If you’ve ever wished you could craft a poem using only the glossary of DEI words banned by this administration, that’s one of the many opportunities afforded at the upcoming 10th annual Círculo de poetas and Writers Conference held at the MAH on Aug. 23, and online Aug. 30.
“When I saw the list, that there’s actually people in the government scratching off words on documents, I was shocked,” says poet Adela Najarro, who will be leading that particular workshop’s prompt, “Disappearing Words,” during the conference. “What is this, 1984?”
Or 1934.
She decided to use her revulsion for creative exploration and, judging by the other workshop titles—“Poetic Racial Justice: Healing Our Streets,” led by 2025-2027 Watsonville Poet Laureate Dr. Victoria Bañales; “Dealing with Grief Through Poetry,” with Xicana high school teacher Erica Castro and “Flor y Canto: Writing as Collective Medicine for Organizers, Artists, Healers,” with Laura Diaz Tovar—her fellow writers had similar inspirations: use the horrors of this national or personal moment as fertile ground.
The workshop, then, becomes the community garden to tend together.
“It’s a beautiful thing,” Najarro says.
After the nonprofit summons hosts through their newsletter and online channels, applicants fill out a form with their workshop idea pitch, and the winners get a free year membership to Círculo, plus free attendance to the rest of the conference.
“All of our workshops should be one-third presentation discussion, one-third writing, then the last third, the participants share.”
Attendees will have an opportunity to share to a wider audience at the open mics occurring near the end of each conference day, right before closing remarks and “benediciones.”
As the name Círculo suggests, the non-hierarchical nonprofit seeks and speaks in multicultural voices, with primarily Californian Latino membership, but decentralized and international, thanks in part to the pandemic. The first conference was held at Cabrillo College, supported by the English department, as an attempt to keep creative momentum going after writers met in 2015 at a summit of sorts.
“Francisco Aragón of the Latino Studies department at the University of Notre Dame put together a tour of a Smithsonian exhibit called ‘Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art,’ and part of that, he gathered a bunch of Latino writers at the Crocker Museum in Sacramento to spend a weekend writing on the museum pieces and creating a dialogue between art and poetry.”
They realized quickly how crucial it was to be creating with “like-minded people with similar concerns, cultural backgrounds and linguistic ideas. How do you push your Latino poetry to the best it can be by engaging with each other?”
Lucha Corpi, who Najarro calls a “canonical” Bay Area poet along with Francisco X. Alarcón, hosted everyone at her house to begin dreaming up what Círculo could be. She and Alarcón became the “mentors,” instrumental in developing a volunteer board to serve its members, who pay union-like “dues” in order to attend quarterly workshops and the annual conference, which celebrates its ten-year anniversary with an anthology, submissions opening Aug. 24, the day after the MAH event.
Najarro, who serves on that board, insists it doesn’t violate their non-hierarchical design, and that experiential inclusivity is part of why they’ve made it ten years.
“Everybody’s equal,” she says. “Lucha and Francisco, they have published tons of books, have national literary reputations. But they are sitting next to somebody who’s writing their first poem.”
Visit Círculo’s website and the lattice of member thumbnail photos sit next to each other in the same equality. Click on each and up pops author bios, reflecting different successes, vocations and locations, with brief writing samples below. A playwright from Glasgow, Scotland. A humanities professor in San Antonio, Texas. A poet from Mumbai, India, who will be leading a workshop for the online conference.
This is the third time the MAH has hosted their in-person conference after Covid forced them online but broadened their participant base, and Najarro says the hope is their stay is indefinite.
“The space is so amazing, and people like [Rentals and Events Manager] Jessi Bond so supportive, that we just decided: ‘let’s make this a tradition.’”
That tradition continues in the format they have developed: meet en masse in the morning; break off into breakout groups for workshops; lunch; more workshops; dinner; reunite and bring it home with an open mic. Time is also carved out for their Tribute to Living Writers series, an opportunity to honor one selected elder, or “veteranx,” for their contributions to the art form. This year, it’s Chicana and Chumash poet Lorna Dee Cervantes.
While the solo work of being a writer can be invigorating, Najarro wants potential attendees and future Círculo members to know the next process, publishing, doesn’t have to be so lonely. The organization has affiliations with small presses, and the mastheads will be in attendance.
Círculo is all about linking arms to increase everyone’s reach.
“Especially now in our political climate, if you can create a circle of community where we learn from each other, that is the power.”
For more info on the Círculo Summer conferences, including the full schedule, visit circulowriters.com. Doors are at 9:30 for the in-person conference at the MAH on Aug. 23. The reading at 6pm is open to the public. Zoom starts at 10am PST on Aug. 30. Círculo’s next quarterly writing workshop is Oct. 15.
