United States of Writing Blog

This week I want to spotlight the amazing work done by the podcast Bootleg Like Jazz. It’s funny because everyone seems to have ties to Nuestra Palabra—Icess Fernandez Rojas, featured in last week’s post, is a member of the group as am I, and the creator of Bootleg Like Jazz, Terrell Quillin, better known as Q, is the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show’s producer! I have been following the work of Bootleg Like Jazz, aka #bllj, and I love the format and energy behind the podcasting. It’s an interview style format where Q focuses on the Black Diaspora, Afro-Latinidad, and Latinx culture. #bllj covers the arts, music, travel, and books.

I was lucky enough to be tapped for an interview and it was great experience. Q asks all the important questions with a great balance of information about who the artists are and what’s behind the work they are creating. Q has interviewed local writers like Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton and Leslie Contreras Schwartz, Houston’s former and current poets laureate, respectively, and writers outside of Houston like Roberto Carlos Garcia, a New York City poet and author of the collection black / Maybe (Willow Books, 2018).

The podcast started last year and puts out episodes every month. If you are looking for a fresh take on the literary world, then look no further than Bootleg Like Jazz.

One Book One New Orleans is a campaign for literacy and community where New Orleans residents share the experience of reading the same book at the same time. The city has many great writers but its adult illiteracy rates are troubling. I had an opportunity to speak with One Book One New Orleans’s executive director Megan Holt and ask a few questions about the organization’s mission and how reading books together can build community. Megan and I have worked together at the Words & Music Festival for the last two years but most importantly, we are friends that share a love for motherhood and literacy.

Can you tell us a little bit about the mission of One Book One New Orleans?
One Book One New Orleans selects one book each year for New Orleans residents to read. We make an extra effort to ensure that our selected book is accessible to all adults. Through a network of community partners, we get the book, as well as a curriculum for the book, into adult education classes, adult ESL classes, HiSET classes, educational programs in juvenile justice centers, and prisons. We also arrange for the book to be recorded and broadcast for the blind community. Finally, we host a series of free, family-friendly events inspired by the book.

Why is it so important to get the whole city of New Orleans reading?
Often it feels that New Orleans is a city divided—by education level, by socioeconomic class, by neighborhood, by race. Bringing people from different walks of life together through a shared reading experience can be the first step to realizing that we have more in common with one another than we thought.

How can reading as a city transform New Orleans?
Increased adult literacy is linked to lower poverty rates, lower crime rates, lower domestic violence rates, better chances of securing a job that pays a living wage, better health care outcomes, and increased participation in the democratic process. These effects then get passed on to the next generation. While it would be overly simplistic to say that reading together as a city is a magic cure-all for some of the struggles our city faces, coming together certainly can serve as a catalyst for change.

What are some of the books the city has read together in the past?
Our first book in 2004 was A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines. The last few years we’ve included titles such as Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans by Louis Armstrong, Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas by Rebecca Solnit and Rebecca Snedeker, and Counting Descent by Clint Smith.

What’s the book for 2020?
New Orleans Griot: The Tom Dent Reader edited by Kalamu ya Salaam.

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Finding literary events in Detroit can sometimes be tough. It seems like every other month I come across someone who says, “I don’t know if there are any open mics or readings I can go to.” Social media, alongside word of mouth, is the primary way Detroit offers up information about literary events. I wanted to share a couple of the digital spaces I use as references to help people track events.

When I want to know what evening events are taking place, I always visit In the Loop Poetic Haven. Although this Facebook group began by highlighting poetry events, I have found a variety of hip-hop and comedy events here as well. The group has developed since 2011 and now has over two thousand members. In addition to daily posts, well-known local poet Caesar Torreano adds weekly posts featuring recurring open mics.

Many Detroit poets, myself included, follow the Detroit Poetry Society. This Facebook group is made up of multi-genre artists who hold open mics, offer workshops, and do hands-on work in Detroit neighborhoods. Their Instagram feed also stays up to date with information about upcoming events.

I have also recently discovered Writing Workshops Detroit, an independent writing school that offers a variety of writing classes and workshops in Detroit and online, and individual consultations. You can keep up with them on Twitter.

Finally, the Poets & Writers Literary Events Calendar is a great way to see what events are in your area. You can also help out the community by posting events you know about for free.

Happy New Year! I wanted to kick off 2020 by focusing on what the literary community looks like outside of author readings and book events. This includes groups like Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say, blogs and podcasts such as Dear Reader and Bootleg Like Jazz, ekphrastic experiences like the workshop and reading series Words & Art, and book lover groups like the Afrofuturism Book Club.

Today I want to spotlight the work of Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say. This group has been bringing Latino writers to the Houston area for more than twenty years, beginning with a monthly reading series in the late 1990s and organizing the Latino Book and Family Festival in the early 2000s to a literary radio program that’s been running for more than fifteen years called the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show.

The show goes on the air every Tuesday from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM CST on Houston’s local Pacifica station KPFT 90.1FM and is livestreamed at KPFT.org. It is an hour-long show that focuses on literary works, as well as local community events and political happenings in the Houston area. Nuestra Palabra founder and director Tony Diaz interviews authors of all kinds—including poets, musicians, visual artists, historians, and chefs. The show is a brilliant opportunity to check out what is happening regionally, nationally, and internationally across the Latino landscape. You can listen to their archive of shows on the Nuestra Palabra website.

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