Block One

Caitlin Barasch

September 13, 2022

7:00 PM

South Hall Commons

Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis

September 15, 2022

5:00 PM

South Hall Commons

Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis, PhD lives as a guest on the traditional territories of the Piscataway Nation, whose relationship with the lands west of the Chesapeake Bay continues today. He is Curator of Asian Pacific American Studies at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, where he oversees the Smithsonian Literature + Museum Initiative, devoted to rethinking collective responsibility for what we write and read, and why. The lead organizer for the Asian American Literature Festival, co-hosted by the Smithsonian, Library of Congress, and Poetry Foundation, he is also a co-founder of the Center for Refugee Poetics and co-founding Director of the arts antiprofit The Asian American Literary Review. He is currently ranked as the 9th best ice cream maker in human history.

Block Two

traci kato-kiriyama

October 5, 2022

Cornerstone Screening Room

traci kato-kiriyama (they+she; based on unceded Tongva land in the south bay of Los Angeles) --author of Navigating With(out) Instruments (Writ Large Press)-- is an award-winning multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary artist, recognized for their work as a writer/performer, theatre deviser, cultural producer, community organizer, and audiobook narrator. As a storyteller and Artivist, tkk is grounded in collaborative process, collective self-determination, and art+community as intrinsically tied and a critical means toward connection and healing. She is a performer & principal writer of PULLproject Ensemble, two-time NET recipient; NEFA 2021-22 awardee for their show TALES OF CLAMOR.  tkk —presented in hundreds of venues for over 25 years as a writer, actor, poet, speaker, guest lecturer, facilitator, Artist-in-Residence, and organizing / arts & culture consultant— has come to appreciate a wildly hybrid career (presenters incl. LaMaMa Cabaret; The Smithsonian; Skirball Cultural Center; EnWave Theatre; The Getty; Hammer Museum; Grand Performances; Whisky a Go Go; Hotel Cafe; House Of Blues; and countless universities, arts spaces, and community centers across the country).  Their writing, commentary, and work is also featured in a wide swath of media and print publications (incl. NPR; PBS; C-SPAN; Los Angeles Review of Books; Elle.com; Entropy; Chapparal Canyon Press; Tia Chucha Press; Bamboo Ridge Press; Heyday Books; Regent Press; Temple University Press). tkk is a core artist with Vigilant Love; founding member of the Okaeri Nikkei LGBTQ+ Network; a principal organizer of the National Nikkei Reparations Coalition and Nikkei Progressives/NCRR; and serves as the Director/Co-Founder of Tuesday Night Project - presenter of the Tuesday Night Cafe series, which will soon celebrate 25 years as the longest-running Asian American public arts series in the country.

Block Three

Raquel Gutiérrez

October 28, 2022

Cornerstone Screening Room

Raquel Gutiérrez is an arts critic, writer, poet, and educator. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Gutiérrez credits the queer and feminist diy, post-punk zine culture of the 1990s, plus Los Angeles County and Getty paid arts internships, for introducing them to the various vibrant art and music scenes and communities throughout Southern California. Gutiérrez is a 2021 recipient of the Rabkin Prize in Arts Journalism and a 2017 recipient of the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant. They are faculty for Oregon State University–Cascades’ Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing. Their new book Brown Neon is out now on Coffee House Press.

Please be aware there is a CC Hockey game happening at the same time. The parking lots will be full, so please arrive early for parking

Block Four

Byron Aspaas and Hillary Leftwich

December 6, 2022

5:00 PM

South Hall Commons

BYRON F. ASPAAS. Raised within the four sacred mountains of Dinétah, Aspaas holds BA and MA degrees in creative writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Aspaas’s writing revisits the destruction of sacred land and engages his readers in a dialogue about preserving Diné culture and land. In a 2017 essay, “Nádleehí: One Who Changes,” Aspaas explains how these elements are interconnected and under continuing threat. Aspaas’s first published work was included in Yellow Medicine Review and since then his writing has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Currently, he is working on a collection of essays and poems as well as a fiction project. Aspaas is a two-time recipient of the Truman Capote Scholarship. He uses imagery and persona to present explorations of language, landscape, and identity. Aspaas works remotely from Colorado as adjunct faculty at San Juan College and in-person with CSU Pueblo, while teaching continuing education courses with the Institute of American Indian Arts and the Identity Project.

Hillary Leftwich is the author of Ghosts Are Just Strangers Who Know How to Knock (Agape Editions, 2023, republish), Aura (Future Tense Books, 2022 and Blackstone Audio), and Saint Dymphna’s Playbook (PANK Books 2023). She is the founder and owner of Alchemy Author Services & Writing Workshop and Community Coven, teaches at Lighthouse Writers, and is a creative writing professor at the University of Denver and visiting professor at Colorado College. She focuses her writing on class struggle, single motherhood, trauma, mental illness, the supernatural, ritual, and the impact of neurological disease. She is an advocate for her son and others who live with epilepsy and other survivors of DV. She teaches Tarot and Tarot writing workshops focusing on strengthening divination abilities and writing. She lives in Denver with her partner, son, and their cat, Larry.

Block Five

February 15, 2023

5:00 PM

Screening Room, Cornerstone Arts Center

Block Six

Nancy Viera

March 9, 2023

5:00 PM

Screening Room, Cornerstone Arts Center

Nancy Viera is a multi-hyphenated artist and cultural worker with an energetic dedication to serve her community. She is the author of a memoir, The Grief and The Happiness, and has written two poetry collections, Silhouette and Chicago and You. She is also the host of City Silhouettes, a local artist showcase. Viera writes both in English and Spanish and is an Ofrendas Facilitator with the Latino Cultural Arts Center. Her work has been showcased at the Denver Art Museum.

Aaron Abeyta

March 16, 2023

5:00 PM

Screening Room, Cornerstone Arts Center

aaron a. abeyta is a Colorado native and the author of five collections of poetry and one novel. For his book, colcha, Abeyta received an American Book Award and the Colorado Book Award.  In addition, his novel, Rise, Do Not be Afraid, was a finalist for the 2007 Colorado Book Award and El Premio Aztlan. abeyta was awarded a Colorado Council on the Arts Fellowship for poetry, and he is the former Poet Laureate of Colorado’s Western Slope and was a finalist for the 2019 Colorado Poet Laureate.  Abeyta is also a recipient of a Governor’s Creative Leadership Award for 2017. aaron has over 100 publications including ‘Wildness, Relations of People and Place  ‘An Introduction to Poetry, 10th ed.,' Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, & Drama, 8th ed.' ‘Conversations in American Literature: Language, Rhetoric, & Culture’  ‘The Leopold Outlook’ ‘Colorado Central Magazine’ ‘The High Country News’ and numerous other anthologies and journals.  

abeyta also served as mayor of his hometown, Antonito, for eight years, completing his two terms in April, 2022.

aaron, his wife Michele and their daughter, Rut, call Antonito home.  Michele and Aaron are co-Directors and founders of The Justice & Heritage Academy, a school based on the three pillars of Environmental, Social and Food Justice.

Block Seven

Mathias Svalina

April 11, 2023

5:00 PM

Screenin Room, Cornerstone Arts Center

Mathias Svalina is the author of seven books, most recently The Depression, a collaboration with the photographer Jon Pack. His book Thank You Terror is forthcoming in 2023 from Big Lucks Books. Svalina was a founding editor of Octopus Books & has led writing workshops in universities, libraries, community spaces, & in prison. Since 2014 he has run a dream delivery service, traveling around the country to deliver dreams to subscribers. With the Dream Delivery Service he has worked with the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art, the Poetry Foundation, MOCA Tucson, & the University of Arizona Poetry Center, among other organizations.