Poetry in Dangerous Times: from Witness to Resistance. A writing retreat with Demetria Martinez: March 14 & 15, 2025
$195.00
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 part of workshop Friday 3-5 pm (with optional out to eat after)
Second day of workshop March 15, 10 am - 4 pm (with on-site 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.
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.