Poets On X+ at MFA
Who: Tejana Còsmica
When: Friday, November 9, 8 PM
What: Poets on X+ Feature and Open Mic
Where: Mighty Fine Arts, 409 N. Tyler St. 75208
Hosted by: Opalina and Carlos Salas
A beginning of an experimental performance with Latina poets from the Dallas area, interweaving our stories in poetic form to learn more about ourselves, each other and the ground on which we stand. In doing so we hope to present a more rich and realized version of the varied Tejana experience.
Tamitha Curiel is a writer, actor and educator. Her work has appeared in the White Rock Zine Machine, Inverse/Looped, Mad Swirl, Decolonize Dallas and she is currently co-hosting Pleasant Groove, a poetry open mic with Priscilla Rice and her husband, Chris Curiel. She is in post-production for two short, experimental films, Weren’t We and Dreamgirl and is in the pre-production stage for a short documentary about the neighborhood where she grew up, Pleasant Grove, Dallas.
Opalina Salas is a poet, a former Oak Cliff bookstore owner, an editor of the femme lit zine, Let It Bleed, and creator and host of Poets on X+ reading series held in her beloved home of Oak Cliff, TX. She is a host and co- conspirator for ATTACK OF THE POETS, an annual multi-day festival—hosting poets from around the US, bridging the gaps between various literary communities far and wide. She has been writing and performing in and around the DFW area for 20 years with her comrade, partner and fellow poet, Carlos Salas, and got her start at the legendary Club Clearview Dallas Poetry Slam.
Amy Zapien explores the relationships of time travel, catharsis, magic, and personal narrative to healing. She experiments with visual and performing arts, rituals, soundscapes, installations, lighting, and illustration to excavate the ways in which stories are shared. Her alias Cocoatlicue artistic process is inspired by her B.A in Anthropology from UNT, rooting her poetry and performance in ethnographic documentation. She is currently collaborating with the Espinas Collective, and in the past has displayed work at The Houston Lawndale Art Center, The Oak Cliff Cultural Center, and Casa De Locos.
Priscilla Rice is a Dallas-based poet, storyteller and actor. Some of the shows she has performed in include: “Crystal City 1969,” “The House on Mango Street”, “Milagritos”, “The Dreamers Part 1: A Bloodline,” “Real Women Have Curves,” “Zoot Suit,” “Where Earth Meets the Sky”” and “Yana Wana’s Legend of the Bluebonnet”. She co-founded “Verse & Rhythm” with B. Randall and Rafael Tamayo, and is currently involved in several projects in her Pleasant Grove neighborhood, including “Voices of Pleasant Grove,” a free Summer Program for teens, and “Pleasant Groove,” an open mic founded by Tamitha Curiel.
Photo By Rosie Lindsey Photography
WordSpace is honored to sponsor Poets on X+ Reading Series, created by Opalina and Carlos Salas, an ongoing series since 2007.
