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This isn't a poetry reading...it's a show.
I won't lie to you. If you miss this event, you will end up hating yourself. Oh, and also, please come out to this event and help us fill up 174 seats!!!
It's 12:22 am at the moment this letter is being written. It's a last minute push to put the word out about our event at the Weslaco public library theater. There are 13 1/2 hours to go until we get up on that stage. You might wonder what is a newsletter about books and publishing doing talking about a "show"? I'll explain briefly.
​I have been around poetry readings and book signings so much that I am more than familiar with the common approach. Usually, it involves people sitting around watching an individual get up to a podium or microphone stand and literally read to the audience. The reader will usually use a book or one of a variety of devices to read from. This approach is good when all you care about is the actual poetry itself more than the person who wrote it. But after many outings to similar events, you start to want something more. That's what happened to me. I wanted to see a show, not just someone reading off a book.
That is how "The Raving Press Events" was born. We organize and coordinate events centered around authors and their books. But we ask them to try to make it a show. This is accomplished in several ways: video presentation, dramatic performances, recitation (that is, reciting your works without reading it off a page or a device), and or, delivering a motivational/inspirational/enlightening speech.
So, if you are still wondering what an event like this would be like, there you have a gist of it. But you know the best way to experience it? By being there in person. Every time we hold one of these events people leave it with smiles on their faces and books in their hands. I think it is because they realize while they are there that they have been part of something different. Something transcendental. That is what we aim for. That is what you will get. And even if you don't buy books or cds, you can't deny that nothing beats going to a show in a great, classic theater, enjoying a FREE show in the cool a/c while all the other poor souls burn in this South Texas heat. And if you are not in the area, you should plan to come down this way sometime. There is magic happening in the borderlands. You need to be a part of it.
Mayor Joe V. Sanchez Public Library (Weslaco public library)
525 S Kansas Ave
Weslaco, TX 78596
There it is. All the reasons to go plus the map to get there. No excuse! See you there. :)
Chicano Theater Innovators: Cholorock Dance Theater
​I recorded the video of this very special dance troupe at the City of Edinburg auditorium. The concept here is such a statement that I thought it was definitely worth posting and sharing. I was brought up on a healthy dose of this type of music. To hear it in a theater production accompanying the dance moves of two graceful and elegant young dancers was just such a surprise and a delight. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
I had never paired this music with dancing of this sort. But I was also proud to see that something that to me had been so cemented in my childhood days as a manifestation of male-dominated, rancho-life, and alcohol flowing genre of Mexican Spanish language music now is being transformed into a much more elastic and versatile vehicle for the expression of dance. Not only that, but it is being done on a stage where before I had never seen that music played. And I mean "a stage" in a general sense, for the stage at the Edinburg City auditorium to me represents a platform for the higher arts. The ones that may be associated with a more distant, disconnected culture (think red wine and cheese) than those stages at the pulga (swap meet) where this kind of music might be much more of the expected norm (think tacos and espiro papas).
It was a real treat and a rare occasion to see a dance troupe perform this and other beautiful routines that truly touched me. They took me back to my childhood past and brought me back to an adulthood present full of possibilities for the arts in the Rio Grande Valley.
If you wish to know more about this group contact Jose Zamora at jzamoradance.com or visit their CholoRock Facebook page. ​
Gabriel H. Sanchez is an author, poet, actor, editor, and publisher from the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas, on the border with Mexico. Gabriel is the author of "Once Upon a Bad Hombre," "The X Series," "The Martian Ones: Tales of Human Folly," and "The Fluid Chicano." You can read more about him and his other projects at gabrielhugo.com or on his Facebook page: @gabrielhugoauthor.
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