Twenty-Five Years a Poet: A Reading with Carmen Alicia Murguía
Free to members or with admission to the sculpture garden.
Writer and activist Carmen Alicia Murguía celebrates her 25th anniversary as a poet with a reading, talkback, and book signing at the Lynden Sculpture Garden. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of Carmen's books, CDs, poems, and prints will benefit the Lynden Sculpture Garden.
About Carmen Murguía
Carmen Alicia Murguía’s life was transformed when she carried a “box of thoughts” 350 miles to Minneapolis and turned these thoughts, observations, and experiences into her first five poems. These landed her in the prestigious Loft Literary Center’s INROADS: Emerging Chicano/Latino Writers Mentorship Program under the direction of Sandra Benítez.
Carmen is the author of five collections of poetry: The Voices Inside: Mi Alma, Mi Cuerpo y Mi Espiritu (1993), Brown Pride (2002), the new carmen/la nueva bizet (in this opera our heroine lives) (2008), and LOVE! Poetry and a Short Story (2012). A POEM FOR ALL MY PEOPLE is her first collaboration with Gabriela Riveros, a Paraguayan-American Illustrator and empanada enthusiast who “gets it!” Carmen’s poems also appear in Between the Heart and the Land/Entre El Corazon y La Tierra: Latina Poets in the Midwest, edited by Brenda Cardenas and Johanny Vazquez Paz (MARCH/Abrazo Press, 2001), Revolution & Reclamation, edited by Angie C. Trudell Vasquez (artnightbooks, 2014), I Didn’t Know There Were Latinos in Wisconsin; Three Decades of Hispanic Writing, edited by Oscar Mireles (cowfeather press, 2014), and LATINA LIVES IN MILWAUKEE, edited by Theresa Delgadillo (University of Illinois Press, c. 2015). Carmen also produces events centered around readings and creative writing workshops, and has introduced famed authors Jewelle Gomez, E. Lynn Harris, Sandra Cisneros, Oscar Hijuelos, and Richard Blanco.
Carmen is the recipient of PrideFest Milwaukee’s Stonewall Leadership Award for her 20-year commitment to Milwaukee’s LGBT Community; a Milwaukee County Art Futures Fellowship Award; and the Charles D. Productions, Inc. HIV/AIDS Minority Communities Outreach Award. Carmen has been a conference presenter and a contributing writer for Latino and LGBT publications nationwide.
