Juan Felipe Herrera Poetry Reading

Join Point of Contact for a poetry reading by former U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera from 6:00-8:00pm at La Casita Cultural Center (109 Otisco St. Syracuse, NY 13204).

Juan Felipe Herrera served as the 21st United States Poet Laureate (2015-2017) and was the first Latino ever to hold this position. Herrera is known for his often bilingual and autobiographical poems on immigration and Chicano identity. Herrera’s publications include fourteen collections of poetry, prose, short stories, young adult novels and picture books for children, with twenty-one books in total in the last decade. His 2007 volume 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border contains texts in both Spanish and English that examine the cultural hybridity around questions of identity on the U.S.-Mexico border. Herrera was awarded the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry for Half the World in Light. In 2011, Herrera was elected a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and in 2012, he was appointed California Poet Laureate by Gov. Jerry Brown. Herrera is also a performance artist and activist on behalf of migrant and indigenous communities and at-risk youth.

This program is funded in part by Syracuse University and by Poets & Writers with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Additional funding comes from the Engaged Humanities Network and the Latino-Latin American Studies Program at Syracuse University.

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