A short Open Mic will begin the evening.

    JAVIER VILLASEÑOR ALONSO holds a degree in Communication Sciences from Intercontinental University, and a doctorate in Hispanic Philology from the University of Sevilla. His speciality is in Mexican poetry. At one point in his career he was a bullfighter. He has been a co-organizer of and helped compile anthologies for the Chilango of the Chilango Andaluz Recital, which is celebrated annually in Andalucía, Spain, and in Mexico. His books of poetry include El viaje a los espejos, Antiguos Nacimientos Ardían, and El corazón de los instantes. His poems and essays have appeared in a variety of literary magazines, and his work was included in the anthology Del Silencio hacia la Luz:Mapa Poético de México (Ediciones Zur). Javier Villaseñor currently lives in Chicago, where he works in cultural affairs at the Mexican Consulate.

JAVIER VILLASEÑOR ALONSO nació en la ciudad de México el 8 de octubre de 1977. Es Licenciado en Ciencias de la Comunicación por la Universidad Intercontinental. Durante su carrera fue novillero. Es Doctor en Filología Hispánica  por la Universidad de Sevilla con especialidad en poesía mexicana y la Tesis José Emilio Pacheco: la poética del tiempo. Colaborador en la organización del Recital Chilango Andaluz, que se celebra anualmente en Andalucía y México. Compilador adjunto en las antologías del Recital Chilango Andaluz 2006, 2007 y 2008 (Cangrejo Pistolero Ediciones y Editorial Cocó). Autor de los poemarios El viaje a los espejos, Antiguos Nacimientos Ardían y El corazón de los instantes . Ha publicado en diversas revistas literarias abordando los géneros de la poesía y el ensayo. Incluido en Del Silencio hacia la Luz: Mapa Poético de México (Ediciones Zur). Actualmente vive en Chicago, donde trabaja en el área de Cultura del Consulado General de México.

  LEVI ROMERO, author of A Poetry of Remembrance: New and Rejected Works (UNM Press), and In the Gathering of Silence, (West End Press), and other publications, is from the Embudo Valley of northern New Mexico. Romero is a bilingual poet whose language is immersed in the regional 'manito dialect of northern New Mexico with its 17th century archaisms and melodic registers. His work has been published throughout the United States, Mexico, Spain, and Cuba. Romero's writing is a narrative tapestry of formal poetics woven through a palette of Nuevo Mexicano colloquialisms and the poetic richness of vernacular language. A winner of numerous awards, he recently taught in the creative writing program at the University of New Mexico and is currently a Research Scholar at the University of New Mexico’s School of  Architecture and Planning program focusing on cultural landscape studies. He is a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop.