Join us at Beyond Baroque for a night honoring the legacy of the beloved Chicano poet raúlrsalinas, whose words and activism continue to resonate across generations. In partnership with The Global Latinidades Center, this free and public program brings together film, poetry, and conversation to celebrate Raúlrsalinas’ profound contributions to art, liberation, and community. Before and after the screenings, guests are invited to a reception in the Poets’ Garden.
The evening will feature UN TRIP: raúl r salinas and the Poetry of Liberation, a 25-minute documentary by Anne Lewis and Laura Varela based on Raúlrsalinas’ landmark 1969 poem Un Trip through the Mind Jail, written during his incarceration at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. The film highlights his transformation through political education and the collective power of resistance, while also drawing connections to contemporary issues such as imprisonment, gentrification, and the preservation of cultural memory.
Following the screening, filmmaker Laura Varela will join a panel conversation moderated by Professor Ben Olguín (UCSB). Luis J. Rodriguez, Iris de Anda, and soledad con carne will also perform in the spirit of flor y canto. Special guests Michael Sedano, founding editor of La Bloga, and Abel Salas, founding editor of Brooklyn & Boyle, will accompany us for a night reflecting on Chicanx literary and cultural traditions.
About the filmmaker
Laura Varela is a San Antonio–based filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist whose work bridges cultures, languages, and borders, shaped by her upbringing on the U.S./Mexico border in El Paso, TX. A Producer/Director/Writer committed to social justice storytelling, her award-winning documentaries include As Long As I Remember: American Veteranos (PBS, 2010–2016) and Un Trip: Raúlrsalinas and the Poetry of Liberation (co-directed with Anne Lewis). She is currently developing Queen of the Accordion, about musician Eva Ybarra, and Rebecca Flores: Under the South Texas Sun. Varela has produced projects funded by Latino Public Broadcasting, ITVS, NALAC, Humanities Texas, and others, and her work has screened widely at universities, cultural centers, and festivals, including the upcoming SXSW 2025 premiere of American Sons. An alumna of the University of Texas and multiple leadership institutes, she is also a Producer for VoxFem Network and a former faculty member at UT San Antonio, with residencies in the U.S. and Germany.
About the authors
Luis J. Rodriguez is former Poet Laureate of Los Angeles. He has 17 multi-genre books, including eight poetry collections. He’s best known for the bestselling memoir “Always Running, La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.” and its sequel, “It Calls You Back: An Odyssey Through Love, Addiction, Revolutions & Healing.” In 2022 he received a California Legacy Fellowship and the Robert Kirsch Lifetime Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Times.
soledad con carne is an intergalactic Chicanx punk poet and co-founder of Cucatlicue Collective. They are a poet of the root that cracks the concrete on occupied Fernandeño-Tataviam land: otherwise known as the San Fernando Valley. Their debut chapbook, SFV OR DIE, Foo’, was published with Lilac Press and featured in articles from San Francisco Chronicle’s Datebook, KALW’s Sights and Sounds, L.A. Taco’s “Best 38 books of 2024,” and The Latinx Project’s “La Treintena 2025” out of NYU.
Josiah Luis Alderete is a full blooded Spanglish speaking Pocho y left handed callejero de Aztlán who has been part of the Bay Area’s spoken word scene for over twenty years. He is the curator and host of the long running monthly Latine reading series Speaking Axolotl and is the author of two books of poetry Baby Axolotls & Old Pochos(Black Freighter Press 2021) and the chapbook Fuchi Faces de los Estados Jodidos(For The Pueblo 2023). In 2023 he was the Poetry Center’s Mazza Writer in Residence at San Francisco State. In 2024 his work was tranlsated in Spanish by the Universidad Autónoma De Nuevo León, as part of Hablando en Lenguas, a literay project that paired Mexican and Xicanx poets. Along with his bookstore sister Tân Khanh Cao, Josiah tends the portal known as Medicina Para Pesadillas Bookstore y Galeria on 24th Street in San Pancho, Califas.
Iris De Anda A Guanaca Tapatia poet, speaker & musician who has been featured with KPFK & KPFA Pacifica Radio, organized with Academy of American Poets, performed at Los Angeles Latino Book Festival, Feria del Libro Tijuana, Mexico, Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba and is named one of Today’s Revolutionary Women of Color. Author of Codeswitch: Fires from Mi Corazon with Los Writers Underground Press 2014 & Roots of Redemption: You have No Right to Remain Silent with Flowersong Press 2022.
Ben V. Olguín is the Robert and Liisa Erickson Presidential Chair in English and Director of the Global Latinidades Center at UC Santa Barbara. Originally from Houston, he earned his B.A. at the University of Houston and his M.A. and Ph.D. at Stanford, and has taught at Cornell, UT San Antonio, and held visiting posts at UT Austin. His interdisciplinary work spans Chicanx and Latinx Studies, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, American and Latin American Studies, postcolonial theory, speculative literature, human rights, medical humanities, and creative writing. Author of La Pinta (UT Press, 2010) and Violentologies (Oxford, 2020), he has also co-edited award-winning collections including Altermundos (2017) and Latina/os and WWII (2014), with several major editorial projects forthcoming. A published poet and Macondo Writers Workshop member, Olguín’s creative and scholarly work is grounded in community engagement, with long-standing service-learning projects in schools, prisons, and immigrant detention centers in the U.S. and abroad.
About Beyond Baroque
Beyond Baroque is one of the United States’ leading independent Literary | Arts Centers and public spaces dedicated to expanding the public’s knowledge of poetry, literature and art through cultural events and community interaction. Founded in 1968 as an experimental literary magazine, Beyond Baroque is based out of the original City Hall building in Venice, California. The Center offers a diverse variety of literary and arts programming including readings and workshops. The building also houses a bookstore with a large collection of new poetry books for sale.
Livestream: If you can’t join us in person the event will be livestreamed on Beyond Baroque’s YouTube channel at the scheduled time of the event. If you are tuning in this way, no ticket purchase is necessary.
If you are attending in person, ticket purchase is required. Tickets will be available at the Beyond Baroque bookstore on the day of the event, but we recommend registering in advance through Eventbrite. Masks are encouraged while inside our center. Please arrive early.
Event attendees are expected to behave in a respectful and considerate manner while in our space. Beyond Baroque reserves the right to remove individuals from our events, virtual or otherwise, if they are not respecting the space, staff, fellow attendees, or performers.
