Humans
- María Vázquez Valdez (author)
- Margaret Randall (translator)
- Chizuko Osato (artist)
- Elæ Moss (artist)
ISBN
978-1-946031-35-8
LCCN
2018930541
Page count
120
Keywords
Spanish, English, Spanish-English, Spanish To English, Dual Language, Poetry, Mexico, Mexican Spanish, Indigenous, Illustrations, Illustration, Drawing, Art
Publication date
2018
Language(s)
Spanish, English
Publication media type
Print Document
Translation
Dual-Language
Publication series
Glossarium: Unsilenced Texts
Kawsay: La Llama De La Selva / Kawsay: The Flame Of The Jungle
Translated from the Spanish by Margaret Randall. With illustrations by Chizuko Osato. A new, dual-language printing of Mexican poet María Vázquez Valdez’s poetic account of her experience in Peru working with the Shipibo indigenous community.
“Magnificent poetry, at once strong and lyrical; a poetry of mystery, of that which is intuited and can be glimpsed through smoke and the blood canticle. Ancient Shipibo wisdom issuing from an initiation that transmits the universe of a woman of our time, now ‘like a disassembled apple / that suddenly shines / and sings.’ The ineffable transition from darkness to light in an experience that goes beyond the sensorial; a circle that beats, jungle and mountains; lines that taste like timeless knowledge and word made flesh. This is a hallucinatory book: Here is María Vázquez’s Kawsay, The Flame of the Jungle, calling to us from Sachamama, convening us, bewitching us…” — Chely Lima
About the Contributor(s)
María Vázquez Valdez was born in Zacatecas, Mexico. She is a poet, editor, translator and photographer. Her books include the poetry collections Caldero (1999), Estancias(2004), and KAWSAY: LA LLAMA DE LA SELVA (2017); the book of essays Estaciones del albatros (2008); the bilingual book of interviews Voces desdobladas / Unfolding Voices (2004); and five books for children and young readers. She has translated several books of poetry. María received a degree in journalism, a Masters in editing, and is currently finishing a Doctorate in critical theory. She was part of the editorial board of Alforja from its foundation, and is now a member of the Mexican Academy of the Language's editorial team, as well as of other academic and cultural projects. She has been the director of publications at the Union of Latin American Universities (UDUAL), editor in chief of the literary magazine Arcilla Roja, editor of Greenpeace's GPMX magazine, and editor at Editorial Santillana. She has received grants and support from Mexican government institutions. The poems in KAWSAY: LA LLAMA DE LA SELVA have their roots in an experience with the Shipibo Indians of Peru's Amazon jungle.
Margaret Randall is a feminist poet with a long history of social activism (in Mexico, Cuba, and Nicaragua, as well as the United States). More than 150 published books reflect her personal experience and generational struggles. She has also translated much poetry by others. In Mexico, she co-founded El Corno Emplumado, a bilingual journal that published more than 700 writers from 35 countries. Returning to the US in 1984, the government ordered her deported, claiming her writing subversive. She won her case in 1989. Among her recent awards are the Poet of Two Hemisphere Prize (Quito, Ecuador 2019) and the 2020 George Garrett Award given by AWP.
Chizuco Osato nació en Japón. Estudió Bellas Artes y Música en la Universidad de Tokio. Ha recibido premios en la Bienal de Valencia, España, y el Fonart en Monterrey, México. De 1995 a 2014 vivió en México, y esta obra gráfica suya fue realizada durante una estancia en la selva amazónica peruana.
Chizuco Osato was born in Japan. She studied fine arts and music at the University of Tokio. Her work has received prizes at the Biennale in Valencia, Spain, and from Fonart in Monterrey, Mexico. From 1995 to 2014 she lived in Mexico, and the drawings that illustrate this book were made during a stay in the Amazon jungle of Peru.
Elæ Moss is a multimodal artist-researcher, curator, designer, and educator. Seeking Speculative Solidarities, they employ analog and digital media to investigate human, institutional and ecological systems and to iterate open source strategies for ecological and social change. Recent projects have shown at La Mama Galleria, EFA Project Space, STWST/Ars Electronica, Usdan Gallery, Judson Church, the Segal Center, SOHO20, Dixon Place, and the Exponential Festival, among others. Select publications include Big Echo, Tagvverk, Vestiges, Matters of Feminist Practice, The Transgender Narratives Anthology, Choice Words: Writers on Abortion, The Brooklyn Poets Anthology, and Resist Much, Obey Little: Inaugural Poems to the Resistance. Books include Ground, Blood Altas, Overview Effect, Sweet and Low: Indefinite Singular, Bodies of Work, and The Precarity Bodyhacking Work-Book and Guide. Moss is a Professor at Pratt Institute, and the developer / founder of the Operating System + Liminal Lab. More at: https://onlywhatican.net and https://theoperatingsystem.org.
