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Cantos
to Blood & Honey
Poems
by Adrian Castro
"Cantos
to Blood & Honey is a celebration - a celebration
of a lively, original, and mesmerizing new voice who
is destined to burn a path through the contemporary
American poetry scene. Castro has the magic, the touch,
and the gift of language. If we read and listen, we
will be taken over by this fine poet in a knockout and
lasting debut." - Virgil Suarez, author of Spared
Angola and Going Under
"Poet
Adrian Castro has long been layering Spanish, English,
and Yoruba dialects, musical sounds, and drum rhythms,
Cuba, Miami, Africa, and the Santeria religion. . .
. He seems well on the way to inventing a brand new
Miami patois." - The Miami Herald
A
rhythmic debut poetry collection powered by the pulse
of the Caribbean, Cantos to Blood & Honey presents
a synthesis of Afro-Caribbean, Hispanic, and North American
mythology, language, and aesthetics. Adrian Castro,
an Afro-Latino performance poet, explores within this
dance issues of migration, cultural continuity, memory,
and history.
Articulating
the search for a cohesive Afro-Caribbean-American identity,
Castro honors myth on one hand and history on the other.
He addresses the migratory experience from Africa to
the Caribbean to North American and the eventual clash
of cultures. Meanwhile, a section of prose poems deals
with ancestors, past and present.
Writing
in the Afro-Caribbean tradition pioneered by Nicolas
Guillen and Luis Pales Matos, Castro creates a circular
motion of theme, tone, subject matter, style, and cultural
history, giving rise to a new illuminating archetypal
poetry.
Adrian
Castro has performed at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in
New York, Naropa Institute in Boulder, The Hemingway
Literary Festival in Chicago, and The Miami Book Fair
International. His work has been published in Conjunctions,
Paper Dance: 55 Latino Poets, Little Havana Blues, and
A Century of Cuban Writers in Florida. In 1995-96, Castro
received a NewForms Florida grant.
Also
Available by this Author:
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