Las Cruces Public Libraries launches Latino poetry series exploring heritage and identity

Organ Mountain News report

LAS CRUCES - Las Cruces Public Libraries will host “Palabras y Artesanías” (“Words and Crafts”), a series of poetry discussions and crafting sessions, starting Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. The first session begins at 4 p.m. at the Thomas Branigan Memorial Library, 200 E. Picacho Avenue. Registration is required and now open for each session.

The series is funded by the “Latino Poetry – Places We Call Home” grant, a national initiative to encourage discussions inspired by a new poetry anthology. The anthology is organized into eight themes:

• Ancestry and identity
• Language
• Voice and resistance
• First and second homes
• Family and community
• Music and performance
• Labor
• Earth and myth

The Jan. 14 session will focus on the theme of “Ancestry and Identity.” Participants will explore the diversity of the Latin American diaspora through selected poems that highlight cultural, historical and communal aspects. The craft activity for the session will involve designing a lucha libre mask. Each participant will receive a masked hood and work with leather to create a personalized mask, guided by library staff.

The series will continue on select Tuesdays at 4 p.m. through April, with all sessions held at Thomas Branigan Memorial Library. Details about the eight-session program, including session themes and dates, are available on the library’s events calendar. Selected poems for each session can be accessed online via the calendar or in-person at the library’s Picacho Avenue location.

This program is part of “Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home,” a nationwide public humanities initiative led by the Library of America and supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and Emerson Collective.

For more information, contact librarian Mindy Del Campo at 575-528-4024 or via email at adelcampo@lascruces.gov.