by: Poets Against Walls
From facebook.com/poetsagainstwalls
A simple question sparked a movement: “What do you want the world to know about your home?”
Poets Emmy Pérez, Alejandro Sánchez, and Arnulfo Segovia invited poets spanning the Rio Grande Valley to give a voice to the borderlands beyond what is typically seen on the news and social media outlets. Resistencia: Poets Against Walls, a grassroots, community-based project, began with more than 20 poets gathering at the border wall in Hidalgo, Texas in April 2017 in order to answer that pressing question in one of the Valley’s most critical locations, a space that has cut us off from the river for almost a decade now. All poetry was recorded, shared on social media outlets, and archived as witness to the Valley’s stance against the xenophobic national narrative that continues.
In light of border wall building for the past 10+ years in the Rio Grande Valley of Tejas with the federal government's plans for more, and in light of additional policies that negatively affect families and communities, Resistencia: Poets Against Walls Collective aims to tell, document, and share communal stories from individual perspectives—through poetry, testimonio, and the spoken word—about life here en la frontera, stories and/or points of view the media often misses. Resistencia seeks to do and create “work that matters” as per the late Valley writer and visionary Gloria E. Anzaldúa, and through this resistencia, help cultivate social change.
Resistencia: Poets Against Walls’ current poet-organizers, Emmy Pérez, César De León, Celina A. Gómez, and Carolina Monsiváis continue to schedule writing workshops, recording sessions, and community readings. Poets have recorded works at the river in the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, at the Stop the Wall rally, the La Lomita rally, and other locations. The collective will continue to advocate for Valley voices by continuing the collaboration with Neta, the No Border Wall coalition, and the Save Santa Ana initiative. Additional information can be found on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Any direct questions can be sent via email to poetsagainstwalls@gmail.com
Read/Watch: Border Life is a State of Confrontations A Poem by Lupe A. Flores
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