United States Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, the first Mexican American to hold the position, learned to love poetry by singing about the Mexican Revolution with his mother, a migrant farmworker in California. Inspired by her spirit, he has spent his life crossing borders, erasing boundaries and expanding what it means to be American. Herrera’s appointment comes as the country is debating immigration, a recurring subject of his work, which has been collected in books like Border-Crosser With a Lamborghini Dream and 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border.
From 2012 to 2014, Herrera served as California’s Poet Laureate, appointed by Governor Jerry Brown. As the state Poet Laureate, he created the i-Promise Joanna Project, an anti-bullying poetry project named for an elementary school girl who was bullied and killed in an afterschool fight in Long Beach. Influenced by Allen Ginsberg, Luis Valdez and his own immersion into the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, Herrera writes passionately about social issues. Herrera is also a performance artist and activist on behalf of migrant and indigenous communities. His work has been known to cross genres, even into opera and dance theater.
In 2014, he released the nonfiction work Portraits of Hispanic American Heroes, which showcases twenty Hispanic and Latino American men and women who have made outstanding contributions to the arts, politics, science, humanitarianism and athletics – a magnificent homage to those who have shaped our nation. National Endowment for the Arts chairman Dana Gioia, who called Herrera the elder statesman of Mexican American poetry, said he is “the first U.S. laureate whose work has emerged from the new oral traditions that have been transforming American poetry over the past quarter-century. He can write traditional poems for the page, but many of his poems are designed primarily for spoken delivery. His work is performative, and communal. In this sense, Herrera speaks powerfully to younger poets and audiences.
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From 2012 to 2014, Herrera served as California’s Poet Laureate, appointed by Governor Jerry Brown. As the state Poet Laureate, he created the i-Promise Joanna Project, an anti-bullying poetry project named for an elementary school girl who was bullied and killed in an afterschool fight in Long Beach. Influenced by Allen Ginsberg, Luis Valdez and his own immersion into the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, Herrera writes passionately about social issues. Herrera is also a performance artist and activist on behalf of migrant and indigenous communities. His work has been known to cross genres, even into opera and dance theater.
In 2014, he released the nonfiction work Portraits of Hispanic American Heroes, which showcases twenty Hispanic and Latino American men and women who have made outstanding contributions to the arts, politics, science, humanitarianism and athletics – a magnificent homage to those who have shaped our nation. National Endowment for the Arts chairman Dana Gioia, who called Herrera the elder statesman of Mexican American poetry, said he is “the first U.S. laureate whose work has emerged from the new oral traditions that have been transforming American poetry over the past quarter-century. He can write traditional poems for the page, but many of his poems are designed primarily for spoken delivery. His work is performative, and communal. In this sense, Herrera speaks powerfully to younger poets and audiences.
United States Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, the first Mexican American to hold the position, learned to love poetry by singing about the Mexican Revolution with his mother, a migrant farmworker in California. Inspired by her spirit, he has spent his life crossing borders, erasing boundaries and expanding what it means to be American. Herrera’s appointment comes as the country is debating immigration, a recurring subject of his work, which has been collected in books like Border-Crosser With a Lamborghini Dream and 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border.
From 2012 to 2014, Herrera served as California’s Poet Laureate, appointed by Governor Jerry Brown. As the state Poet Laureate, he created the i-Promise Joanna Project, an anti-bullying poetry project named for an elementary school girl who was bullied and killed in an afterschool fight in Long Beach. Influenced by Allen Ginsberg, Luis Valdez and his own immersion into the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, Herrera writes passionately about social issues. Herrera is also a performance artist and activist on behalf of migrant and indigenous communities. His work has been known to cross genres, even into opera and dance theater.
In 2014, he released the nonfiction work Portraits of Hispanic American Heroes, which showcases twenty Hispanic and Latino American men and women who have made outstanding contributions to the arts, politics, science, humanitarianism and athletics – a magnificent homage to those who have shaped our nation. National Endowment for the Arts chairman Dana Gioia, who called Herrera the elder statesman of Mexican American poetry, said he is “the first U.S. laureate whose work has emerged from the new oral traditions that have been transforming American poetry over the past quarter-century. He can write traditional poems for the page, but many of his poems are designed primarily for spoken delivery. His work is performative, and communal. In this sense, Herrera speaks powerfully to younger poets and audiences.
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From 2012 to 2014, Herrera served as California’s Poet Laureate, appointed by Governor Jerry Brown. As the state Poet Laureate, he created the i-Promise Joanna Project, an anti-bullying poetry project named for an elementary school girl who was bullied and killed in an afterschool fight in Long Beach. Influenced by Allen Ginsberg, Luis Valdez and his own immersion into the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, Herrera writes passionately about social issues. Herrera is also a performance artist and activist on behalf of migrant and indigenous communities. His work has been known to cross genres, even into opera and dance theater.
In 2014, he released the nonfiction work Portraits of Hispanic American Heroes, which showcases twenty Hispanic and Latino American men and women who have made outstanding contributions to the arts, politics, science, humanitarianism and athletics – a magnificent homage to those who have shaped our nation. National Endowment for the Arts chairman Dana Gioia, who called Herrera the elder statesman of Mexican American poetry, said he is “the first U.S. laureate whose work has emerged from the new oral traditions that have been transforming American poetry over the past quarter-century. He can write traditional poems for the page, but many of his poems are designed primarily for spoken delivery. His work is performative, and communal. In this sense, Herrera speaks powerfully to younger poets and audiences.
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