My book of poems Wonderful Wasteland and other natural disasters has been published by the University Press of Kentucky. This summer, this is happening: use code FAU25 for 25% off my book or any UPK book, for that matter. Plus free shipping!
Wednesday, July 1, 2020
Friday, April 24, 2020
«los amores capitalistas» | stay at home and watch poetry
#Pandesia #coronaviruspr #QuédateEnCasa #poesía #poesiaparaunacuarentena
«humo»: stay at home and watch poetry from Armas indóciles para guerras serenas.
These are all sketches and prototypes. I expect to develop this project as soon as we break free from this pademia.
«malmö»: stay at home and watch poetry from Armas indóciles para guerras serenas.
«malmö» is one of the poems from my book Armas indóciles para guerras serenas, adapted her to the music of Blakevox, and using video mapping from the film «Levitation», by Sila Sveta.
Art Director: Arthur Kondrashenkov
Choreographer: Anna Abalikhina
Creative Producer: Alexander Us
Producers: Aleksey Rozov, Denis Astakhov, Alexander Us
Project Manager: Alexander Cherstvov
Music and Sound Design: Mitya Vikhornov
Dancer: Jury Chulkov
Coding and Technical Support: Denis Akopov, Dmitry Napolnov
Storyboard: Polina Sukhanova, Adeliya Koldarova
Concept of a whale: Daria Shurkina
Monday, April 20, 2020
National Poetry Month
National poetry month is here and «Wonderful Wasteland and other Natural Disasters» is here, too.
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Poemas of pain, loss, and the sequestration of experience after Hurricane María
SAN
JUAN, PUERTO RICO-- Two years after Hurricane María devastated the island of Puerto
Rico, Puerto Rican poet Elidio La Torre Lagares releases Wonderful
Wasteland and other natural disasters (Lexington: University Press of
Kentucky, 2019) a collection of poems that ponder on material loss, death, and
personal struggle during and after the tragic event.
Drawing
from both American and Latin American poetry, as well as global influences, the
book articulates a language of loss and devastation in the reconciliation of
identities. This collection illuminates a chaotic and confusing landscape that
is not only physical but also cultural, social, and political.
On
September 20, 2017, Puerto Rico faced the wrath of one of the worst storms in
the history of the Caribbean: Hurricane María. More than 4,000 American
citizens perished due to the direct effects of the hurricane or under the
conditions generated by the storm. Scarcity of food, water, and hope, added to
the delay of rescue efforts and humanitarian aid. La Torre’s book amplifies
transformation from the personal to the social during this period.
“I
began writing these poems as a form of catharsis, as a depuration of emotions
and feelings,” La Torre Lagares has said. “The poems try to cope with disaster
reality and the sequestration of this traumatic experience. All we had left
after the hurricane was a wasteland and the will to survive.”
Taken
together, Wonderful Wasteland serves as a stirring reminder of the
dislocation and fractured attachment that speaks to many Americans, including
transnationals and immigrants. Ultimately it speaks to coping with
physical loss and emotional pain in the face of human adversity.
La
Torre Lagares is a Puerto Rican poet who endured the lavishing conditions in
the aftermath of the hurricane, a time when he also lost his father. He has
published several poetry books in Spanish, and a novel titled Correr tras el
viento (Terranova, 2011) and is currently working on the release of his
novel The Gravity of Loss. Wonderful Wasteland is his first
collection of poems written in English.
Wonderful Wasteland and other natural disasters
This is all I have to say:
This book is not to please anyone.
It is a book written with pain.
This is a book of love.
This is a book of death.
This book kept me alive.
This is a book that took me 11 years.
This is a book unfinished.
This is a book that I didn’t write: it wrote me.
This is the one book for my daughter and my sister RJ to remember me.
This is the book I gained when I let go of my losses.
This book is illuminated.
This is a book about dissolutions, a broken country, and broken people. This is a book of hope, because only when we have nothing, we are ready to have everything.
Eso es todo.
—Elidio La Torre Lagares