Yesenia Montilla's guest appearances

Yesenia Montilla

WMFA

Poem-a-Day

92Y's Read By

No me gusta cuando callas

Dunya Mikhail

Tina Chang

Eileen Myles

Paisley Rekdal

Terrance Hayes

Paul Tran

Douglas Kearney

Nicole Cecilia

Diana Khoi Nguyen

Anne Carson

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Jenny Johnson

Naomi Shihab Nye

Dorothy Parker

OwlTail

Nació y creció en la ciudad de Nueva York. Es una poeta afrolatina, hija de inmigrantes.

Nació y creció en la ciudad de Nueva York. Es una poeta afrolatina, hija de inmigrantes.

Yesenia Montilla on her selections: It seems truly unbelievable that we are coming on a year of this pandemic and I have been like so many: just trying my hardest to survive. How I have survived is by slipping into poetry; my own and others. What deeply moves me about the four poems I chose are their honesty and their surprise, their tenacity and how they unravel a kind of ethos for us all within every line. The words have carried me through even though to me all four seem to work as elegies in a lot of ways; the elegy often times can be the beginning not the end. In this time, right now, I am craving beginning and cursing all the ends that we have suffered and maybe that is why the elegy calls to me. The four poems I am reading for you today are "temporary statement" by Sheila Maldonado; "Vita Nuova" by Ricardo Alberto Maldonado; "This Moment/Right Now" by Roberto Carlos Garcia and "Our Last Summer Together" by Cheryl Boyce Taylor. I hope they strike and move, create fire, or bring peace. That’s What You Get by Sheila Maldonado The Life Assignment by Ricardo Alberto Maldonado  [elegies] by Roberto Carlos Garcia  Mama Phife Represents by Cheryl Boyce Taylor Music: "Shift of Currents" by Blue Dot Sessions // CC BY-NC 2.0

Yesenia Montilla on her selections: It seems truly unbelievable that we are coming on a year of this pandemic and I have been like so many: just trying my hardest to survive. How I have survived is by slipping into poetry; my own and others. What deeply moves me about the four poems I chose are their honesty and their surprise, their tenacity and how they unravel a kind of ethos for us all within every line. The words have carried me through even though to me all four seem to work as elegies in a lot of ways; the elegy often times can be the beginning not the end. In this time, right now, I am craving beginning and cursing all the ends that we have suffered and maybe that is why the elegy calls to me. The four poems I am reading for you today are "temporary statement" by Sheila Maldonado; "Vita Nuova" by Ricardo Alberto Maldonado; "This Moment/Right Now" by Roberto Carlos Garcia and "Our Last Summer Together" by Cheryl Boyce Taylor. I hope they strike and move, create fire, or bring peace. <a href="https://bookshop.org/books/that-s-what-you-get/9781936767595" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">That’s What You Get</a> by Sheila Maldonado <a href="https://bookshop.org/books/the-life-assignment/9781945588549" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Life Assignment</a> by Ricardo Alberto Maldonado <a href="https://bookshop.org/books/elegies-9781953447920/9781953447920" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> [elegies]</a> by Roberto Carlos Garcia <a href="https://bookshop.org/books/mama-phife-represents-a-memoir-9781642594041/9781642592665" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Mama Phife Represents</a> by Cheryl Boyce Taylor Music: "Shift of Currents" by Blue Dot Sessions // CC BY-NC 2.0

Read By: Yesenia Montilla

Recorded by Yesenia Montilla for Poem-a-Day, a series produced by the Academy of American Poets. Published on February 24, 2021. www.poets.org

Recorded by Yesenia Montilla for Poem-a-Day, a series produced by the Academy of American Poets. Published on February 24, 2021. <a href="http://www.poets.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.poets.org</a>

Yesenia Montilla: "Naming the Baby"

Recorded by Yesenia Montilla for Poem-a-Day, a series produced by the Academy of American Poets. Published on July 21, 2020. www.poets.org

Recorded by Yesenia Montilla for Poem-a-Day, a series produced by the Academy of American Poets. Published on July 21, 2020. <a href="https://gate.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.poets.org&amp;token=9d5a84-1-1583345147049" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.poets.org</a>