By Isabel M. Castro
"We are honored to serve Las Vegas arts and the world stage by collaborating with contemporary Latinx poets, translators, and playwrights. This work reflects our decades-long commitment to empowering representation and creative opportunity for our richly diverse community.” Sarah O’Connell, The Asylum Theatre, Artistic Director
“I think it’s beautiful to listen to a poet and be captivated by their composition; they are not speaking exactly in everyday terms. They crafted it artistically using alliteration and rhyme. It can be transporting to share and express something poetically and yet be able to relate to the point that they are making.” Gigi Guizado, Program Director and Curator
The Asylum Theatre proudly presents Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home curated bilingual readings and discussions of language, ancestry, and identity themes. It will have its first presentation at the Rita Deanin Abbey Museum, 5850 North Park St., on Sept. 1, 2024, at 2 p.m. The second presentation of poetry readings focused on music and performance will be held on April 12, 2025, at the Winchester Dondero Theatre, 3130 McLeod Drive. Both are free and open to the public.
The impetus for Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home, a partnership with the Library of America with generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Emerson Collective, is the upcoming anthology called “Latino Poetry” edited by Rigoberto González. The Asylum Theatre is one of three project partners in the state, including Nevada Humanities and Great Basin College, and is the only partner in Southern Nevada. There are a total of 75 partners across 31 states. The goal is to amplify, discuss, and share poetry and celebrate that Latinos have been writing poetry with themes of exile and belonging, language and identity, struggle and solidarity, and labor and landscape for nearly five centuries. Latinos are an integral part of the fabric of the United States of America.
On a personal note, Gigi often writes poetry exploring place, home, and belonging themes. She was born in Texas to parents from significantly different backgrounds. Her father came here from Colombia, and her mother’s family has been in the United States for many generations. She feels very blessed to have had a variety of cultural experiences.
“I work with themes of the ‘in-between feeling,’ of ‘ni de aquí ni de allá,’ not from her nor there. I’m often inspired by music and magical realism and haunted by the omnipresent yet invisible passage of time," said Gigi.
As curator of the program, Gigi has taken pleasure in selecting poems by seven well-known Latino authors: Julia Alvarez, Gloria Anzaldúa, Francisco X. Alarcón, Richard Blanco, José Olivarez, Mariposa, Maya Chinchilla, and Urayoán Noel. A stellar group of readers, including Rosalba Aguirre, Romeo Lopez, Katrina Currow, Graciela Strahan, Jose Anthony, and Gabriella Harris, will interpret and discuss the artistic works in both English and Spanish. Dr. Erika G. Abad will facilitate the program.
Erika is an Assistant Professor of Communications at Nevada State University since fall of 2022. In the fall of 2022, they curated an art show titled "Two Cultures, One Family- Building Family, Finding Home" for Marjorie Barrick at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. They've been featured on podcasts like The Art People Podcast, Seeing Color Podcast, CityCast Las Vegas, and Latinos Who Lunch. They’ve written about art shows and local artists for NYU’s Latinx Project blog Intervenxions, Latinx Spaces, Dry Heat, Double Scoop, and Couch in the Desert. Reach Erika @lionwanderer531 and https://linktr.ee/profabad
The target audience for this program would be middle school and those in the upper age range. This program is designed to be relevant to a cross-section of the community, with people who are first engagers or poetry lovers alike. Besides experiencing an excellent program of the spoken word, producers would like people to take away a love for language and a feeling that we can embrace Spanish and English together. It is intended for the community as a whole.
Clark County provides wonderful poetry support with free workshops by skilled and accomplished poets at community centers. This is a beautiful way for the entire community to come together, enjoy Latinx poetry, and usher in September, a time of the year slated to celebrate “Hispanic Heritage Month.”
The Asylum's Artistic Director
Sarah O'Connell became The Asylum's Artistic Director in 2003. Originally from the SF Bay Area, she was the Associate Artistic Director of Impact Theatre. She holds an M.A. in Directing from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) and is an alumnus of the Directors Labs in L.A., Chicago, and La Mama ETC in Umbria. Moreover, she teaches at UNLV and has worked at the American Conservatory Theatre, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, the SF Mime Troupe, and Glasgow's Theatre Cryptic.
Program Director and Curator
Gigi Guizado is an award-winning actor, translator, and poet. Her solo performance in the English language premiere of Jose Watanabe’s Antígona won critical acclaim. She performs in the audio dramas We’re Alive: Descendants and The Pit Below Paradise. She is the resident playwright at The Asylum Theatre in Las Vegas. Excerpts from her translations of Complemento; Scherzo (Diálogo de la Estatua), and La Azotea by Rafael Guizado have been published by Another Chicago Magazine, Asymptote Journal, and The Mercurian, respectively. Her translation and adaptation of a scene from El Concierto by Ulises Rodríguez Febles is featured on Performing International Plays. The Therapist, Gigi's translation of La Terapeuta by Gabriela Yepes, published by Inti Press (2022), won Best From The WEST 2023. Her translations have been produced in Las Vegas and London. Her poetry has appeared in The Emerson Review, Rogue Agent Journal, The Bluebird Word, and Salamander Ink Magazine and has been nominated for Best of the Net.
The Asylum Theatre:
Facebook: @Theasylumvegas Instagram: @theasylumvegas
Email: Sarah O’Connell, Artistic Director: director@asylum.org
Tel: (702) 604-3417
Rita Deanin Abbey Fine Art Museum
5850 North Park St., Las Vegas, NV 89149,
Tel: (702) 658-5097
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