Uploaded January 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Poets House presents a reading of Juan Felipe Herrera’s work by poet and educator Luis Lopez-Maldonado, the sixth in a monthly series showcasing poets from the Letras Latinas Oral History Project. The Project archive began in 2005 and contains, to date, seventy interviews with Latinx poets and writers.
About the Poets:
The son of migrant farm workers, Juan Felipe Herrera was educated at UCLA, Stanford, and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His numerous poetry collections include 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border: Undocuments 1971-2007 (2007), Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems (2008), and Border-Crosser with a Lamborghini Dream (1999). In 2015 he was named U.S. poet laureate.
Luis Lopez-Maldonado is a Xicanx activist, poeta, playwright, dancer, choreographer, and educator born and raised in multiple barrios across el Orange County, CA. He/Him/They/Them earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California Riverside, in Creative Writing and Dance. His/Their poetry has been seen in The American Poetry Review, Foglifter, Public Pool, and Latina Outsiders: Remaking Latina Identity, among many others. He/They are currently a graduate student at the University of New Mexico, to become a principal.
This collaboration is Letras Latinas’ 2024 Poetry Coalition program. For more information, click here.
Poets House presents a reading of Juan Felipe Herrera’s work by poet and educator Luis Lopez-Maldonado, the sixth in a monthly series showcasing poets from the Letras Latinas Oral History Project. The Project archive began in 2005 and contains, to date, seventy interviews with Latinx poets and writers.
About the Poets:
The son of migrant farm workers, Juan Felipe Herrera was educated at UCLA, Stanford, and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His numerous poetry collections include 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border: Undocuments 1971-2007 (2007), Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems (2008), and Border-Crosser with a Lamborghini Dream (1999). In 2015 he was named U.S. poet laureate.
Luis Lopez-Maldonado is a Xicanx activist, poeta, playwright, dancer, choreographer, and educator born and raised in multiple barrios across el Orange County, CA. He/Him/They/Them earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California Riverside, in Creative Writing and Dance. His/Their poetry has been seen in The American Poetry Review, Foglifter, Public Pool, and Latina Outsiders: Remaking Latina Identity, among many others. He/They are currently a graduate student at the University of New Mexico, to become a principal.
This collaboration is Letras Latinas’ 2024 Poetry Coalition program. For more information, click here.
