The Latinx & Proud! Reading Series is excited to feature poets Eduardo C. Corral, Yesika Salgado, Edyka Chilomé, and Vanessa Angélica Villarreal in a powerhouse lineup. Latinx & Proud! continues the important work of celebrating Latinx artists, and empowering the local and national Latinx community in this ongoing series. This event is in proud partnership with The Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS).

¡Ven a celebrar con nosotros! (Come celebrate with us!)

Yesika Salgado is a Los Angeles based Salvadoran poet who writes about her family, her culture, her city, and her fat brown body. She has shared her work in venues and campuses throughout the country. Salgado is a two time National Poetry Slam finalist and the recipient of the 2020 International Latino Book Award in Poetry. Her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Teen Vogue, Univision, CNN, NPR, TEDx, and many digital platforms. She is an internationally recognized body-positive activist and the writer of the column Suelta for Remezcla. Yesika is the author of the best-sellers Corazón, Tesoro, and Hermosa, published with Not a Cult.

Eduardo C. Corral is the son of Mexican immigrants. His second book, Guillotine, was published by Graywolf Press. Slow Lightning, his first book, won the Yale Series of Younger Poets competition in 2011. He’s the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University. He teaches in the MFA program at North Carolina State University.

Vanessa Angélica Villarreal is the author of Beast Meridian (Noemi Press, Akrilica Series 2017), a recipient of a 2019 Whiting Award, a Kate Tufts Discovery Award nomination,  and winner of the John A. Robertson Award for Best First Book of Poetry from the Texas Institute of Letters. She is a 2021 National Endowment for the Arts poetry fellow, and has appeared in The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, The Boston Review, Poetry Magazine, and elsewhere. She is working on a poetry and essay collection while raising her son in Los Angeles.

Edyka Chilomé is a queer indigenous mestiza cultural worker, writer, poet, and child of migrant activist from occupied Zacateco (Mexico) as well as Lenca (El Salvador) territories who raised her in the tradition of spiritual activism. Internationally praised for her authentic and powerful voice Edyka has been asked to share her poetry and speak on multiple media platforms and in spaces around the country and Latin America. She is the author of two collections of poetry, She Speaks Poetry and El Poemario del Colibri / The Hummingbird Poems. Currently, Edyka lives in a tiny house on 10 acres of reclaimed indigenous land as a part of a regenerative community land-based project east of the Arkikosa River (North Texas). @edykachilome edykachilome.com.

Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) The mission of CLAS is to promote global understanding through support for teaching, learning, & research in and on Latin America, the Caribbean, and the diverse diasporic communities of Latin American and Caribbean origin. CLAS provides faculty with the resources and intellectual environment to realize cutting-edge research, and students with unequaled educational experience and a solid path to a successful career. Through its community engagement programs, the center shares its resources regionally, nationally, & internationally.

Adriana E. Ramírez, Malcolm Friend & Karla Lamb

The mission of the Latinx & Proud! reading series is to incite conversation, empower, & amplify the Latinx community in Pittsburgh, PA & beyond.

Latinx & Proud! Reading Series ft. Eduardo C. Corral, Yesika Salgado, Edyka Chilomé, and Vanessa Angélica Villarreal