Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax: 713.743.8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 20, 2006

Contact: Marisa Ramirez
713.743.8152 (office)
713.204.9798 (cell)
mrcannon@uh.edu

Acclaimed Mexican American poet Lorna Dee Cervantes will read from her most recent offering, “Drive: The First Quarter,” at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 24 in the theater at the University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture.

The event is hosted by the Houston Latino literary group, Nuestra Palabra, and sponsored in part by the UH Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS). It is free and open to the public. A reception and book signing will follow her reading.

Cervantes caused a stir when her first book of poems, “Emplumada,” was published in 1981. She was hailed as the next major voice of Latino literature. A feminist and a humanist, Cervantes details in honest and brutal terms the status of women, the struggle between races and society’s relationship with nature. Her 1991 compilation, “From the Cables of Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger,” was published by UH’s Arte Publico Press.

“We’re pleased to work with Nuestra Palabra to bring this important poet to our students and to Houston,” Lorenzo Cano, associate director of CMAS, said. “Part of our goal at CMAS is to expose young people to a wide array of Latino experiences. Ms. Cervantes’ work certainly conveys many themes.”

Currently, Cervantes is a visiting professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Department of Ethnic Studies. She has also taught creative writing at UC-Boulder and has edited numerous anthologies.

Houston poets who have been inspired by her work also will have an opportunity to read from their writings.

Other sponsors of the event include Texas Commission for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, Houston Arts Alliance, Houston Community College TV, HCC Central English Department, KPFT and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

For more information on the UH Center for Mexican American Studies, please visit www.class.uh.edu/CMAS/.

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.