Poetry in Dangerous Times: from Witness to Resistance. A Writing Retreat with Demetria Martinez: March 14 & 15, 2025
In-person at Jules’ Poetry Playhouse in beautiful Placitas, New Mexico
Friday, March 14, 2025, 3-5 pm AND Saturday, March 15, 2025, 10 am - 4 pm
First afternoon is 3-5 pm with optional dinner with Demetria after class at local restaurant
Second day of retreat March 15, 10 am - 4 pm (with lunch break)
The practice of poetry--as both readers and writers--has been crucial during times when resistance to the powers that be has seemed all but impossible. During this retreat, we will read the work of poets who have not only borne witness to injustice--but who have done so from a place of hope in order to resist injustice. We will look at the poetry of Anna Akhmatova, June Jordan, Susan Sherman, Mahmoud Darwish, and many more, including local writers and the writers who appear in the Poets Speak anthology series by Poetry Playhouse Publications. Demetria had her poetry used against her by the U.S. government when she was facing a potential 25-year prison sentence in connection with the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s. Readings/handouts cover areas from immigration, climate, the land, LGBTQ+, from local, national, and international poets as witnesses to nourish, sustain, survive, and build community.
Join us as we are guided in the process of writing your poems--to begin building a "portfolio" of work to sustain and nourish your spirits in the challenging years ahead. No formal writing experience is needed to take part in this retreat. Activists, contemplatives, and everyone in between are welcome to come and write poetry as we work to sustain community in dangerous times. This mini-retreat is for all levels of writers, beginning to advanced. This two-day session allows in-depth exploration with ample time for reading poems by others, and our own writing. Handouts will be sent prior to the retreat and used in class.
In-person at Jules’ Poetry Playhouse in beautiful Placitas, New Mexico
Friday, March 14, 2025, 3-5 pm AND Saturday, March 15, 2025, 10 am - 4 pm
First afternoon is 3-5 pm with optional dinner with Demetria after class at local restaurant
Second day of retreat March 15, 10 am - 4 pm (with lunch break)
The practice of poetry--as both readers and writers--has been crucial during times when resistance to the powers that be has seemed all but impossible. During this retreat, we will read the work of poets who have not only borne witness to injustice--but who have done so from a place of hope in order to resist injustice. We will look at the poetry of Anna Akhmatova, June Jordan, Susan Sherman, Mahmoud Darwish, and many more, including local writers and the writers who appear in the Poets Speak anthology series by Poetry Playhouse Publications. Demetria had her poetry used against her by the U.S. government when she was facing a potential 25-year prison sentence in connection with the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s. Readings/handouts cover areas from immigration, climate, the land, LGBTQ+, from local, national, and international poets as witnesses to nourish, sustain, survive, and build community.
Join us as we are guided in the process of writing your poems--to begin building a "portfolio" of work to sustain and nourish your spirits in the challenging years ahead. No formal writing experience is needed to take part in this retreat. Activists, contemplatives, and everyone in between are welcome to come and write poetry as we work to sustain community in dangerous times. This mini-retreat is for all levels of writers, beginning to advanced. This two-day session allows in-depth exploration with ample time for reading poems by others, and our own writing. Handouts will be sent prior to the retreat and used in class.
In-person at Jules’ Poetry Playhouse in beautiful Placitas, New Mexico
Friday, March 14, 2025, 3-5 pm AND Saturday, March 15, 2025, 10 am - 4 pm
First afternoon is 3-5 pm with optional dinner with Demetria after class at local restaurant
Second day of retreat March 15, 10 am - 4 pm (with lunch break)
The practice of poetry--as both readers and writers--has been crucial during times when resistance to the powers that be has seemed all but impossible. During this retreat, we will read the work of poets who have not only borne witness to injustice--but who have done so from a place of hope in order to resist injustice. We will look at the poetry of Anna Akhmatova, June Jordan, Susan Sherman, Mahmoud Darwish, and many more, including local writers and the writers who appear in the Poets Speak anthology series by Poetry Playhouse Publications. Demetria had her poetry used against her by the U.S. government when she was facing a potential 25-year prison sentence in connection with the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s. Readings/handouts cover areas from immigration, climate, the land, LGBTQ+, from local, national, and international poets as witnesses to nourish, sustain, survive, and build community.
Join us as we are guided in the process of writing your poems--to begin building a "portfolio" of work to sustain and nourish your spirits in the challenging years ahead. No formal writing experience is needed to take part in this retreat. Activists, contemplatives, and everyone in between are welcome to come and write poetry as we work to sustain community in dangerous times. This mini-retreat is for all levels of writers, beginning to advanced. This two-day session allows in-depth exploration with ample time for reading poems by others, and our own writing. Handouts will be sent prior to the retreat and used in class.
Class limit 10 students.
This is a two day retreat class. Please plan on commuting to Jules Poetry Playhouse for Friday afternoon, with optional out to eat after, and then returning for Saturday day. Lunch break at noon on Saturday. Bring your own lunch if desired. Plentiful snacks and beverages provided (coffee, tea, water, bagels and fruit in morning, afternoon snacks). Ample time to explore the grounds of Jules’ Poetry Playhouse and walk the labyrinth.
Bring writing materials, free wi-fi if needed.
Hosted by Jules Nyquist and John Roche.
Author books will be for sale, along with Poetry Playhouse Publications books and art.
Directions and contact info sent with registration. Questions? Email jules@poetryplayhouse.com.
Writer, poet and immigrant rights activist, Demetria Martinez was born and raised in Albuquerque. She earned a BA from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs from Princeton University. Her poetry collections include The Devil’s Workshop (2002), Breathing Between The Lines (1997), and Turning (1987), which appeared in an anthology of three Chicana poets. She is the author of the novella, The Block Captain’s Daughter, a recipient of the 2013 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, and the widely translated novel, Mother Tongue (1994) which won a Western States Book Award. The novel was inspired by her 1988 indictment on charges of conspiring to smuggle Central American refugees into the United States. A reporter for the National Catholic Reporter, she was later acquitted on First Amendment grounds. In 2013 she coauthored an ebook with former Oklahoma Senator Fred Harris, These People Want to Work: Immigration Reform. Her essay collection, Confessions of a Berlitz-Tape Chicana (2005) won an International Latino Book Award. She has been a recipient of the Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature. With Rosalee Montoya-Read, she coauthored Grandpa’s Magic Tortilla (2010), which won a New Mexico Book Awards’ Young Readers Book Award. In 2024, her translations of her grandfather’s corridos—which she worked on with Mexican poet Hector Contreras—appeared in the Southwest Historical Review. In the fall of 2025, Hand to Hand—a book of poetry and prose, coauthored with Susan Sherman—will be released and published by Casa Urraca Press. Martinez lives with her wife in La Cienega, New Mexico.
Jules’ Poetry Playhouse is at 11 Homestead Lane, Placitas, NM. Directions sent upon registration. No refunds; however, you may apply the fee to another class or merchandise if you need to cancel. If there is a waitlist and you need to cancel a 75% refund is at the discretion of Jules Poetry Playhouse.
Wanted Demetria Martinez
After Allen Ginsberg, 1988
America our marriage is coming apart
I’ve done everything right, got my degree
Now you tell me my English won’t do
America I’m not good enough for you?
Better my Spanglish than your smooth talk America
No, I won’t sleep with you, not now not ever
Ah come on America, all I wanted was a little
Adobe house in Atrisco, a porch swing
Two ninos, some democracy
Now I read in the Albuquerque Journal
That you left me for a younger woman
Bought guns for drugs, drugs for guns
Destroyed Managua in order to save it
Spied on Communist Maryknoll nuns in Cleveland
America your face is on wanted posters
In post offices and I’m on sleeping pills again America
Last night I dreamed the Pentagon was a great
Ouija Board spelling out REPENT REPENT
In half sleep I reached for you love but got
Only a scent of amber waves of grain
I got up for a hit of caffeine, the Book of Psalms
And whoosh, I saw the promised land
You don’t need citizenship papers there
It’s colored and smells of refried beans
Remember, remember who you are America
Purple mountain majesty above fruited plains
Worked by mexicanos, America call off your dogs
America give me a green card though I don’t qualify
America forgive me if I gag your memory
At La Paloma Bar on South Broadway
America I’m twenty-seven and tired thanks to you
And thanks to you I found God on a stoop on Arno St
America you claim crime’s fierce in this neighborhood
I tell you it’s nothing next to your crimes
The wars we fund start at the package liquor store
And end twice a year at confession
America I don’t want progress, I want redemption
Cut the shit, we could be lovers again, don’t hang up
America I’m your dark side, embrace me and be saved
Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, I know you can
America I’m not all bitter, I’m a registered Republican
At parties when friends ask, America who?
I introduce you, explain you’ve
Had a difficult upbringing
But I can’t cover up for you, America
Get that straight, Honey it’s not
Too late, it’s not too late
America the ball’s in your court now.
Daguerreotype of a Mother
You understood everything perfectly:
the epoch, the limits, your place.
Your intelligence was wasted on petty details.
You invested your talent in managing the pantry,
organizing the household,
your imagination confined
to common housework.
How you put up with it, kept your mouth shut,
sank your tears before they surfaced!
But your dignity nourished my rebellion,
and your silence my will to speak out.
Daisy Zamora, Nicaragua (combatant with the Sandinistas, who overthrew the brutal Somoza dictatorship; she served as vice-minister of culture under poet Fr. Ernesto Cardenal)
