Todos Somos Sagrados An Evening of Flor y Canto with Rey M and Friends

Grand Performances and Proyecto Pastoral present Todos Somos Sagrados (All Are Sacred)
About this Event

Grand Performances and Proyecto Pastoral present Todos Somos Sagrados (All Are Sacred): An Evening of Flor y Canto with Rey M. Rodríguez, fellow poets Lorna Dee Cervantes, Aideed Medina, Ceasar K. Avelar, and Janet Gonzalez, with special musical guests Las Chorizeras.

 Todos Somos Sagrados (All Are Sacred) by Rey M. Rodríguez, a powerful collection of poetry, reflects the history and spirit of Boyle Heights, telling stories of immigrant families, community organizers, mothers, workers, and young people whose resilience helped transform their neighborhood. The poems honor the everyday acts of courage and compassion that gave rise to Proyecto Pastoral at Dolores Mission and continue to sustain its mission today.

 Over the past four decades, Proyecto Pastoral has helped launch transformative programs and initiatives that have shaped Los Angeles's social justice landscape, including early childhood education centers, youth leadership programs, community organizing efforts, and the Guadalupe Homeless Project.

Rey M. Rodríguez

Poet and attorney Rey M. Rodríguez releases his debut Todos Somos Sagrados/All Are Sacred, a tribute to the women of Proyecto Pastoral in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles.

"A treatise in poetry about one of the most important stories of our time-the formation and work of Proyecto Pastoral in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. Violence, drugs, and death plagued these streets, which in the 1990s and into the 2000s were the most gang-infested in the country. But mothers stood up for healing, peace, for saving the children. Projects arose to help youth but also the unhoused and migrants. People in need—God's work. Powerful figures like Father Greg Boyle met the call. Here, Rey M. Rodríguez uses poems to carry their voices, stories, pains, and joys. In Spanish and English, in any language, it's a work of art, a work of action."

-Luis J. Rodríguez, former Los Angeles Poet Laureate, author of Always Running, La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. and It Calls You Back: An Odyssey through Love, Addiction, Revolutions, and Healing

Rey M. Rodríguez is a writer, advocate, and attorney. He lives in Pasadena, California. He is working on a novel set in Mexico City. He attended the Yale Writers’ Workshop and Palabras de Pueblo workshop. He participated in Story Studio’s Novel in a Year Program. He received his MFA in fiction from the Institute of American Indian Arts in May 2026. His poetry is published in Huizache, Anger is a Gift, and Altadena Poetry Review. His interviews and book reviews can be found at La Bloga, Chapter House’s Storyteller’s Corner, Full Stop, Pleiades Magazine, and the Los Angeles Review. He is a graduate of Cornell, Princeton, and U.C. Berkeley Law School. His debut poetry collection, Todos Somos Sagrados/All Are Sacred, a tribute to the women of Proyecto Pastoral, was published by El Martillo Press in May 2026.

Credit: Jose Ramirez

Lorna Dee Cervantes 

Born in San Francisco, raised in San José, Barrio Horseshoe, Lorna Dee Cervantes was a self-taught activist by 15, taught herself how to run her own printing press and was Founding Editor/Publisher of MANGO Publications at 20, and author of the American Book Award winning EMPLUMADA at 24. A XícanIndX poet (Chumash/Purépecha), Cervantes (PhD/ABD, History of Consciousness) was a Professor of English for 20 years at the University of Colorado, Boulder, serving as Director of Creative Writing. Cervantes has held faculty positions at the University of Houston, the University of California, Berkeley, where she has served as a UC Regents Lecturer in the English department, and as a Visiting Writer at Yale, Vassar, and others.  Awarded 2 NEA Fellowships, 2 Pushcart Prizes, a Lila Wallace/Readers Digest Award, state arts grants, and numerous awards for 6 books of poetry including her recent, April on Olympia, Cervantes has presented her poetry at 100s of campuses, venues and countries over the past 50 years. Her poems have appeared in 100s of anthologies and publications (Norton, Heath, Penguin, Poetry). Her newest, FIRE: Poems Against Pandemic, is forthcoming from El Martillo Press (2026).

Aideed Medina 

Aideed Medina is the current poet laureate of Fresno California, a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, award-winning spoken word artist and playwright, and is the author of 31 Hummingbird: A Suite of Poems (Editorial Xingao, 2023) and Segmented Bodies (Prickly Pear Press, 2024). Her poetry and prose have been featured in many publications, including Fresno State’s Club Austral Literary Magazine, Chicano Writers and Artists Association Journal, La Bloga, Poets Responding, Split This Rock, and Nueva York Poetry Review, among many others, as well as in compositions for the 559 Mural Project and Fresno Grand Opera’s Opera Remix.

​Ceasar K. Avelar 

Caesar K. Avelar is the second poet laureate of Pomona, CA. As a poet, Caesar is dedicated to the working class. His poems speak the truth not only to people in positions of power but also to the everyday person who views the working class as a stigmatized identity. Caesar is of Central American descent. His mother is an immigrant from Honduras, and his father is from El Salvador. Caesar’s poems tell the stories of workers of color, their families, and the obstacles they face in the United States; not just as workers, but as immigrants living in a country where their existence is commodified. Caesar is the resident poet for Café con Libros Press, a cultural center and bookstore. He runs the Obsidian Tongues open mic, which strives to bring poetry, art, and free expression to the Pomona community.

Janet Gonzalez 

Janet Gonzalez is a Mexican-born spoken word artist raised in Chicago and based in Los Angeles. Shaped by her experience as an undocumented immigrant for over two decades, her work explores themes of immigration, identity, resilience, healing, and social justice. Through powerful storytelling and poetry, Janet amplifies voices and experiences that are often overlooked, creating space for dialogue, understanding, and connection. She has performed at institutions including the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Southern California, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and University of Redlands, as well as at community and cultural venues throughout Southern California. Her performances challenge audiences to engage deeply with issues of belonging, equity, and the human experience.

Las Chorizeras is an all-female mariachi-inspired ensemble founded by singer-songwriter Nancy Sanchez. Las Chorizeras present Nancy’s original songs and select songs from the American and Mexican songbooks in a fresh new Regional Alternative and Regional Mexican way. They incorporate traditional mariachi instruments, including the guitarron, the vihuela, and the violin, into a mariachi fusion style. Las Chorizeras released their debut vinyl album in 2025, and their most recent 2026 single is a Las Chorizeras arrangement of the Bruno Mars single Lo Arriesgo Todo (Risk It All)

This program is made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.