Sade Palmer
Features Editor
Millersville has some great events planned for the semester. Giving students the chance to interact with each other outside of the classrooms and have a great time. One of those events will be the “A Decolonial, Post-Maria Poetics” event featuring Philadelphia’s new poet laureate for 2018-2019 Raquel Salas Rivera.
The 32-year-old networker links people of different situations, exploring it all in poetry. Identifying neither male nor female, the poet prefers non-binary. With their poems in both English and Spanish, the reading is delivered effortlessly by Rivera. Very firm on political and cultural issues of Puerto Rico, Rivera is very consistent in their work.
The poet has been selected as Philadelphia’s new poet laureate and the first ever, selected by the free library of Philadelphia. The program was implemented last year, with Rivera being expected to be a civil leader to tie Philadelphia people with poetry. Collaborating with poets Ashley Davis, Raena Shirali, and Kirwyn Sutherland, they have created a summer poetry festival in Philadelphia. It is called “We (Too) are Philly” taking inspirations from the great Langston Hughes. This festival will feature poets of color who all commit to fight white supremacy. On the website, it says “We aspire to have not just poets of color performing, but also POC audiences. Historically, there has been a racial power dynamic in which white audiences consume black and brown art. This is not that kind of festival.” This amazing event is expected to launch this year and shall be a great opportunity for people to come together celebrating the love for poetry.
There have been numerous journals that featured Rivera such as NBC and the Philadelphia Inquirer. There are also some recognitions that Rivera have received. Named one of the Boston Reviews top 25 poems of 2017. Also “Notes on Culture and Belonging or Call-Out Culture” was named one of the most popular articles published by Entropy Magazine in 2017. This is just to name a few.
February 19th at 6:30pm in Myers Auditorium of McComsey Hall
