November 13th, 2007 originalpranksta
Spirits Rising: A Celebration of the Life and Spirit of raulrsalinas
Tribute and Fundraiser, Nov. 18 @ 4pm at the Esperanza
Poets Carmen Tafolla, Norma Cantu, Bryce Milligan, Roberto Vargas, Roberto Bonazzi and Ben Olguin to read
Artists Gerardo Q. Garcia, Cardee Garcia, Jose Cosme, Adriana Garcia and Joe de la Cruz, Mark Aguilar, Christian Rodriguez and David Blancas will conduct an Arte Vivo live painting auction
Local writers, musicians and artists will pay tribute to poet, human rights activist and San Antonio native son raulrsalinas in this community celebration featuring special guests, music, a silent art auction, live painting and an open mic. The celebration, which will take place at the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center on Sunday, Nov. 18 from 4 to 8 pm, will raise funds to help cover medical expenses for Salinas, who is currently battling cancer.
Poets Carmen Tafolla, Norma Cantu, Bryce Milligan, Roberto Vargas, Roberto Bonazzi and Ben Olguin are among those who will read poems inspired by the life and work of their friend and mentor. Artists Gerardo Q. Garcia, Cardee Garcia, Jose Cosme, Adriana Garcia and Joe de la Cruz, Mark Aguilar, Christian Rodriguez and David Blancas will conduct an Arte Vivo live painting auction as part of the event.
Born in San Antonio in 1934, raulrsalinas is a veterano of Chicano literature and jazz/beat pioneer whose writing and activism have earned him international recognition as a spokesperson for a diversity of political causes, ranging from prisoner rights and national liberation struggles to gang intervention and youth arts advocacy.
The author of critically acclaimed collections of poetry and spoken word CDs, raulrsalinas is an important voice in the struggle for social justice and an inspiration to a new generation of writers. His long-awaited anthology of prison writings, titled raulrsalinas and the Jail Machine: My Weapon is My Pen, provides a unique perspective on the poet’s spiritual, intellectual, and political metamorphosis during his incarceration and in the years following his release. The book also offers an insider’s view of the prison rebellion movement and its relation to the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
Friend and publisher Bryce Milligan calls Salinas’ unique voice “a poetic fusion that defies categorization: It is Zen, but it is angry; it is Indian and Chicano, but its rhythms are those of Charlie Parker and Thelonius Monk; it is regional in its setting and imagery, hemispheric in its vision. In short, it is raulrsalinas – one long enjambed bop calling for liberacion.”
This event will also raise awareness about the importance of health issues and caring for ailing artists and elders in our own communities.
raulrsalinas is the author of three collections of poetry: Un Trip thru the Mind Jail y Otras Excursions (Editorial Pocho-Ché, 1980; Arte Público Press, 1999), East of the Freeway: Reflections de mi pueblo (Red Salmon Press, 1995), and Indio Trails: A Xicano Odyssey thru Indian Country (Wings Press, 2006). Recently, UT Press published a selected collection of his prison writings entitled raulrsalinas and the Jail Machine: My Weapon Is My Pen (edited by Louis Mendoza, 2006). He is also the owner of Resistencia Bookstore in Austin and the founder of Red Salmon Press and the Red Salmon Arts non-profit organization.
Spirits Rising: A Celebration of the Life and Spirit of raulrsalinas Tribute and Fundraiser will take place on Sunday, Nov. 18 from 4-8 pm at the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, located at 922 San Pedro, San Antonio, TX 78212. Suggested Donation $5 or more. Proceeds will benefit medical expenses.
Donations can be made directly to raulrsalinas at: Red Salmon Arts, 1801-A S. First St., Austin, TX 78704. For more information, visit esperanzacenter.org, email vpayan@aztecgoldtv.com or call 210-731-4340.
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October 2nd, 2007 originalpranksta
It’s official. Keep on Crossin’ is nationwide. My formidable border crossin’ collaboration with Perry Vasquez is featured in two exhibits in October, which span the length of this great nation!
On Oct. 6, Keep on Crossin’ is unleashed in New York at the Univ. of Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery as part of the “”TRANSactions: Contemporary Latin American and Latino Art”" exhibit.
And on Oct. 13, another Keep on Crossin’ exhibition titled “”Delirium Fronterium”" opens at UC Riverside’s Sweeney Art Gallery in sunny southern California.
Imagine that a man in Rochester and a woman in Riverside read the Keep on Crossin’ Manifesto AT THE SAME TIME, smiling simultaneously and sending ripples of crossin’ mojo deep into the heartland, where a migrant farmworker looks up from his amber waves of grain and knows in his heart there’s a goodness comin’. And it goes like this:
Keep on Crossin’ Manifesto
“”When in the course of human events it becomes necessary to cross borders of political, social, linguistic, cultural, economic and technological construction…we will cross. For long before there were borders, there were crossers. We are the proud sons and daughters of these crossers, and we hold that crossing is a basic human right. Furthermore, we hold this right to be in-illegal alienable.
Artificial borders of body and mind and spirit must be crossed off the list. For every star-crossed, cross-bearing, cross-platform, cross-dressing, cross-country, cross-walker at the crossroads of culture, the time has come to cross.
We are living in a time when a truckload of toxic waste has more rights to cross than a human being. Wherever and whenever this is the case, we will cross.
Our crossing will be a sign to other crossers that the time has come to cross. We will cross at intersections. Anywhere we cross will become an intersection by the act of our crossing. We will look both ways before crossing, and then, with the positive momentum of humanity, we will cross.
We will cross into other manifestos. These include but are not limited to the Prague Manifesto for Esperanto, the Russell-Einstein Manifesto against nuclear war, the Roxy Music song “”Manifesto,”" the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Plan of Delano, the Plan Espiritual de Aztlan and any other plans, declarations or manifestos that encourage, promote and reward crossing.
When the border expands, we contract. And when the border contracts, we expand. And when it is time to cross, we will cross all by ourselves.
Wherever there are tired, huddled masses yearning to breathe free, we will cross.
Wherever there’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, we will cross.
As Martin Luther King wrote from the injustice stained confines of a Birmingham jail: “”We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”"
By wearing this patch, we declare that our garment be counted as a piece from Dr. King’s “”single garment of destiny.”"
And to ensure that the sun and moon continue to shine on the smiling faces of the free, we will keep on crossing.
Victor Payan
Perry Vasquez
18 de enero, 2003
San Diego
www.keeponcrossin.com
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June 8th, 2007 originalpranksta
Tower of the Americas
Welcome to TEX-MESSAGES, a chronicle of the Great Reverse Migration, in which throngs of Californians were forced out of the Golden State by a housing market gone mad. Riding into the sunrise, cappuccinos against the wind, they drove, a mighty nation of migrants spurred by the call to “”Go Back to Mexico, Young Man!”"
From checkpoint to checkpoint they sped. Through Arizona, land of the midnight raids, and New Mexico, they hurtled eastward towards destiny. Our path led to San Antonio, the south Texas mextropolis on which the United States would balance if you put it on a pin. With a winding river meandering through the middle of it and a people as wild and lush as the vegetation that hurls itself out of the fertile soil, San Antonio is a city of possibility. Opportunity meets you on every corner, like the packs of Texas-sized dogs that roam the streets. And mind you, they could bite you if they wanted. But they don’t. They’re just happy roaming. And that’s San Antonio.
In many ways, San Antonio is a nexus and a plexus, where people, ideas and creativities converge. With a freeway system that resembles a neural network, which is to say that you need to be a brain surgeon to figure it out, San Antonio is constantly on the move. Strains of conjunto, polka, heavy metal, punk and soul are heard through the sultry night, while the Tower of the Americas towers above America, a giant finger against the sky.
Named after the patron saint of lost things, San Antonio is the place where America can find what it has lost. And this is the blog that will bring it to you, one lost thing at a time. This is TEX-MESSAGES.
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