SUNY Oswego is among the recipients of grants from the Library of America’s “Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home” project, which invites participants into a nationwide conversation about Latino poetry. 

In announcing the grants –- totaling $90,000 across 75 libraries and cultural organizations in 31 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico –- the Library of America celebrated Latino poetry’s “distinctive rhythms, candor and lyricism; its profound engagement with pasts historical and mythic; its imaginative reckoning with the complexities of language, land and identity; and its visions of a nation enriched by the stories of immigrants, exiles, refugees, and their descendants.” 

This initiative is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and Emerson Collective.

Roberta (Rosie) Hurtado, an English and creative writing faculty member and director of the university’s Latino and Latin American studies program, coordinates SUNY Oswego’s programs under this grant with Michelle Bishop, Penfield Librarian’s first-year experience librarian. 

Bishop contacted Hurtado about this opportunity for $1,200 to the institution, intended to support at least two poets, and Hurtado sought out additional partners to expand outreach and programming. Bishop found the opportunity on a listserve and knew Hurtado from learning about her research activities after sharing time on campus committees.

“This grant is a unique approach to bringing the poets featured in the ‘Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology’ to as many people as possible,” said Bishop, who serves as co-PI (principal investigator) for the project. “It’s the first I can remember seeing a grant like this in the 12 years I’ve worked here.”

“We decided on four poets, two per semester,” Hurtado said. “Shoot for the moon, land in the stars.”

Bishop and Hurtado also secured grants from ARTSwego, with partners including English and Creative Writing, Gender and Women’s Studies, Native American Studies, Curriculum and Instruction, a Grand Challenges Mini-Grant, Hart Hall and the Educational Opportunities Program. 

“It’s really about community outreach,” Hurtado said of the project. “Often when a speaker comes, you have a particular audience who knows the author and has read their work.” 

Traditionally, those who don’t know an author’s work are less likely to attend events, but Bishop and Hurtado are working with writers who can appeal to, and provide an engaging presentation for, any audience.

In addition, with the variety of partners involved, Bishop and Hurtado aim to get authors into classes and spaces that wouldn’t ordinarily benefit from such programs.

“The classes that these poets will meet aren’t the same where they normally would appear,” Hurtado said. “It’s also great for our writers because they get to meet a variety of students.”

Outstanding lineup

Speakers coming in the fall, dovetailing with Latino Heritage Month from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, include Ricardo Nazario y Colón –- who also is senior vice chancellor for diversity, equity and inclusion and the chief diversity officer for SUNY –- on Sept. 16 and California-based Chicano poet Paul S. Flores on Oct. 14.

“These are two amazing writers and humans who bookend Latino Heritage Month and can connect very well to students and any members of the community,” Hurtado said. 

Nazario y Colón’s appearance in Penfield Library’s Speakers Corner also helps kick off the popular ALANA (African, Latino, Asian and Latin American) Student Leadership Conference. He also will appear in an English class that day.

The session will feature Hurtado and Nazario y Colón, both Puerto Rican scholars and poets, exploring interstices of Afro-Boricua culture, language and the meaning of home with people and places within his poetry.

“It’s going to be a student-centered event,” Hurtado said. “He will focus on what it means for him to be a poet and an important person in the SUNY system, and not the kind of person we see on the news when Latinos are referenced.”

Showcasing a wider representation of both Latino culture and masculinity than the stereotypes many see are among the running themes of the series. 

This will continue with Flores, whose appearance is part of the Living Writers Series hosted by creative writing faculty member Soma Mei Sheng Frasier. “Paul does a lot of spoken word poetry and it’s really dope,” Hurtado said. 

Considered one of the most influential Latino performance artists in the country and a nationally respected youth arts educator, Flores released his first full poetry collection “WE STILL BE: Poems and Performances” in March 2024. The award-winning writer and performer creates plays, oral narratives and spoken-word works about transnationality and citizenship that spur and support societal movements that lead to change. 

The spring 2025 semester’s first installment will feature Ariel Francisco, hosted by Joanna Goplen in gender and women’s studies on March 20. It will focus on the poet’s explorations of geo-political emotional landscapes and the development of community as it relates to gender identity formation.

Born in the Bronx to Dominican and Guatemalan parents before moving south, Francisco has authored three collections of poems with a fourth due out in October.

The series will conclude in April 2025 with José Olivarez appearing at SUNY Oswego’s Syracuse Campus, hosted by Hurtado and curriculum and instruction faculty member Ritu Radhakrishnan.

This event will explore the poet’s representations of intergenerational socialization of masculinity and what it means to be both a member of a family and also learn to heal wounds of trauma. The location will help incorporate SUNY Oswego student teachers who have placements at local Syracuse City K-12 schools, as well as their students.

The California-based Olivarez’s appearance dovetails with the larger theme of what modern masculinity might look like.

“A lot of times when we talk about Latino masculinity, we talk about machismo,” Hurtado explained. “We don’t get a lot of representations that are positive. Jose is young, he’s fresh and he’s funny. In his poetry, he looks at what it means to be Latino and a man. What it means to be a man and tell his friends that he loves them.”

Communication studies faculty member Francisco Suárez also plans to interview Nazario y Colón and perhaps another featured poet on his popular From Suárez's Basement video podcast.

The national project is inspired by the September 2024 release of “Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology,” edited by poet and principal project advisor Rigoberto González. These events will explore the initiative’s eight core humanities themes and feature poets, scholars and community leaders.

Hurtado said the SUNY Oswego activities correlate with these goals and expand opportunities for collaborations. With the Latino and Latin American Studies program showing double-digit enrollment increases across academic years since its establishment in 2022, it’s a field seeing a lot of interest.

“The opportunity to work with these outstanding poets and so many other beautiful partners in the campus and the community is going to be so amazing for our students and for anybody interested in attending,” Hurtado said.

“I’m really excited for students to experience these poets in person, to have their questions answered, and to hopefully be inspired and affirmed,” Bishop said. “I’ve also really appreciated working along with Dr. Hurtado as co-PI. Her efforts to bring together a variety of funding sources in order to offer this year-long series of programs is important to recognize.”

Bishop also noted the campus community is welcome to connect with Penfield librarians to explore funding options.

“Librarians work really hard to be proactive about sharing information and opportunities, like grants, with the faculty in our departments,” Bishop said. “And as a reminder, faculty and staff are encouraged to apply to the library’s University Impact Collections Grant.”