Kansas Latino Poet Shares Demand For Progressive Solidarity

Sadly . . . None of this rhymes . . . Still . . . We wanted to share this view from someone far more earnest and talented than TKC who seems to have come to the realization that all of the world is merely a performance for middle-class white ladies . . . Which we learned back in college.

Check-it . . .  

"I’m no longer interested in being the token Latino poet to check off an inclusion list. The time of being hired as a performer rather than a speaker is becoming less and less palatable to me.

"Latinos are being targeted year-round by an increasingly secretive, militarized police force known as Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Kansans are celebrating their brutality, and politicians are promoting hateful messages in political ads . . . 

"My questions to the organizations and institutions that want to hire me are straightforward: What have you done to bring awareness, mitigate or respond to the harmful attacks occurring to the communities I belong to, the communities you say you serve? Will you be OK with me reading protest poems about living and surviving in the middle of America?"

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

If you want to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month in Kansas, begin by speaking up for us * Kansas Reflector

I have not been contacted by as many organizations or institutions as in the past. I wonder if the volatile political climate is the culprit.