Event
Carol Rothstein Oral Poetry Program
A Performance and Conversation with Award-Winning Poet José Olivarez
We invite you to join us on Wednesday, February 22, at 6:00 PM for the annual Carol Rothstein Oral Poetry Program, a performance and conversation with award-winning poet José Olivarez, hosted by Excelano member Andrés González-Bonillas (C’23). The son of formerly undocumented Mexican immigrants, award-winning poet José Olivarez writes poems that use the lenses of immigration, in-betweenness, gender, class, and family to examine and praise the world. In his poems, Olivarez investigates the humor, joy and intimacy of the Latinx identity, calls out mental health, makes you think about gender and teaches about love. Free books will be available to the first 30 Penn students in attendance. Books available for purchase in cash, check, or PayPal.
JOSÉ OLIVAREZ
José Olivarez is a writer from Calumet City, IL. He is the author of Promises of Gold and Citizen Illegal. Citizen Illegal was a finalist for the PEN/ Jean Stein Award and a winner of the 2018 Chicago Review of Books Poetry Prize. It was named a top book of 2018 by The Adroit Journal, NPR, and the New York Public Library. Along with Felicia Chavez and Willie Perdomo, he co-edited the poetry anthology, The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNEXT. His poems are featured alongside photographs by Antonio Salazar in the multi-disciplinary poetic work, Por Siempre.
THE CAROLINE ROTHSTEIN ORAL POETRY PROGRAM
In honor of their daughter Caroline, whose longstanding presence and participation in Penn’s spoken-word community helped inspire a resurgence of oral poetry on campus, Steven and Nancy Rothstein (CW’75) established a fund to support an annual oral poetry program at the Writers House. Each year we host a program or project featuring oral poetry in one of its many forms: spoken-word, slam, or sound poetry, to name only a few possibilities.
Co-sponsored by La Casa Latina, The Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies, the Creative Writing Program, & CSERI