chicano

Benjamin Alire Saenz reads poems that appear in Dark and Perfect Angels (1995); Calendar of Dust (1991); and Edwin Rolfe's First Love, and Other Poems (1951).

In this performance, Jimmy Santiago Baca reads from Black Mesa Poems, a collection published the year after this reading took place. He also performs poems from Martín & Meditations on the South Valley, a book that was awarded the Before Columbus American Book Award and earned Jimmy Santiago Baca an NEA grant for the year of this reading.

Juan Felipe Herrera performs his poetry and speaks movingly about song, language, and family in a reading given alongside Sherwin Bitsui for the 2009 Tucson Festival of Books. Herrera's Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems, published by the University of Arizona Press, was announced as the winner of the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award just two days prior to this reading.

As part of the Tucson Festival of Books, Jimmy Santiago Baca performs excerpts from his collection of poems Healing Earthquakes.

Leroy V. Quintana reads from The History of Home (1993), My Hair Turning Gray Among Strangers (1996), and The Great Whirl of Exile (1999).

In this dual-language performance, Francisco X. Alarcón reads from Snake Poems: An Aztec Invocation (1992) and Of Dark Love (1992). He also reads work and shares illustrations from five of his books of poetry for children. The poems in many of these books are presented in both Spanish and English. The reading closes with a selection of poems from an unpublished manuscript titled Life Song.

Pat Mora reads from her first two books of poems, Chants (1984) and Borders (1986), as well as poems that would later be published, sometimes in different versions, in Communion (1991) and Agua Santa (1997). Mora, who hails from El Paso, includes several poems about the desert in honor of what she describes as "probably the first time I have done a reading in another desert area."

Jimmy Santiago Baca reads poems and prose from his body of work, including A Glass of Water (2009), A Place to Stand (2002), Healing Earthquakes (2001), Martín & Meditations on the South Valley (1987), and C-Train (Dream Boy's Story) and Thirteen Mexicans: Poems (2002).

Eduardo C. Corral reads poems from Slow Lightning (2012) as well as new work. This reading was originally given with Natalie Diaz to inaugurate the Morgan Lucas Schuldt Memorial Reading Series.

Rolando Hinojosa reads widely from his work in English and Spanish.

Luis J. Rodriguez reads from The Concrete River (1991) and Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. (1993), along with poems that would later be collected in Trochemoche (1998). He also discusses his experiences with Los Angeles gang violence and the Chicano movement as well as his work with at-risk youth.

In this matinee performance at Tucson High School, Eduardo C. Corral reads from Slow Lightning (2012), provides commentary, and participates in a question and answer session with Natalie Diaz.

Luis Alberto Urrea reads poems from The Tijuana Book of the Dead (2015) focused on life in the US-Mexico borderlands. He opens with one poem forthcoming in Piedra (2023) and concludes with a chapter from The House of Broken Angels (2019), retold from memory. This reading was presented as part of the 2021 Tucson Humanities Festival.