Hi.
In Rodrigo Toscano's poetry, there's lots of explosions.
Even before his book Explosion Rocks Springfield,
there was already language that asks readers
to think about neologisms like Homo Momo, idealove, and now,
frabbajabba.
Raised on the border of California and Mexico,
his poems are familiar with what it's
like to cross borders of form, genre, and language.
They are experimental, yet can also
take the form of conversation.
Rodrigo is somewhat of an outlier
in the vein of Cathy Park Hong or our own Farid Matuk.
He is a person of color.
He is a poet who is a person of color,
but who also moves in the conceptual and the avant garde.
He is someone I look up to, admire and am inspired by,
maybe because he looks like me, or he
looks like someone I know.
He could be my tío, my primo, my cousin, my uncle.
And to see a writer like him have success
and write amazing, strange, experimental poetry,
is a big deal for me, as I'm sure it is for other Latino,
Latina, and Latinx poets.
His poetry is philosophical, performative, engaging,
and funny.
Please help me in welcoming Rodrigo Toscano.