Ecopoetics Bash: 3-Day Festival Celebrating the Rio Grande

Mark your calendars for Voices from the American Land, April 1-3 event, "Río del Corazón: A Festival of the Rio Grande." 

This free event, appropriately opening National Poetry Month 2011, includes workshops, poetry readings, discussions, lectures, and other activities for adults and children. A collaboration with the National Hispanic Cultural Center, the festival will be held at the NHCC's Education Building in Albuquerque at 1701 4^th St. SW. Albuquerque poet Tony Mares headlines Friday night event that opens the festival.

"Our aim is to celebrate the Rio Grande," said festival organizer and Voices from the American Land Executive Editor, Summer Wood. "We're hoping to encourage a better understanding of—and closer connection to—this magnificent landscape we call home." Wood, a prize-winning author, is a long-time resident of Taos, New Mexico. Voices is also a quarterly periodical offering attractively designed chapbooks (downloadable guidelines) by distinguished American poets to the widest possible readership.

The program is made possible in part by a generous grant from the New Mexico Humanities Council. Both the New Mexico Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities have designated this event a We the People project, part of the NEH program by that name "designed to encourage and enhance the teaching, study, and understanding of American history, culture, and democratic principles."

All festival events are free and open to the public, but reservations are recommended for the Saturday night event and can be made at no charge. Just call the National Hispanic Cultural Center box office at 505-724-4771 or email sonya@voicesfromtheamericanland.org. Additionally, several workshops have limited space: prior registration by email is advised. 

For more information and a complete listing of events, including descriptions and presenter bios, please visit http://www.voicesfromtheamericanland.org. The National Hispanic Cultural Center is located at 1701 4^th St. SW in Albuquerque, and can be reached by telephone at 505-246-2261.

To find out more about Voices from the American Land, including how to become a member, just visit the website.

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Cross-posted to Poets and Writers Picnic and Mountainair Arts.  An appreciative hat tip and thanks to Elaine Schwartz for the heads up through her unaffiliated but comprehensive and much appreciated NM poetry announcement list. Have an event, call for submissions, workshop, etc. to announce? Want to receive email notices? Email Elaine, delschwartz [at] juno [dot] com