This informal talk is conceived by Nicole Cecilia Delgado as part of Beta-Local’s residency at ISCP. Poets Nicolás Linares, Urayoán Noel, Diego Rivelino, María Tabares and Enrique Winter will discuss contemporary translation, books, independent publishing, and friendship, within the context of the publication of AMÉRICA, a collection of versions and translations of the poem “America” by Allen Ginsberg, re-written by Latin American poets.

Ginsberg’s “America” refers to a single nation, the United States of America, which monopolizes a name that actually corresponds to three continents. For this reason, it is desirable to translate “America” under the light of “gringo” expansion into the whole American territory. This exercise of re-writing and re-versioning translates Ginsberg’s poem with the aim to provoke a conversation about the practice of translation in the twenty-first century.

Nicole Cecilia Delgado (San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1980) is a poet, editor, translator, and co-director of Atarraya Cartonera publishing project. She organizes the Feria de Libros Independientes y Alternativos (FLIA), a book fair of independent publications in Puerto Rico. She is the author of more than 15 volumes of poetry. Her work has been translated into English, German, Catalan, Portuguese, and Polish. She is currently a resident artist at Beta-Local.

Nicolás Linares (Facatativá, Colombia, 1982) is a poet, and cultural organizer, founding member of “Colectivo Poetas en Nueva York” and the cultural newspaper Vecindad. He has published three volumes of poetry.

Urayoán Noel (San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1976) is a poet, performer, scholar, translator, and assistant professor of English and Spanish at NYU. He is the author of the critical study In Visible Movement: Nuyorican Poetry from the Sixties to Slam (University of Iowa Press, 2014) and several books of poetry in English and Spanish.

Diego Rivelino (Cali, Colombia, 1977) is a poet, actor, graphic designer, and percussionist. He is co-founder of “Colectivo Poetas en Nueva York” and a member of the editorial board of the cultural newspaper Vecindad. He has lived in New York City for 20 years.

María Tabares (Bogotá, Colombia, 1958) is a poet and fiction writer, and co-founder of Las poetas del megáfono, a collective of women writers who lived in Mexico City between 2008-2010. Her book La luz, poemas de sombra received the National Poetry Award (Museo Rayo, Ediciones Embalaje, 2011). Some of her poetry has been published in limited editions and artist books.

Enrique Winter (Santiago, Chile, 1982) is a poet, editor, and translator. He is the author of Guía de despacho (Cuarto propio, 2010), Rascacielos (Mexico, 2008, Buenos Aires, 2011), and Atar las naves (2003). In addition, he co-authored the anthology Decepciones, by Philip Larkin, and the album Agua en polvo (2012).