Book Festival Returns to Borderland
March 15, 2008
The 14th annual Border Book Festival returns to bring outstanding
literature to the borderland region April 18-20. Featured artists include
Cristina García, Quincy Troupe and singer Perla Batalla, who will give a
free concert in the Mesilla Plaza on Saturday, April 19.
Born in Havana, Cuba, and raised in New York City, Garcia’s debut novel, the
bestselling Dreaming in Cuban, was nominated for the National Book Award.
The New York Times called it “remarkable,” and pegged her as “a magical new
writer. . .blessed with a poet’s ear for language, a historian’s fascination
with the past and a musician’s intuitive understanding of the ebb and flow
of emotion.” She has since written three equally acclaimed novels, The
Aguero Sisters, Monkey Hunting and A Handbook to Luck, all of which further
showcase her gift for vividly capturing the intersection where the personal
and the political collide in bicultural experience.
Quincy Troupe is a poet, editor, and author of 17 books, that includes eight
volumes of poetry, three books for children, and six non-fiction works. His
most recent publications are The Pursuit of Happyness co-written with Chris
Gardner, which was a New York Times best-selling biography and The
Architecture of Language (Coffee House Press, 2006), a book of poems that
has garnered high praise including the 2007 Paterson Award for Sustained
Literary Achievement; Transcircularities: New and Selected Poems (Coffee
House Press, 2002) won the 2003 Milt Kessler Poetry Award and was selected
by Publishers Weekly as one of the ten best books of poetry published in
2002. His most recent book for children is Little Stevie (Houghton Mifflin,
2005). He is editor of Black Renaissance Noire, a literary journal of the
Institute of African Studies at New York University. Forthcoming in is a
children’s book on the life of Ray Charles, titled Hallelujah, from
Hyperion.
Grammy nominated vocalist, composer, and arranger Perla Batalla was a backup
singer for K.D. Lang and Leonard Cohen. Cohen later encouraged Perla to
embark on a solo career. Perla released her debut “Perla Batalla” on the
Warner/Discovery label in 1994. Her CDs include Mestiza, Mestiza Voyage,
Discoteca Batalla, Bird on the
Wire (songs by Leonard Cohen sung by
Batalla) and her most recent, What I did on my Summer Vacation, a collection
of songs recorded after journeying to Buenos Aires to meet her mother’s
side of the family for the first time ever. Batalla’s CDs are available
at the Cultural Center de Mesilla, homebase of the BBF.
Libros y Más, the festival Trade show will take place on the historic
Mesilla Plaza and features local, regional, national and international
authors, presses and artists. Three Plaza stages include the Main Stage, the
Children’s Storytelling Tent and the Lucha Stage, which will highlight
Lucha Libre, Mexican wrestling and poetry.
The main stage will feature music on the Plaza with La Familia Vigil, with
featured musician Cipriano Vigil, a national treasure who has played at the
Smithsonian will offer “Cancion Nuevo,” New Mexican music as well as
Radio La Chusma from El Paso, offering a fresh sound of AFRO-MEXICA REGGAE
CUMBIA. Band members include Ernesto Tinajero, Charlie Villanueva, Scott
Marestein, Selina Nevarez, David Angerstein and Scoop. Sonia and the Snake
Charmer and Ballet Folklorico Viva Los Niños, both from El Paso, will round
out performances on the main stage.
Armando Cepeda, a muralist born in El Paso and now living in California,
will offer a weekend long mural painting experience on the Plaza.
Participants will paint one panel of an ongoing collaborative mural that
will then be gathered and placed on a wooden frame. Cepeda’s work can be
found on his website: www.arteganas.com
The children’s storytelling tent, the Tent of Wonders, will feature
children’s authors and storytellers Amy Costales, author of Abuelita Full
of Life, Lupe Vargas and Her Super Best Friend, Adalucía Quan, author of
The Song of the Coconut, La Chica de Mendiburo and The Magic of Clay, and
Sudeshna Sengupta, painter and festival poster and bookmark artist who will
tell stories of India.
Micaela Seidel, Assistant curator from the Hispanic Heritage Center in
Albuqueque, will offer a cape making workshop on Friday prior to the
children’s and pet parade on Saturday, April 18 at ten a.m. The parade is
free for children and families. Registration will take place in front of
the Mesilla Community Center. Prizes will be awarded to children following
the parade. A repeat cape workshop will take place on Saturday at the
Storytelling tent.
The Lucha Stage, a bona fide wrestling ring, will feature Lucha for
Literacy, an exhibition of Mexican wrestling by masked wrestlers Magno, Rey
Escorpion, Astroman and Peluchín, Jr, followed by a reading by Xavier
Garza, author of Lucha Libre, The Man in the Silver Mask, Griselda “La
RaNa” Muñoz, recognized slam poet and Osvaldo Ogaz, Mexican Lucha poet
who will also serve as MC.
The New Mexico State University Slam Poets will perform on Saturday on the
Lucha Stage. They include: Daniel Sandino-Molloy, Ian Dolly, Luke Mitchell,
Chris Acosta, Amanda Orta, and Will Forsyth. The NMSU Slam Team is composed
of performance poets that attend New Mexico State University. The goal of
NMSU Slam is to expand creativity through the art of performance poetry.
Festival highlights include Return: A Reading with Quincy Troupe featuring
World Music with Border Sol Arkestra: Bugs Salcido, Nancy Lorenza Green and
Debarshi Roy on Friday, April 18 at 7:00 p.m. at the Mesilla Community
Center. The evening will include the presentation of the Premio Fronterizo
to Cristina García, Quincy Troupe and Perla Batalla, the presentation of
the Sunshine Community Service Award to Jerean and Tom Hutchinson from La
Posta and the Volunteer of the Year award to NMSU Student Naomi Estrada. The
ticket price is $25 and includes Probaditas/Tapas.
Cristina García will read from her new novel, A Handbook to Luck, as well
as Dreaming In Cuban, The Agüero Sisters and Monkey Hunting. on Saturday,
April 19, from 6-8:00 p.m. at the Mesilla Community Center. Tickets are $15.
Following the reading will be a free Plaza concert with Perla Batalla at
nine p.m. on the Mesilla Plaza.
Audiences are invited to bring their lawn chairs and enjoy the day long
activities on the Mesilla Plaza Saturday and Sunday, April 19 and 20 and
shop at the Trade show booths featuring local, regional and national presses
and authors as well as artisans including the weavers of Tsobol Antzetik
from the Chiapas highlands and Centro Santa Catalina in Juárez. Food and
drink is available from Beltran’s Meat Market and others.
Saturday events include a Plática/Book talk by Cristina García featuring A
Handbook to Luck as well as a Plática/talk by Quincy Troupe. Griselda, La
“RaNa” Muñoz will offer a free teen writing workshop called “Modern
Callings, Ancient Voices: The Art of Spoken Word and Its Indigenous
Origins.” The workshop is free to teens but registration is necessary.
Please contact the festival at 575-523-3988 or bbf@zianet.com to register.
Sudeshna Sengupta will offer a Mandala painting workshop in Sunday, April 20
at 11:30 a.m. Cost is $20 and includes all supplies. Size is limited to
20. Sudeshna Sengupta is an internationally exhibited painter/printmaker and
textile artist who was educated at the international university founded by
the Nobel Laureate poet Tagore in Shantiniketan (Abode of Peace) India. She
has taught at university level for 16 years in New Delhi, Seattle,
California, and NM before choosing to be a full time mother through
adoption. Some of her art can be seen on her website
www.artoflearning.com/art
Drawing on the tradition of festive decoration from India called Rangoli
Mandala – the participants will be guided to create and color circular
designs called mandalas. Mandala means “circle” in Sanskritt and is used to
universally describe circular shaped art and designs that start from a
central point.
A Conversation and Coffee will take place on Sunday that features
photographer and writer Don Usner. Daniel Zolinsky, BBF resident
photographer, will lead a discussion of photography and the art of seeing.
Cost is $7.
Sunday’s events include storytelling and clay work with Adalucía Quan ,
storytelling with Amy Costales in the Storytelling tent and Un
Homenaje/Homage to Raúl Salinas, Xicanindio poet who passed away recently.
The festival will culminate in Una Tardeada Literaria, an afternoon reading
by writers Alex Espinoza, Don Usner, Adalucía Quan and Amy Costales with
music by La Familia Vigil. Alex Espinoza is the winner of the Barnes and
Noble Discovery Prize for his novel, Still Water Saints.
For more information on the festival, to volunteer or to purchase tickets,
please contact the Border Book Festival at the Cultural Center de Mesilla,
bbf@zianet.com www.borderbookfestival.com or come by the festival
headquarters at the former Frietze Grocery Store, 2231A Calle de Parian in
Mesilla, a block in a half from the Plaza, next to the Mesilla Post Office.
Hours are 10-5:00 pm Friday-Sunday and most days. Call ahead at
575-523-3988. For a complete artist roster list and bios go online at
www.borderbookfestival.org
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