About

Red Salmon Arts

Red Salmon Arts is a 501(c)3 grassroots cultural arts organization, with a thirty-year history of working with the indigenous neighborhoods of Austin. RSA is dedicated to the development of emerging writers and the promotion of Chicana/o/x/Latina/o/x/Native American literature, providing outlets and mechanisms for cultural exchange, and sharing in the retrieval of a people’s cultural heritage with a commitment to social justice.

Red Salmon Arts offers resources to Chicana/o/x/Latina/o/x/ and Native American communities living in working class neighborhoods of Austin to better understand the culture and arts of their families and ancestors. The founder of Red Salmon Arts, raúlrsalinas, was a world-renowned poet who developed his artistic technique through a life of hardship and experience, including time served in prison for non-violent crimes. His readings were dramatic and effective, helping young people who heard him understand the life circumstances of so many Mexican Americans in those days, and how poverty and racism still create challenges for Latina/o/xs.
raúlrsalinas

Our Founder– raúlrsalinas was born in San Antonio, Texas and raised in Austin, Texas. From 1959 to 1972, Salinas was incarcerated on drug related charges. During this time, he became known for his prison poetry and work with other inmates regarding literature and art. He is best known for his role in the prisoner-rights movement and other various political movements, and for his contributions to Chicano literature, including the foundational Chicano experience poem, “A Trip Through the Mind Jail.”