NEA Big Read – Poetry in Conversation w/ Jimmy Santiago Baca, Anna Martinez and Miguel Santistevan

NEA Big Read – Poetry in Conversation 

w/ Jimmy Santiago Baca, Anna Martinez and Miguel Santistevan

WED, March 26, 7pm

FREE; Registration Recommended

An evening of original poetry from some of New Mexico’s greatest voices interspersed with conversation and storytelling centered around the theme “Where We Live”.

About the authors: 

Jimmy Santiag Baca is an award-winning American poet and writer of Chicano descent.

While serving a five-year sentence in a maximum security prison, he learned to read and began to turn his life around, eventually emerging as a prolific artist of the spoken and written word.

He is a winner of the prestigious International Award for his memoir, “A Place to Stand,” the story of which is now also a documentary by the same title.

Anna Martinez is an Albuquerque resident, the in-house poet at Las Pistoleras Instituto Cultural de Arte in Taos and has held titles as ABQ Chicano/a City Slam Champ, Haiku City Champ, and 2019 City Slam Champ. She is also on the board of directors for Burque Revolt Poetry Slam and she often opens her home for free to touring poets. She was the headliner poet for the recent 2022 Redwood Poetry Festival in Eureka, California.

Martinez, a mother and grandmother who was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Española New Mexico, is well-known as a performing poet who delivers defiant, sometimes raunchy and often humorous diatribes against injustice and ignorance as well as crowd-pleasing celebratory sensual incantations of shared pride and joy in our very special New Mexico experiences of life and love.

Miguel Santistevan has Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and a Master’s Degree in Agriculture Ecology and has many publications and has done many presentations on his research about acequias, maize, and resilient food systems.  He is a certified Permaculture Designer with 30 years of experience.  He is the radio producer of ¡Que Vivan las Acequias! radio show with over 23 hours of programming and is the founder of “Sol Feliz Enterprises LLC” which consults on land improvement, conducts webinars, tours, & other educational programming.

He has been farming for 23 years on his ancestral land that is connected to the Acequia Madre del Sur as a parciante and has served as past Mayordomo and President of his acequia.  He is the 4th Taos Poet Laureate for 2023 & 2024, doing a project to inspire youth to produce and perform poetry.  Most importantly, he is a husband and a father with two daughters.