Yael Valencia Aldana in conversation with Jennifer Maritza McCauley

Yael Valencia Aldana in conversation with Jennifer Maritza McCauley

in an evening of discussion and poetry reading

City Lights and University of Kentucky Press celebrate the publication of

Black Mestiza: Poems

by Yael Valencia Aldana

Published by The University Press of Kentucky

(as part of the University Press of Kentucky New Poetry & Prose Series)

In Black Mestiza, Pushcart Prize winning poet Yael Valencia Aldana reckons with her identity as a Caribbean Afro-Latinx/e woman with Indigenous, Black, and white roots and pays homage to the legacy, resilience, and fortitude of her ancestors. These stunning poems paint a vivid picture of everyday life and Aldana's experiences as a mixed-race woman, daughter, and mother.

The Pushcart Prize–winning poem "Black Person Head Bob" addresses how Black people silently yet soulfully acknowledge and see each other. "Why Don't You Write About Joy?" speaks to the suffering that women of color endure while their cries and spirit remain resolute: because you cannot hear me / doesn't mean I am not singing. "Small Dark and Moving" skillfully represents the poet's journey and the souls she carries with her, evoking images of evolving landscapes and beings as they transition through different forms. The poet beautifully interweaves narratives regarding the constant presence and influence of her Caribbean parents and a desire for more connection with her Colombian grandmother and ancestry, capturing the essence of origins, blood ties, and the idea that nothing is ever truly lost. This collection is not only a testament to Aldana's deep-rooted connection to her heritage, but also a compelling celebration and expression of pride, recognition, and a profound sense of community.

Yael Valencia Aldana, an Afro-Latinx/e poet and writer, is the author of Alien(s). Aldana, her mother, her mother's mother, and so on are descendants of the Indigenous people of modern-day Colombia. Her work has been nominated for Best of the Net and has appeared in Torch Literary Arts, Chapter House Journal, and Slag Glass City, among others. She teaches creative writing in South Florida and lives near the ocean with her son and too many pets. Find her online at YaelAldana.com.

Jennifer Maritza McCauley is a writer, poet, and university professor. She is the author of the acclaimed cross-genre collection SCAR ON/SCAR OFF, the short story collection When Trying to Return Home and the poetry collection KINDS OF GRACE (‘24). She has been awarded numerous honors for her work including awards from the Independent Publisher Book Awards, Academy of American Poets and Best of the Net and she has received a Pushcart Prize Special Mention, amongst other honors. She has been published in or has forthcoming publications in Boston Review, Passages North, Puerto del Sol, Afro-Hispanic Review, Vassar Review, Columbia Journal, The Texas Review, The Breakbeat Poets: LatiNext, Deep South Magazine, Jabberwock Review, The Feminist Wire, Split this Rock, Verse Daily, Connotations Press, and Latinas: Protests and Struggle among other places. She has been on staff at Pleiades (Fiction Editor, current), The Missouri Review (Poetry Editor, Contest Editor), Origins Literary Journal (Poetry Editor), Gulf Stream Magazine (Staff) and Florida Book Review (Contributing Editor.) Dr. McCauley is presently an assistant professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Creative Writing program.

Praise for the work of Yael Valencia Aldana

'We are of the Caribbean / our names mean salt water in the veins...' This seems to be the book's intention: to reveal the sting and salve, like salt water, of the Caribbean mestiza identity and experience. The poems don't side with the sting or with the salve, which is a refreshing perspective for such a historically loaded and still deeply personal topic.

~darlene anita scott, author of Marrow: Poems

Black Mestiza is astonishing in its beauty, sincerity, sonorous power, and passion. The cry of loving, complicated women, the call of the sea, the spill of writerly ghosts, the clash of languages, the press and pull of Florida and the speaker's ancestors lift and embolden this collection. Black Mestiza is a searing, complex love letter and we're all so fortunate Aldana is writing poetry right now. A glorious collection.

~Jennifer Maritza McCauley, author of When Trying to Return Home and Kinds of Grace

Yael Valencia Aldana's Black Mestiza investigates a complex matriarchal genealogy as we learn in the first poem: 'Mother, no men stay in our family.' The sacred feminine of goddesses and the abuela, the Anglican prayer book and voodoo, Instagram and bodegas, Margaret Atwood and Angela Davis, Zora Neale Hurston and Sandra Cisneros, all swirl in these poems of wonder and reclamation. Through litany, abecedarian, haiku, cento, pantoum, and stereoscope, Aldana creates a world of connection, becoming her own materfamilias as she raises her son. She is an important voice to be reckoned with: 'Because you cannot hear me / doesn't mean I am not singing.'

~Denise Duhamel author of Second Story

The speaker in Yael Valencia Aldana's debut collection, Black Mestiza, declares early on, 'I know how to stand in more / than one place at a time.' These poems bear witness to her lyric standing, both firm and fluid, the speaker's many simultaneous identities kaleidoscopically explored. Herein, a missing grandmother is summoned, along with a birth mother, an adoptive mother, and the speaker as mother: 'ancestors come to the fore,' advisers across eras and oceans. Black Mestiza welcomes many voices, many twined histories, in this powerful reckoning.

~Julie Marie Wade, author of Quick Change Artist and Skirted

In Black Mestiza, Yael Valencia Aldana delves into the depths of identity, legacy, gender, heritage, and mestizaje, deftly weaving voices and texts. As the poet celebrates her afrolatinidad, she names those who came before: Angela Davis, Lucille Clifton, Margaret Atwood, Alice Walker, Sandra Cisneros, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Zora Neale Hurston. Populated by these along with parents, grandparents, and lovers, the poetic world emerges as a complex and nuanced one where the poems affirm Aldana's poetic prowess.

~Norma Elia Cantú, author of Meditación Fronteriza: Poems of Love, Life, and Labor

Please place a copy of Yael Aldana's Black Mestiza in the hands of every child whose roots, they said, were too complex to be cataloged, who grew up guessing who would claim them and what name they'd choose for themselves. We were these children, made of bits: of history and disparate longings, of heres and theres. We measured our mixed skins to figure out our ingredients, looking to one day be loved. Well, this book is that love—the lyrical testament that we, too, were here.

~Anjanette Delgado, author of Las bichotas and founding host of "CaribeFemLit" on Hablemos, Escritoras

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