Spanish Poetry Week to honor Ernesto Cardenal

A full week of local activities are planned in honor of Ernesto Cardenal during Spanish Poetry Week, including a visit by the internationally esteemed poet-activist, noted for addressing Nicaragua’s political, cultural and literary life.

Zulema Moret, associate professor of Spanish at Grand Valley State University, has worked with a planning committee to organize a variety of free events throughout the community, from April 8-16.

Cardenal, a Catholic priest and poet born in 1925 in Granada, Nicaragua, served as that country’s first culture minister from 1979-1987. He founded a Christian community on the Soletiname Islands, worked with the Sandinista National Liberation Front to overthrow Anastasio Somoza Debayle’s regime, and then joined the Sandinist Renovation Movement prior to the 2006 Nicaraguan General Elections. Cardenal received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 1980 and was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005.

Call (616) 331- 3203, or visit www.gvsu.edu/artscalendar for more information about these events:

•Bilingual poetry reading by Ernesto Cardenal on Wednesday, April 8, from 6:30-8:30 p.m., at Fountain Street Church, 24, Fountain St., Grand Rapids.

•Bilingual reading by Ernesto Cardenal on Thursday, April 9, from 4-5:30 p.m., in the Cook-DeWitt Center, on Grand Valley’s Allendale Campus.

•Poetry writing workshop, Friday, April 10, from 10 a.m-1 p.m., at Cook Library Center, 1100 Grandville Ave. NW, in Grand Rapids. Moret will team up with Glayds Ilarregui, from the University of Delaware, who will also read from some of her six books of poetry, many dealing with Latin American struggles.

•Spanish poetry readings by a panel of professors and winners of a Grand Valley student Spanish Poetry Contest, Saturday, April 11, from 1-3 p.m., Schuler Book & Music, 2660 28th St., in Kentwood.

•Screening of the Spanish documentary “Solentiname” (2006), Saturday April 11, from 6-9:30 p.m., at Grand Valley’s Loosemore Auditorium, in the DeVos Center, 401 W. Fulton, on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus. A performance of music from Latin America will be included at this event.

•Writing Poetry workshop for Grand Valley students, Monday, April 13, presented in Spanish by Ernesto Cardenal, Manitou Lecture Hall, Room 107, on GVSU’s Allendale Campus.

•“Al Borde del Volcan,” an interpretive performance by Erick Pichardo, Thursday, April 16, from 6-9 p.m., Wealthy Theatre, 1130 Wealthy St., Grand Rapids. Following the performance, Spanish Poetry Week will conclude with a Piñata Poética, “Break the Piñata and Read a Poem.”

Spanish Poetry Week is sponsored by Grand Valley’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Modern Languages and Literatures, Latin American Studies, Barbara H. Padnos International Center, and Departments of English and Writing.