange Signatures reverse the colonial gaze and transform it into scenes of conflicted recognition. In poems that open the secret chambers of individual and collective histories, Bluebeard's survivors continue a phantom afterlife by way of dislocated avatars: modernist artists, estranged Latin American poets, pop stars, a taxidermized parrot and a Peruvian mummy. Strange Signatures is an international, cinematic montage of the phantasmatic and the all-too-real, locating social transformation in memory, crime and the allegorical biographies of celebrated artists and poets.

Zaro’s The Weight of Sound is his seventh collection of poetry that features language rich in texture and syntax allowing the reader to feel every verse on the page. In the words of poet Blas Falconer, the collection is “steeped in the drama of impermanence and the inevitable loss of all sentient beings—from the fragile butterfly to our own frailing bodies. In these poems, the poet strives to hold on to what is departing, to what has already departed: ‘I call you by your name and all the names. / I call you by no name at all.’”

Doors Open: 6:30 PM I Readings: 7:00 PM

Ramón García is the author of two books of poetry The Chronicles (Red Hen Press, 2015) and Other Countries (What Books Press, 2010), a monograph on the artist Ricardo Valverde (University of Minnesota Press, 2013) and a chapbook Strays (Foundlings Press, 2021). His poetry has appeared in a variety of journals and anthologies, including circulo de poesía, the Best American Poetry anthology, The Los Angeles Review, Gulf Coast and Plume. A former Vice-President of the Board of Trustees at Beyond Baroque, he is Associate Editor of Plume literary journal. He teaches at California State University, Northridge and lives in Eagle Rock. https://ramongarciaphd.com/

Mariano Zaro is the author of six previous books of poetry, most recently Decoding Sparrows (What Books Press, Los Angeles, CA) and Padre Tierra (Olifante, Zaragoza, Spain). His work has been featured in the anthologies Monster Verse (Penguin Random House), Poetry Goes to the Movies (Beyond Baroque Books), Coiled Serpent (Tía Chucha Press, CA) and in several magazines in Spain, Mexico and the United States. His translations include Buda en llamas by Tony Barnstone and Cómo escribir una cancion de amor by Sholeh Wolpé. He is a professor of Spanish at Río Hondo Community College (Whittier, California). www.marianozaro.com

Founded by Publisher and Editor, Theresia De Vroom, Walton Well Press is named after a small road in Oxford, England in a neighborhood called Jericho. The well was built in the nineteenth century as were the workers’ houses on the road. Each, to this day, sports a tympanum depicting the story of the prophet Elijah, who was fed by ravens.

It is a small road—with a well that leads to one of the oldest, non-cultivated and common ground meadows in England set down in the Domesday Book in 1086. It is called Port Meadow. There is a cemetery nearby which buried largely victims of a nineteenth century cholera epidemic.

The road once contained a small college devoted to Catholic Social Teaching as well as a foundry—in this spirit, the press embodies a sacred spring and “that all may have life and live it to the full.”

About Beyond Baroque

is one of the United States' leading independent Literary | Arts Centers and public spaces dedicated to expanding the public's knowledge of poetry, literature and art through cultural events and community interaction. Founded in 1968 as an experimental literary magazine, Beyond Baroque is based out of the original City Hall building in Venice, California. The Center offers a diverse variety of literary and arts programming including readings and workshops. The building also houses a bookstore with a large collection of new poetry books for sale.

Livestream: If you can’t join us in person the event will be livestreamed on at the scheduled time of the event. If you are tuning in this way, no ticket purchase is necessary.

This is a free event, but please note seating is limited. We recommend registering in advance through Eventbrite. Masks are encouraged while inside our center. Please arrive early.

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