POETRY

Piñata: A Bilingual Poetry Book for Teens

Piñata is finished but not yet published. Go to my Author’s Page to learn more. I would love to talk about the book and conduct bilingual poetry workshops with children, teens, and college students.

I have led bilingual poetry workshops in New York City elementary public schools.

I have worked one-on-one with teens on the autism spectrum, creating fabulous poems.

I taught poetry at Johns Hopkins University while I attended The Writing Seminars.

THEATRE

La llamada de Sylvia Méndez:
Separate Is Never Equal

Lectures on Sylvia Méndez and GALA Hispanic Theatre’s fall production of my play. Go to my Playwright’s Page to learn more. I am eager to talk about Sylvia Méndez and my play at GALA Hispanic Theatre. I have given and will give talks at the following institutions:

• • Chesapeake Math and IT Academy North High School, Laurel, MD: October 8, 2021
  • Green Acres School, Bethesda, MD: Fall, 2021
  • University of Maryland, College Park, MD: Spring, 2022

BILINGUAL THEATRE WORKSHOP

The workshop explores the concepts of translation, interpretation, and adaptation as these pertain to bilingual performance in Spanish and English. We ask: What is performance? What is theatre? Is it a form of translation? What is translation? How does one translate language, culture, emotions, moments of history and time? How and why do different translators translate the same text in different ways? What informs their choices?

Students will write short bilingual plays or scenes, focusing on the point where the students’ two languages and cultures meet: life on and in the hyphen of Mexican-Americans, Salvadoran-Americans, Cuban-Americans, for example. What do we mean by hybrid culture? The class will culminate in a public performance of bilingual one-acts written by the students.