Saturday, 30 April 2016, 6:00 PM
Red Salmon Arts Presents
& we did not flee: A Reading and Plática with Ariana Brown
with Special Guests, Spitshine
Ariana Brown’s & we did not flee examines the legacy of the conquest of the Aztec Empire in the 21st century. Drawing on personal, familial, and documented history, Brown invites us to ask: What violences must be named? & how did they come to be? What stories/magic/medicine have we forgotten, & what can be recovered? A black and indigenous Mexican-American from San Antonio, Texas, Brown focuses on the intersections of black and indigenous resistance on both sides of the border. From stories about the first black conquistador to the statues of war horses on UT’s campus to the uses of the grito in her family, & we did not flee is a book about survival, healing, & power – who can name & create power, who can reclaim it.
Ariana Brown is an Afromexicana poet from San Antonio, Texas. She is the recipient of an Academy of American Poets Prize and a member of the UT Austin winning team at the 2014 national collegiate poetry slam. She is currently working on her first manuscript and pursuing a degree in African & African Diaspora Studies and Mexican American Studies at UT Austin. Her work is published in Huizache, Rattle, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review and is forthcoming in ¡Manteca!: An Anthology of Afro-Latin@ Poets from Arte Público Press.
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Founded in 2011, UT Spitshine Poetry is a student organization focused on developing spoken word poetry among students at UT Austin. In 2014, the UT Spitshine Poetry Slam team won first place at the national collegiate poetry slam, which was hosted at UT Austin this year. The 2016 UT Spitshine Poetry Slam team consists of Arati Warrier, Adam Hamze, Jasmine Bell, Joshua Nguyen, and slam champ Ariana Brown; coached by Sam Sax. Members of this team are alums from the various youth slam organizations in Texas, including Fresh Ink, MetaFour, and They Speak. Their collaborative work seeks to disrupt systems of power while centering their own lived experiences as people of color. Spitshine’s team chant is “Spitshine: We eat snacks.”
This project is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department. Visit Austin at NowPlayingAustin.com.