Martín Espada, an acclaimed National Book Award-winning poet, will give a reading at Worcester State University at 2 p.m. on Friday, October 3, as part of the university’s Homecoming and Family Weekend.
The event will be held in the Student Center Blue Lounge. Espada will present a 45-minute reading from his new poetry collection, Jailbreak of Sparrows, followed by a book signing and reception. During the event, Espada will be presented with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in recognition of his achievement in literature, education, and human rights.
Espada is a prolific writer, having published over 20 books as a poet, editor, essayist, and translator. His previous work, Floaters, earned him the National Book Award for Poetry in 2021. Other acclaimed collections include Vivas to Those Who Have Failed (2016), The Trouble Ball (2011), and The Republic of Poetry (2006). Espada has received prestigious honors such as the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Shelley Memorial Award, and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets and the Guggenheim Foundation.
A former tenant lawyer with Su Clínica Legal in Greater Boston, Espada is a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
“Professor Espada, one of our leading poets, has an utterly original, unforgettable voice, and he is an incredible performer of his work,” Heather Treseler, noted poet and professor of English at Worcester State, said. “His new book, Jailbreak of Sparrows, draws on family stories from Puerto Rico and Brooklyn, his distinguished legal work for the Latino community in metro Boston, and tender love songs from later in life. This is a chance to hear, in person, one of the great American poets of our time.”
Worcester State University News recently emailed Espada a series of interview questions. Here is what he wrote in response:
- Your poetry often explores themes of social justice, immigration, and the working-class experience. What inspires you to write about these issues?
I grew up in the East New York section of Brooklyn, specifically in the Linden projects, during the 1960s, an experience that influences the urgent need to speak to issues of social justice in my poetry. There is another, profound influence on my work: my father, Frank Espada, was a civil rights activist, community organizer, and documentary photographer who created the Puerto Rican Diaspora Documentary Project, a photodocumentary of the Puerto Rican migration. I saw, from early age, the nexus between art and activism in my own household.
- Many of your poetry collections, like Imagine the Angels of Bread, The Republic of Poetry, and Floaters have received critical acclaim. What do you hope readers take away from your work?
I hope people who read my poems will find something useful there. I hope people who encounter these poems will be moved, will recognize some characteristic of themselves, or even better, feel empathy for others, in a society so often lacking empathy.
- As both a poet and an attorney, how do you see the intersection of poetry and social activism? How does your legal background inform your writing?
I worked as a lawyer with Su Clínica Legal, a legal services program for low-income, Spanish speaking tenants in Chelsea, Massachusetts, from 1987 to 1993. Both as a lawyer and as a poet, I have acted as an advocate, speaking on behalf of those without an opportunity to be heard, not that they couldn’t speak themselves—they simply don’t have the chance. Both as a lawyer and a poet, I have told stories that need to be told, now more than ever. The lawyer in me always speaks to the poet in me.
- In addition to your own writing, you have also translated the work of other notable poets such as Clemente Soto Vélez. How does this translation work influence your own poetic voice and process?
Translation is very difficult and time-consuming work. I don’t translate anymore. With Camilo Pérez-Bustillo, I translated Clemente Soto Vélez, a Puerto Rican poet incarcerated in the 1930s for his leadership role in the movement for independence in Puerto Rico. He was an early and generous mentor of mine. Camilo and I published a bilingual selection of his work, entitled La sangre que sigue cantando, or The Blood That Keeps Singing, with Curbstone Press. It was, above all, a gift to Clemente Soto Vélez before he died in 1993.
- At your Worcester State poetry reading October 3, what can the audience expect from your performance, and what are you most looking forward to about this event?
There is a difference between poetry on the page and poetry on the stage. Poetry is also music, so the audience can expect to hear the musicality of the words in performance. There is a dynamic between the poet and the audience, a cycle of energy. I look forward to meeting my audience—seeing their faces and hearing their voices—on October 3rd.
- Care to add anything?
I’m very glad to read my work again at Worcester State, where many years ago I read with Dennis Brutus, a major South African poet and political prisoner under apartheid. That was a life-changing experience for me. And I’m quite proud to receive an honorary doctorate from Worcester State in a ceremony before the reading.
Worcester State University supported Dennis Brutus’s bid for asylum in 1983. That same year, Brutus, an acclaimed poet and anti-apartheid activist, received political asylum in the U.S. and was awarded an honorary degree by the university. His association with Worcester State continued with numerous appearances and residencies, and with the eventual gifting of his personal papers to form the Dennis Brutus Collection.
Photo above by David González.