Marcelo Hernandez Castillo

and

Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs

will read their poetry

Wednesday, April 3, 7 p.m.

East Wing of Tor House, 26304 Ocean View Avenue

Carmel

Reception at 6:30 p.m.

Admission $15.  Tickets available on-line at torhouse.org under Events

For information:  (831) 624-4526

For information:  (831) 624-4526

In 1945 Robinson and Una Jeffers, along with many other Peninsula locals, including John Steinbeck, signed a petition welcoming back into the community the Japanese-Americans who had been interned during the Second World War.  The petition was published as an ad in the Monterey Herald in response to a hate-filled earlier ad which stated bluntly that Japanese-Americans were not welcome.  In the post-war United States, especially in Central California, such xenophobia was widespread.  As it is today.

Marcelo Hernandez Castillo and Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muh, with 62 other poets, speak to this issue In the just published Ink Has No Borders:  Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience, co-edited by local poet, author and teacher Patrice Vecchione.  “I can think of no better way to honor the legacy of Una and Robinson Jeffers, than to host these two fine poets, who give voice and face to those whom our society tries to marginalize,” said Elliot Ruchowitz-Roberts, Vice President of Tor House Foundation.

Marcelo Hernandez Castillo  is a poet (Cenzontle and Dulce), essayist, translator, and immigration advocate. When he was five, he crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with his family, settling in California, and became the first undocumented student to earn an MFA at the University of Michigan. He is a founding member of the Undocupoets campaign.

Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, a graduate of Stanford University, is a poet and scholar. She is the first editor of the pathbreaking Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia.  Her collections of poetry include A Most Improbable Life and The Runaway Poems: A Manual of Love.