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Meet our Poetry Coalition Fellow

Gabriel Ramirez, 2024 - 2025 Poetry Coalition Fellow
Gabriel Ramirez, 2024 - 2025 Poetry Coalition Fellow

Thanks to support from the Academy of American Poets, Gabriel Ramirez is CantoMundo's Poetry Coalition Fellow, one of six fellows positioned at similar organizations nationwide. Poetry Coalition Fellows gain first-hand experience managing a non-profit arts organization. His duties include guiding the selection committee to review and select new CantoMundistas and helping organize and host the off-site CantoMundo reading at the AWP Conference in Los Angeles. He is a CantoMundo fellow, and his direct experience with the organization makes his insights and suggestions invaluable.


Enjoy this short interview with Gabriel.

 

CANTOMUNDO: When did you become a CantoMundista?


GABRIEL RAMIREZ: 2019 in NYC. I have some precious memories from that year. 


CM: What drew you to CantoMundo?


GR: I didn’t know many Latinx poets or writers that were my age. I was lucky to have had people like Willie Perdomo and Elizabeth Acevedo to look up to through Urban Word NYC. 


CM: Why did you want to be a Poetry Coalition Fellow, and what do you hope to accomplish?


GR: I attended CantoMundo for my second year at ASU in 2024, and in our community care circle, I was vocal about what I would like to see improved within the organization and retreat. Jackie Balderrama, the former director, and other CantoMundistas encouraged me to apply and believed my passion and vision were what CantoMundo needed. My goal during my term is to use my experience and feedback from other CantoMundistas to curate equitable and caring spaces for Black, Caribbean, Indigenous, Disabled, and Queer Latinx poets. With the brave and caring leadership of our new Director Belinda Acosta, our Advisory Board, and the great staff at the Virginia G. Piper Center, my goals are being greatly supported and seen to fruition. I am grateful for Belinda Acosta and her ability to hold the experiences of CantoMundistas like mine with care and a great conviction to bring CantoMundo to its fullest potential. 


CM: Tell us a little about your recent chapbook.



GR: The title, If Pit Bulls Had a God It'd Be A Pit Bull is a reframing of a Xenophanes quote. The poems explore friendship, grief, racial injustice, faith, family dynamics, and mental illness. I drafted most of the collection while participating in Cave Canem workshops at their Brooklyn office in 2017. The chapbook is a collaboration between myself and Rushawn Videl-Gevonte Stanley, or ‘Scum Lizard,’ who is an American illustrator and muralist. Paired through the Riverwards Chapbook Series, we merged our shared love for language and image with our expansive imaginations and meticulous attention to detail to assemble a collection that barks and sings through the pages. Huge gratitude to The Head and The Hand Press for seeing our vision, trusting us, and bringing the chapbook into the world. 


CM: What would you tell a Latinx poet thinking about applying to CantoMundo?


GR: This year and coming years will be the ones you will want to be your first, second, and graduate years. We are listening and changing in attempts to meet the needs of our fellows and generating resources for fellows and the greater Latinx community. CantoMundo is practicing being a brave space, and I invite you to be brave with us. I am beside you and holding space with tenderness for you, your song, and every breath.

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