Dear Reader, Aye, Anthony. Bourdain's death hit me hard. My breath caught. Still in bed, I scrolled through social media hoping it was not true. And then the CNN statement caught my eye. It was true and so I said the truth out loud for me to hear. It took a while for my body … Continue reading Goodbye, Anthony B. The pain is done.
Dear Reader, I just had another poem published. "In the Aftermath" is a found poem using Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's comments from the press conference after the Santa Fe shooting. I, like many others, was upset after the events from Santa Fe. I wanted to create something and remember a workshop I took about … Continue reading “In the Aftermath”: New poem published in the U.K.
Dear Reader, Let's talk about a memoir, shall we? It's been a bit since I've done a book review. With the end of the semester, the student group I advise, and with setting up my summer, it's been a busy time. But I'm back with a review! And I'm psyched that for this review, … Continue reading Blooming through life: Memoir in Nightblooming Jasmin(n)e.
Dear Reader, This is your tape. I started watching the first season of 13 Reasons Why last year after my students told me how good it was. They told me the basic premise, and I was, of course, intrigued. It was a great series. Not good but great. Until the scene. The scene when … Continue reading Why I won’t watch the new season of 13 Reasons Why.
Dear Reader, Just a quick note that my latest piece, an essay called "Letter to the Child Never Coming", has been published by Queen Mobs Teahouse! I'm excited that this piece has been published. I've read this piece for the 18th anniversary of Nuestra Palabra two years ago, but hadn't published it. When my … Continue reading “Letter to the Child Never Coming”.
Dear Reader, The first time I heard his voice was in my head and I loved it. I was living in Wichita, Kansas where there wasn't a lot of Afro-Latinos and everything was foreign. I picked up The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and I started to breathe again. I didn't know … Continue reading I Am Disappointed.
I was 19 when I started my writing career on a stage in Houston's Talento Bilingue de Houston. I wore this awful pink prom-eque dress from the 80s and talked about my life as the daughter of an exile. And that...that performance...that piece...is where I was started and I owe all that to an organization called … Continue reading Happy Birthday, Nuestra Palabra.
Dear Reader, I feel like this is a week of announcements. I promise it isn't but this once I had to share. This week, I'm interviewing my amazing and CRAZY TALENTEd friend Jasminne Mendez for the podcast InkWell. The podcast is a collaboration between Inprint in Houston and Tintero Projects, a fantastic organization that furthers writers of … Continue reading Coming to a podcast near you.
Dear Reader, There it is. The city I grew up in. The gritty, sweaty mess of a city where dreams can come true and die in the same second they are created. This is a city that knows what heartbreak is but aims for an upset. Hustle lives here, in the corners and dirty crevasses … Continue reading Noir. Houston Noir.
Dear Reader, I didn't read Devil in a Blue Dress until grad school but the first line still grabs me. "I was surprised to see a white man walk in to Joppy's bar." Good Lord, are you allowed to write that? See, up until then I understood the tenants of fiction to be that you … Continue reading Meeting your heroes: How not to fan girl when you meet Walter Mosley.
