Poet Laureate silva’s work ‘powerful and inspiring’

The College of Fine Arts hosted a three-day Distinguished Artist Series on both campuses that included reading, discussions and an insight into ire’ne lara silva, the 2023 Texas Poet Laureate.

The Edinburg native has published five collections of her poetry: “Furia: Poems,” “Flesh to Bone,” “Blood Sugar Canto,” “Cuicacalli,” and most recently in 2021 “FirstPoems: Ani’mal, INDíGENA, and Furia.” Her new book of poetry, “The Eaters of Flowers,” will be published January 2024 and centers on the aftermath of losing her brother.

silva said the practice she revisits most often when writing poetry and believes is more effective than talent and networking is being stubborn as to who to listen to and when to follow one’s own vision and voice.

She said that along with identifying as ChicanX and LatinX, tejano and conjunto music have also been sources of inspiration and influence for her stories.

“There’s not been a day in my life when I don’t think about my identity, when I don’t take pride in it, where I don’t learn from it,” silva said.

Evolving is not something the poet uses to describe her writing through the years, but a spiral where recurring themes constantly resurface. 

Themes that are found in her books are grief, mortality, loss, healing, nature and more.

“It’s circling the same themes, but my thoughts and my experiences keep changing because I keep living and I keep changing,” silva said. “So, it’s not so much that it’s evolving or that it’s moving in a line. It’s a big spiral.”

Joshua Parra, a vocal performance junior who attended the event on Wednesday, was interested in learning more about the poetry field.

“It’s quite incredible to see a prominent figure in our community to be recognized as she is,” Parra said. “It’s very cool to see people down here being recognized for something good and prominent.” 

Emmy Pérez, chair of the Creative Writing Department at UTRGV and Texas Poet Laureate of 2020, said the department wanted to keep the tradition of hosting poet laureates after having Ada Limón, 24th Poet Laureate of the United States, and Lupe Mendez, 2022 Texas Poet Laureate. 

“I hope that they get to hear her beautiful poetry and to come away feeling inspired about the role that poetry and art can play in our lives, whether we create it ourselves or just enjoy it,” Pérez said about silva’s “beautiful, powerful and inspiring presentations.”

The Distinguished Artist Series is part of FESTIBA (the Festival of International Books and Arts), which is all about encouraging and celebrating the community’s brilliance, she said. FESTIBA continues through the end of November. The series included music, dance, art and literature.

“I think it’s important that the community here sees its own achieving such wonderful literary accomplishments,” Pérez said.

She said silva often describes her own poetry as medicine and when others read or hear her poetry, they can feel the medicinal aspects of the work with them.

“It’s like a good song, but better because [in a] good song you need the music,” Pérez said. “If you just read the lyrics, they don’t alone suffice. But for ire’ne, you can just read one of her poems in her book and it’s like the whole band is there.”

The first part of the Distinguished Artist series took place Oct. 30 and featured a reading and plática on silva’s artistic practice in Cortez Hall on the Brownsville campus. On Tuesday, the event moved to the Visual Arts Building in Edinburg for a reading, question-and-answer session and a reception. The series ended Wednesday with a reading, a question-and-answer session, book signing and reception in the Performing Arts Complex lobby on the Edinburg campus.

silva and Chicago graphic artist Jennifer Chavez’s upcoming project is a comic book titled “The Thirteen Origins: Vendaval,” scheduled for publication in April.