Nuestra Palabra Marks 25 yrs of Latino Literature!

TTake2: GoFundMe does not generate tickets sales or pledge levels for donations. We apologize for the confusion. We will transfer everything related to our ticket sales for our October 15 fundraiser with Sandra Cisneros to our website: www.NuestraPalabra.org. If, due to the mix up, you would like a refund of your donation, just let us know.

This GoFundMe campaign is dedicated to raising operating funds for the Nuestra Palabra’s XXV anniversary season. Here is what we are about. Thank you in advance for you donation.

Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say has been cultivating a voice for Latino writers since 1998.

Nuestra Palabra Cultivates Community Through:

* Readings

* Education

* Media: The NP Radio Show on Multiplatforms

* Hispanic Heritage Month Celebrations

Nuestra Palabra is also now a fiscal sponsor for over a dozen arts collectives.

Your donation will fuel our readings, school visits, Latino Family Libraries, Librotraficante Under Ground Libraries, broadcasts, development of Mexican American Studies, and our campaigns for Intellectual Freedom and Freedom of Speech.

Founded by writer, activist, and professor Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, the group defied the notion that our community was not interested in its stories, its history, or its culture. NP is the first reading series for Latino writers to share their work in English, Spanish, and Spanglish, but, in order to serve our community-we do not simply create art for art's sake. We cultivate community cultural capital.

NP's reading series began April 1998 in the party hall of Chapultepec Restaurant, which soon became too small for our events. We moved to the Talento Bilingue de Houston Theatre, and then spaces all over Houston. In 1999, the group added the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on KPFT 90.1 FM, which is still on the air, adding multiplatform broadcasts online. From 2002 to 2009 NP began organizing the Latino Book and Family Festival, filling the George R. Brown Convention Center with over 35,000 at its peak.

In 2012, five veteran members of NP: Liana Lopez, Bryan Parras, Lupe Mendez, Laura Torres, and Tony Diaz, united to form the Librotraficante Caravan to defy Arizona officials’ banning of Mexican American Studies and smuggled books about our prohibited history, culture, and stories into underground libraries throughout the Southwest, forming a key part of the national movement to support the educators, lawyers, activists, writers, and community members in Tucson who united to overturn that unjust law.

Just as NP has planted the seeds for talent: writers such as playwright Alvaro Saar Rios made his debut at NP as did Axios National Race and Justice Reporter Russell Contreras, poet Dr. Carolina Monsivias, professor Icess Fernandez, Texas Poet Laureate Lupe Mendez, Houston Poet Laureate Leslie Contreras Schwartz, and multifaceted writer Jasminne Mende. NP has also cultivated community cultural capital by becoming a fiscal sponsor for over one dozen art collectives including Tintero Press, Danza Azteca Taxcayolotl, Houston Artists, among others.

NP has been pivotal in developing the long-term growth of the Latino Community and Culture by helping to quantify Community Cultural Capital. This has taken the form of helping to write a grant for ALMAAHH that was funded for $1 million by Houston Endowment for a study that will provide a plan for creating a state-of-the-art, multidisciplinary museum and cultural center that addresses the needs and vision of the Latino Community. NP has also been pivotal in The BIPOC Network and Fund’s work to identify and support BIPOC community arts groups and individual artists.

We ask you now to donate as NP enters its 25th season, accelerating Community Cultural Capital. We are launching readings from the summer into the fall, culminating with a special visit from literary giant Sandra Cisneros Oct. 15, 2023, in a lineup celebrating intellectual freedom, with poet Jan Beatty, visual artist Carlos Hernandez, hosted by Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, joined by banned writers from Tejas.

We are proud to have paved the way for many. We are ready to lead Houston into a new era celebrating our voices, our culture, and intellectual freedom, unidos!

More information about Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say at www.NuestraPalabra.org

Thank you in advance for your donation.