VenueNew Hazlett Theater 

Date06/19/2014 

Time6:00 PM - 7:30 PM  

Event TypeReading 

GenrePoetry 

SponsorHuman Equity through Art 

Cost $0.00
 

Description and Reader Names: The Human Equity through Art Performance Series, with funding from the Heinz Endowments, presents acclaimed Puerto Rican poet Martín Espada and Pittsburgh’s singular artist/activist Vanessa German in the third of its 3-part, 2013-2014 performance series, June 19, 7:30 p.m. at the New Hazlett Theater.

Martín Espada has published more than 15 books as a poet, editor, essayist and translator. His latest collection of poems, The Trouble Ball (Norton), is the recipient of the Milt Kessler Award, a Massachusetts Book Award and an International Latino Book Award. The Republic of Poetry (Norton) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He has also received an American Book Award, the Shelley Memorial Award, the PEN/Revson Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. A former tenant lawyer in Boston’s Latino community, Espada is a professor in the Department of English at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.


Vanessa German is an artist, actress, playwright, sculptor, performer and educator. She has written and performed several spoken word operas and been the featured performer at The Vineyard Playhouse, The Three Rivers Arts Festival and The August Wilson Center for African American Culture, the International Arts Festival in Grahmstown, South Africa, Pop TECH, Harvard, MIT, TED Women, and TED Education. Her sculptures have been exhibited in galleries and museums nationwide. Vanessa is also the founder of Love Front Porch, Homewood’s Art House and the popular Homewood 'STOP SHOOTING, WE LOVE YOU' yard sign campaign.

HEArt brings these poets together to read as part of its mission to promote artists as activists and build a community of citizens who believe in art as a vehicle for social justice and reform. Says Leslie Anne Mcilroy, Managing Editor of HEArt Online, the nation’s only journal of literature and art devoted to fighting discrimination and promoting social justice, 'Martín has a long history with HEArt. His unflinching, heartbreaking and riot-ess call to action played a seminal role in our 1997-2002 success as a print journal: ‘this is the year that the food stamps/of adolescent mothers/are auctioned like gold doubloons,/and no coin is given to buy machetes/for the next bouquet of severed heads/in coffee plantation country.’ (Imagine the Angels of Bread).

'Vanessa is a voice, an art, a creator that will not be ignored. Her witnessing is visceral, visual, spoken, felt. She does not look away or answer with a reactionary tongue. Instead, her work is imbued with a larger understanding of the human condition, what it means to truly be free, to speak, to survive.'

Tickets for this revolutionary reading are FREE with a suggested donation of $5 or any amount attendees can afford at the door. Please RSVP by emailing editors@heartjournalonline.com with names of confirmed guests by June 19.


The Heinz Endowments supports efforts to make southwestern Pennsylvania a premier place to live and work, a center for learning and educational excellence, and a region that embraces diversity and inclusion.

Primary Contact PersonLeslie Anne Mciroy 

Primary Contact Emaileditors@heartjournalonline.com 

Telephone412-241-2049 

Websitehttp://heartjournalonline.com 

Facebookhttp://www.facebook.com/HumanEquityThroughArt 

Twitterhttp:///twitter.com/HumanEquityArt 

Number of readers on program 

Is this an open mic event? No 

Is this a book signing? Yes 

Will author's books be for sale? Yes 

Address 16 Allegheny Square East 

Address 2 

Address 3 

CityPittsburgh 

StatePA 

Zip15212 

Days/Hours of Operationopen for performances 

Primary Contact Person 

Primary Contact Email 

Telephone412-320-4610 

Websitehttp://www.newhazletttheater.org/ 

Facebookhttp://www.facebook.com/newhazlett 

Twitterhttp://twitter.com/newhazlett 

AuthorLeslie Anne Mcilroy 

Websitehttp://lamcilroy.com 

Facebookhttp://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1089884949 

Twitter 

Short bio: Leslie Anne Mcilroy won the 1997 Slipstream Poetry Chapbook Prize, the 2001 Word Press Poetry Prize for her full-length collection Rare Space and the 1997 Chicago Literary Awards. Her second book, Liquid Like This, was published by Word Press, 2010.