Jimmy Santiago Baca

Jimmy Santiago Baca, Hispanic poet with an amazing
life story, will be the Tenth Poet in the Annual
Thatcher Hoffman Smith Poetry Series that the Center
for Interpersonal Studies through Film & Literature
sponsors each spring.

BACA will be at Oklahoma City University for a
Workshop/Poetry Reading on Wednesday, April 2, 2008.
Please help us select the lines from BACA that will be
on the poster and postcard mailer informing the public
of his visit. Forward the poems on to your poetry
friends if you wish. This process has become an annual
ritual as we begin to understand the poet each year;
so many of you have sent the Advisory Committee of the
Center very helpful suggestions in deciding how best
to represent the poet and capture the interest of many
who might come to hear him.

Read over the poems in this attachment as well as
others by BACA. Email me lines that you think might
work well in promoting BACA'S visit. We look for lines
that capture a flavor of the poet if possible. Often,
lines rich with metaphor have worked well. Sometimes,
lines with an image that can be incorporated into the
design of the poster have been wonderful.

Please respond with suggested lines by Tuesday,
November 27. Thank you for your help,
Harbour Winn, Director, Center for Interpersonal
Studies through Film & Literature
PS If you can't open the attachment and would like me
to send the poems to you not on an attachment, please
let me know.

Born in New Mexico of Chicano and Apache descent,
Jimmy Santiago Baca was raised first by his
grandmother and was later sent to an orphanage. A
runaway at age thirteen, it was after Baca was
sentenced to five years in a maximum security prison
at the age of twenty-one that he began to turn his
life around: there he learned to read and write and
found his passion for poetry. Like many Southwestern
writers, Baca identifies with the land around him and
the myths that are part of his culture. He is the
winner of the Pushcart Prize, the American Book Award,
the National Poetry Award, the International Hispanic
Heritage Award, and, for his memoir A Place To Stand,
the prestigious International Award.

Dr. Harbour Winn
Professor, English Department, and Director of
Center for Interpersonal Studies through Film &
Literature and
Oklahoma City University Film Institute
(405) 208-5472
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www.okcu.edu/film-lit/