From the National Book Award-nominated, Lambda Award-winning poet: a powerful, inventive new collection that looks to the future of Puerto Rico with love, rage, beauty, and hope.
Raquel Salas Rivera's star has risen swiftly in the poetry world, and this, his 6th book, promises to cement his status as one of the most important poets working today. Originally, it was conceptualized as a collection of poems for children and later became a collection of poems for the future (for children). In sharp, crystalline verses, written in both Spanish and English versions, antes que isla es volcán daringly imagines a decolonial Puerto Rico. Salas Rivera unfurls series after series of poems that build in intensity: one that casts Puerto Rico as the island of Caliban in Shakespeare's The Tempest, another that imagines a multiverse of possibilities for Puerto Rico's fate, a 3rd in which the poet demands his right to a future and its immediate distribution. The verses are rigorous and sophisticated, engaging with literary and political theory, yet are also hard-hitting, charismatic, and quotable ("won't you be sorry? / won't you wish you had a boss? / won't you get restless / with all that freedom?"). These poems tap unflinchingly into the explosive energy of the island, transforming it into protest, into spirit, into art. Raquel invites the reader to participate in the creation of the imaginative exercise that, faced with an apocalyptic scenario, insists on seeing potentialities. He joins us on screen to share his vision for the volcanic future that “being an island†anticipates, in conversation with writer and visual artistXavier Valcárcel.
This event is free and open to all, accessible through our Facebook and Youtube pages (@busboysandpoets).
Our event begins at 7:00pm with an introduction from a member of our team, after guests will launch into their discussion. Copies of the ANTES QUE ISLA ES VOLCÀN will be available before and during the event.
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Raquel Salas Rivera (Mayagüez, 1985) is a Puerto Rican neurodivergent, trans poet, editor, and translator. His honors include being named Poet Laureate of Philadelphia , the New Voices Award from the Festival of the Word, the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry , the inaugural Ambroggio Prize , the Laureate Fellowship , and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship to translate the poetry of his grandfather, Sotero Rivera Avilés. He is the author of six full-length poetry books, which have been longlisted and shortlisted for the National Book Award , the Pen America Open Book Award , and the CLMP Firecracker Award. He has co-edited two anthologies of Puerto Rican poetry,Puerto Rico en mi corazón(Anomalous Press, 2019) and La piel del reef (Laimpresion, 2022), various folios, and the literary journalThe Wanderer . In 2016, he became a founding member of the Yerbamala Collective , a group dedicated to the creation of antifascist poetic spells. He holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory from the University of Pennsylvania and teaches at the University of Puerto Rico. With a three-year grant from the Mellon Foundation, he serves as investigator and head of the translation team for El Proyecto de la Literatura Puertorriqueña/ The Puerto Rican Literature Project (PRLP), a free, bilingual, user-friendly and open access digital portal that anyone can use to learn about and teach Puerto Rican poetry. He currently writes and teaches in Puerto Rico.
Xavier Valcárcel is the author of seven books of poetry, including Aterrizar no es regreso, a personal chronicle,Cama onda,Palo de lluvia,Restos de lumbre y despedida,El deber del pan, and Fe de calendario. He studied Fine Arts and Architecture Education at the University of Puerto Rico at RÃo Piedras, where he also completed a master’s degree in Cultural Management and Administration. In 2009, together with Nicole Delgado, he created the guerrilla publishing house Atarraya Cartonera. Some of his work has been translated into English, German, and Portuguese. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he grew up in LoÃza. In 2021, he was named an inaugural Letras Boricuas Fellow by the Flamboyan Foundation.Â
