Poet laureate to speak at UTRGV

In today’s social climate, having open dialogue is of the utmost importance.

U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera will deliver a keynote address and poetry reading with the theme of social justice. The event is at noon Thursday in the UTRGV Performing Arts Center on the Edinburg campus.

Herrera, who has written 30 books, was appointed as the Library of Congress’ 21st Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry on June 10, 2015, and was appointed to serve a second term on April 13 of last year. Herrera is the first Hispanic poet to serve as U.S. poet laureate and the son of migrant farmworkers.

“I look forward to continuing my first year’s momentum and sharing the inspiration tsunami given to me in every community that I visit throughout the U.S.A. as laureate,” Herrera said in a news release from the Library of Congress in April 2016.

UTRGV creative writing Professor Steven Schneider, who wrote the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read grant along with two books of his own, organized the visit from the poet laureate. Herrera comes to UTRGV during FESTIBA, the Festival of International Books and Arts, which promotes literacy and culture to residents of the Rio Grande Valley.

“I think it’s a very important time for somebody like Herrera to come to our university,” Schneider said. “He is the 21st poet laureate, so there are few poet laureates than there are presidents. He brings to our university and to FESTIBA a voice of tolerance and inclusiveness. He’s much more interested in building bridges than building walls.”

This is the second poet laureate Schneider has brought to the university. In 2005, then U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser visited the University of Texas Pan American. Schneider will speak on Thursday about the NEA Big Read grant and movement to get more people excited to pick up a book.

“The NEA Big Read is a program which puts books back in the center of our culture,” Schneider said. “The connection is how literature addresses issues of social justice both in poetry and in fiction. The grant allows us to bring in a keynote speaker and we’re also sponsoring 25 community book discussion groups in libraries and schools throughout the Rio Grande Valley. We’ve given out 225 free books, from Peñitas to Mission, all the way to Weslaco at these discussions in libraries.”

The two will speak about “In the Time of the Butterflies,” a novel by Julia Alvarez, of which NEA Big Read has given out 225 copies throughout the Valley. There will also be a dramatic performance of the novel by the Lucia Macias Theater Production Company at 9 p.m. Friday in the Edinburg City Auditorium as part of the community day event for FESTIBA.

Writer, musician and prominent literary publisher Bryce Milligan will also be on hand Thursday to speak about literature and social justice issues. Milligan owns Wingpress, a small publishing company in San Antonio that published Schneider’s second book, “The Magic of Mariachi.”

Herrera’s keynote address and poetry reading will run from noon to 1:30 p.m. Admission is free.

For more information about FESTIBA, visit utrgv.edu/festiba.