7:00 PM, Tuesday, 2 April 2024
Sponsored by Red Salmon Arts
with Special Guests: M L Mutrux and Selie de la Luz, members of Resistencia Writing Group
Memorias from the Beltway holds us at attention to listen and contend with themes of working-class survivalism, spiritual tenacity, hip hop articulations, and el exilio to disrupt our own understandings of plural Latinidad. Through his poetry, Novoa encapsulates nuances about salvadoreño masculinity and quiet invocation of memory, place, and intergenerationality, and familial strife, bonds, and strength.
About the author:
Mauricio Novoa was born and raised in Glenmont, MD to Salvadoran refugees. He attended Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, PA, where he lived after graduation. There he worked with middle and high school students in a Migrant Education after-school program, helped tutor in adult ESL classes, and volunteered at Casa de le Cultura programs. He briefly relocated to Austin, TX, where he volunteered at Resistencia Books and the Barrio Writers program in Pflugerville. He received his Master’s degree from Queens University of Charlotte. Memorias From The Beltway is his first full-length collection of poetry. His work has also been published in La Horchata Zine, The Petigru Review, Acentos Review, Blue Mesa Review, Latino Book Review, The Mixtape Literary Journal Vol. 2, and the anthologies The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States, The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatinNext. , and This Is What America Looks Like: The Washington Writer’s Publishing House Anthology Poetry and Fiction From DC, Maryland, Virginia. He currently lives in Gettysburg with his partner, tortoise, and dog.
FMI: https://www.mauricionovoa.com/
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 Chicanx/@/Latinx/@/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.
This project is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department.