13th Annual Literary Arts Festival

Monday, April 20

NEW VOICES:  A STUDENT READING

Griffin Gate, 7:00 p.m.

Standout students from the creative writing program read short fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, novel excerpts, and drama.  

Tuesday, April 21

AT RISE! DRAMATISTS PROJECT

Room 220, 6:00 p.m.

Grossmont's up-and-coming drama writers anthologize their one-act works in a staged reading.  

Wednesday, April 22

[daytime event]

WRITE OUT LOUD's "AGAINST THE ODDS" 

Griffin Gate, 12:30 p.m.

A collection of short stories read by professional actors.  

Write Out Loud presents Against the Odds, a thematically connected anthology of short fiction performed by professional actors.  This year's Write Out Loud programme includes works by Jamaica Kincaid, Kate Chopin, Maya Angelou, and the 2009 Literary Arts Festival keynote author, Jimmy Santiago Baca.  Past  "Write Out Loud" events have featured “Leaves and. Turns”; "Stories of Love and Passion"; "Science Squared"; and "Giving Season."     

Thursday, April 23

HUNGER & THIRST READING

Edited by Nancy Cary, June Cressy and Ella deCastro Baron, this acclaimed anthology about hunger showcases more than eighty local San Diego contributors to the nonprofit San Diego CityWorks Press, including Kim Addonizio, Denise Chavez, Susan Richardson and Barbara Kingsolver.  From the book's back cover:  "'The flavor of memory, the sensual and cerebral connection of food and love, and the universal instinct to sing the praises of what we eat and drink are celebrated in this collection. There are struggles here too. Starvation. Illness. Metaphorical hungers and thirsts. Stay awhile at the table. Cook up one of the recipes..."   

Monday, April 27

[daytime event]

OPEN MIC IN THE STUDENT CENTER

Student Center (Cafeteria).

Sign-up begins at 10:30 a.m.

Open Mic starts at 11:00 a.m.

Students, faculty, and staff are invited to read their original creative writing or a favorite poem (3 minute limit).  

Tuesday, April 28

[daytime event]

CELEBRACIÓN OF JIMMY SANTIAGO BACA'S LIFE & LITERATURE 

Griffin Gate, 12:30 p.m.

An inspired presentation by students and faculty. 

Thursday, April 30

[daytime event; by invitation only]

MASTER CLASS WITH JIMMY SANTIAGO BACA

Grossmont College campus location, T.B.A., from  2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

An intensive, two-hour Master Class/Workshop in prose, poetry and drama with the 2009 Literary Arts Festival keynote speaker, Jimmy Santiago Baca.  Not available to the general public; candidates must be recommended by the faculty of the Grossmont College Creative Writing Program and submit a workshop portfolio by April 9.  (For more details, see "Extras.")  

Thursday, April 30

JIMMY SANTIAGO BACA READING & SIGNING

Student Center, 7:00 p.m.

Born in New Mexico of Indio-Mexican descent, Jimmy Santiago Baca was raised first by his grandmother and later sent to an orphanage. A runaway at age 13, it was after Baca was sentenced to five years in a maximum security prison that he began to turn his life around: he learned to read and write and unearthed a voracious passion for poetry.  During a fateful conflict with another inmate, Jimmy was shaken by the voices of Neruda and Lorca, and made a choice that would alter his destiny.    Instead of becoming a hardened criminal, he emerged from prison a writer. Baca sent three of his poems to Denise Levertov, the poetry editor of Mother Jones.  The poems were published and became part of  Immigrants in Our Own Land,  published in 1979, the year he was released from prison. He earned his GED later that same year. He is the winner of the Pushcart Prize, the American Book Award, the International Hispanic Heritage Award and for his memoir A Place to Stand the prestigious International Award. In 2006 he won the Cornelius P. Turner Award. The national award recognizes one GED graduate a year who has made outstanding contributions to society in education, justice, health, public service and social welfare.  Baca has devoted his post-prison life to writing and teaching others who are overcoming hardship. His themes include American Southwest barrios, addiction, injustice, education, community, love and beyond. He has conducted hundreds of writing workshops in prisons, community centers, libraries, and universities throughout the country. In 2005 he created Cedar Tree Inc., a nonprofit foundation that works to give people of all walks of life the opportunity to become educated and improve their lives.  Cedar Tree provides free instruction, books, writing material and scholarships. Cedar Tree has an ongoing writing workshop in the Albuquerque Women’s Prison and at the South Valley Community Center. Cedar Tree also has an Internship program that provides live-in writing scholarships at Wind River Ranch, and in the south valley of Albuquerque. The program allows students, writers and poets the opportunity to write, attend poetry readings, conduct writing workshops, and work on documentary film production.  Baca is currently finishing a novel, a play and three poetry manuscripts to be published in 2007. He is also producing a two hour documentary about the power of literature and how it can change lives.