Palabra Pura

A perfect excuse to start the weekend early. Grab the alcoholic concoction of choice, a chair and enjoy the show. The Guild Complex and its partners* put a lot of thought into this monthly bilingual poetry series.

Feature's for Wednesday, February 21st.

Fernando Olszanski and Carl Marcum

California Clipper
1002 N. California (California at Augusta), Chicago
Doors open 8:00 p.m.
Reading begins with an open mic at 8:30 p.m.

Free admission/Books for sale
21 and over show (don’t forget your i.d.)

Fernando Olszanski was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has lived in Ecuador, Europe, Japan and now in the United States. He is the author of the novel Rezos de marihuana and the book of poems Parte del polvo. He has received awards for his poetry, fiction and essays in Argentina, Spain and the US. He has published his work in The Barcelona Review and Nitecuento, in Spain; Franchachela and Las Letras in Argentina, contratiempo, The Cove, and Ventana Abierta in the US, as well as publications in Mexico, Chile, Ecuador and Colombia. Part of his work has been translated to Japanese. He is the Chief Editor of Revista Contratiempo.

Carl Marcum is the author of Cue Lazarus (University of Arizona Press, 2001), a second place co-winner for Best Poetry in 2002 for the Latino Literary Hall of Fame Awards. His honors include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship, the D.H. Lawrence Fellowship from the University of New Mexico’s Taos Summer Writers’ Conference, and a recently awarded Illinois Arts Council Fellowship. A native of Arizona, he currently resides in Chicago and teaches creative writing and literature at DePaul
University.

*Letras Latinas of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame and the Rafael Cintron Ortiz Cultural Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago. This series is also supported by contratiempo and Arena Cultural.

Proyecto Latina: Featuring Diane Herrera

We are anticipating the first Proyecto Latina of 2007, our initiative will be completing its first year this month. Diane Herrera will be kicking things off for us, she is our featured performer this January 15th. Join us, its a great way to end the Martin Luther King holiday and long weekend.

If you've attended any Teatro Luna or Salsation shows you might be familiar with Diane's work. Although, I only met her recently I still recall her character Patty from a Salsation show I attended a few years back. We recently asked Diane to answer a few questions because our inquisitive (i.e. nosey) minds wanted to know more.

When did you first figure out that you wanted to be a writer and/or peformer?
I was in college studying general theatre studies--my ultimate goal was to be a professional director. One day I was told by a friend that I could join this playwriting workshop class. The catch was that even though I was only performing the playwrights' works, I had to write six line scenes for every class. I started having fun with it, and my teacher told me I should switch to a playwriting major. I ignored him for the quarter, but he wore me down and I finally took playwriting class...and that's where I fell in love with the process of creating characters and situations and seeing them onstage, and seeing how the audience reacts to them.

Performing--that's a little different. I always loved performing, but I wasn't very much encouraged by teachers or peers. So I didn't pursue it much, just took classes here and there in college. I started taking 2nd City classes after college because I went to this seminar where Jeffrey Sweet was speaking, and he said that when you have writer's block the best cure is to improvise. So I started the improv classes and I was hooked. I kept getting opportunities to perform here and there...one thing lead to another and here I am today!

What gets your creativity going?
Sometimes it's something I'll see or read--other times it's just an idea that strikes me that I have to write out. A lot of times it's something that has happened to me or my loved ones in real life. Sometimes it's a simple as a deadline to get my creativity going! ;)

What is the one question you wished we had asked?
What is my favorite food? Right now it's ice cream. : )