Local writers celebrate the everyday stories of women

September 14, 2018, by

A very special evening is in store this Saturday, September 15, 6:30 pm at Kaboom Books as local writers  Eloísa Pérez-Lozano, Jody T. Morse (aka J. T. Haven),  and celebrated Houston Poet Laureate Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton read from their work featured in a new anthology, I AM STRENGTH: True Stories of Everyday Superwomen.

The timely anthology includes a collection of true stories, poems, and art by more than fifty women. Tamra Lucid, a blogger for Reality Sandwich and music and a documentary producer at Lucid Nation Media, says, “What makes this compilation extraordinary is that it does not rely on celebrity or well-established writers for content. This book gives voice to women who have remained voiceless for too long. It reminds us of the heroism of women facing what most casually dismiss as common challenges of life. It illuminates the courage and resilience, the resourcefulness and commitment women deploy daily to survive in a world where discrimination and injustice, not to mention cruelty, are all too common. It reminds us that small miracles happen daily. Refresh your faith in humanity here.”

We had a chance to catch up with Eloisa, Jody, and Deborah to talk about the anthology and what audience members can expect Saturday evening.

INPRINT: What was the inspiration behind this book project?

DEBORAH: The collection is geared toward celebrating the stories of everyday women and the power they hold. Continue reading

Failure to Identify and Tintero Readings came together to present Rodrigo Toscano & Charles Alexander

October 10, 2016, by

UprightIMG_7239On one of the first cool nights of Houston’s autumn, September 27, Rodrigo Toscano flew in from New Orleans and Charles Alexander came from Victoria, Texas to deliver their singular and meditative poetry at Kaboom Books. They were brought together by a partnership between Failure to Identify and Tintero Readings.

Failure to Identify bills itself as an “Occasional, Itinerant, Sporadic, Vagabond, Versatile, Irregular, Incidental, Intermittent, Roundabout, Accidental, Stray, Raro, Combustible series of arts & writing events.” Tintero Readings is the events arm of Tintero Projects, run by married couple Lupe and Jasminne Mendez, which “aims to promote writing and reading opportunities for emerging Latinx poets and writers in the Houston” and beyond.

Toscano works for the Labor Institute, “a non-profit organization that provides labor unions and community groups with education on health and safety”—and this has inspired his work, which recalls Muriel Rukeyser in its activist intentions. He read from his newest book Explosion Rocks Springfield, inspired by an “actual event in Springfield, MA,” in which a gas leak combusted “almost four square blocks of property,” including a daycare, where the kids were fortuitously on a school trip, and a strip club, which was evacuated in the nick of time by a quick-thinking manager.  Continue reading