Photo Courtesy uwm.edu
Milwaukee is starting National Poetry Month a few weeks early. On March 3-4, U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera will visit UW-Milwaukee for a poetry reading and a lecture on his writing practices and the art of poetry.
Herrera, the first Latino to hold the position of poet laureate, was raised as the son of migrant workers in California, and although (or perhaps because) his poems lack the erudite stuffiness the word “poetry” may conjure, he’s got an impressive pedigree, having received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts Writers’ Fellowship.
In addition to those prestigious awards, Herrera is renowned for his work as an activist, specifically on behalf of indigenous communities and at-risk youth, and for his work beyond poetry in theatre and as a performance artist. He is also the author of several children’s books.
According to former Milwaukee Poet Laureate and UWM English professor Brenda Cárdenas, “Herrera is a writer who people of all walks of life will enjoy. His poems often work on multiple levels so that one doesn’t have to be trained in literary studies or be a poet herself to find a point of entry or a common ground. His work has always been highly inventive and yet, at the same time, accessible.”
And Herrera’s populist focus extends beyond his solo practices on the page—his current project in his capacity as poet laureate, entitled “La Casa de Colores” (“The House of Colors”), invites anyone in the country to contribute work to “an epic poem of all our voices and styles and experiences.” He is a listener just as much as he is a speaker, perhaps more so, and this empathy manifests itself in beautiful and unforgettable ways in his poems.
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Herrera’s poetry reading will take place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 3 in the UWM Student Union Ballroom. The following day, Friday, March 4 at 2 p.m., Herrera will discuss his poetry-writing practices and the state of contemporary poetry in UWM’s Bolton Hall, Room B52. All events are free and open to the public.
