Tag Archives: upr

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Seduced by the Goblin King: How we fell in love with David Bowie

Almost everyone I know was affected emotionally in some way or other by David Bowie’s passing two months ago. My colleague, Dr. James Penner, had an article published by the LA Review of Books on January 2nd in which he reviewed two books that I understand were released around the same time. You can read it here: David Bowie and the 1970s: Testing the Limits of the Gendered Body

He organized the event (for which the flyer on the left was for), in which he and 3 other professors (myself included) opened a conversation with the public by giving our personal and academic perspectives. This took place at the Richardson Seminar Room, in the College of Humanities, UPR RP.

After thinking it over and over, I decided to talk about Labyrinth, having learned by asking around that it wasn’t as popular with everyone as I imagined. Perhaps I was misled by most of my friends and the entire internet. In this decade, there’s Buzzfeed posts like this one, tumblrs such as Labyrinth Confessions, tumblr theories like this one, along with other virtual shrines across decades, if you dig. It’s not difficult. Because Jareth still constantly pops up in my life, I thought this was true for almost everyone. Well, guess what I found out? It’s not. It’s only so important to a certain group of people (the ones who give a little jump or widen their eyes when you mention it) – the ones who watched it as children and discovered David Bowie first, as Jareth.

window

Go beyond the Looking-Glass only if you’re not uncomfortable with getting into Freudian topics. You’ve been warned.

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Invitation: Young Published Authors @Work

This event is on Monday, view everyone is invited!

Francisco Muñiz‘s novel is a fantasy epic for young adults. We’ll be talking about writing and other stuff… and as far as I know, we might be doing a workshop with everyone who’d like to participate! But you don’t have to.

I think the “@ Work” part is funny because we both work at the UPR, so we’re at work… literally. But that’s not the intended meaning, just a fun pun.

We’d both really enjoy people coming in with questions (any kind of questions). Consider this an invitation if you’re free on Monday from 1 to 3pm in Río Piedras.

 

Flyer_Young Published Writers at Work

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Halloween Conference! Not really, but…

Last time I visited a class at the UPR in Humacao, more about I was so excited to meet students who are creating, whether as reactions to literature or reactions to LIFE, and I’m so happy to have been invited again!

I’m still writing this one up… lately, “the creative process” is a topic that’s been following me, something I’ve never in my life talked about (not even with other writers or artists) – or maybe it’s something I’ve taken for granted.

I decided to talk about the process of dream translation (yes, translation and not transcription) because my creative process, in most instances, relies on disturbed sleep and the left side of my brain running amok. (“Amok, amok, amok.”)

But I’ll also be clarifying some questions about the title…

Because I’m feeling generous, I’ll post a little preview.

Remember this?

fishlike

 

It’s so perfect in every way… I’m using it to talk about the title, Stars Like Fish:

It’s a reversible image of creatures in water and outer space. You may look at it from one angle or another, and its meaning is unaltered (in the same way stars like fish or fish like stars are interchangeable).

But what is the meaning?

Does a starred sky ever meet the ocean’s edge? From our human perspective, it does. As residents of an island, we might take visits to a shoreline for granted, but we’ve all noticed the horizon, the line where the ocean ends and the sky begins (or vice versa). Under a dark night sky, however, this line is almost impossible to isolate. Michelle’s illustration shows both sky and sea, almost blending into one another, but not quite.

 

So there you go. I’d be really tickled if anyone NOT from the UPRH made it, so, here’s the flyer:

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Sargasso Launch “party”

This year, my good friend and mentor, ex-professor and thesis director Michael Sharp wrote a review for Stars Like Fish that was published in the UPR Linguistics Department’s academic magazine, Sargasso. I’ll be getting my hands on it tomorrow when I get these two issues (and showing it off as soon as I can).

I’ve read it, and it makes me blush every time, since I still have a difficult time accepting SLF or myself deserve it, but I’m dealing with it. Perhaps as a consequence, I was invited to read some of my poetry at this event tomorrow, along with two poets I’ll be meeting there.

If you’re around the UPR tomorrow evening, everybody’s invited.

Sargasso Launch