Go Chanting, Libre!

30 minutes, English and Spanish with English titles

Rick Tejada-Flores & Ed Kissam,

Producers/Directors

 

Four Chicano poets who teach in a California Poets in the Schools program are the focus of this 30 –minute documentary.  We meet Juan Felipe Herrera (now California’s poet laureate), Roberto Bedoya, Rudy Castillo and Luz Maria Espinoza…  see them as creators of magic words and inspiring figures to the next generation.  They are there to start students on an exciting path: discovering the power and beauty of language.

 

Viento, vamos a volar                Wind, let's fly

Poemas, vamos a rimar             Poems, let's rhyme

Musica, vamos a cantar             Music, let's sing

Nubes, vamos a llorar                Clouds, let's cry

 Espantos, vamos a gritar         Ghosts, let's scream

Student from El Roble School,

Gilroy California

 

Juan Felipe Herrera is California’s Poet Laureate and

a professor of creative writing at UC Riverside.

Make the riff jump the jazz ignite

The wheel burn the blade churn, rise

And rise sisters rise brothers

And spill the song and sing the blood that calls…

Juan Felipe Herrera

from Mission Street Manifesto

 

Luz Maria Espinoza  teaches theatre, dance and poetry

in Santa Maria, California

Emptiness, loneliness, lie deep in my heart

Til I went to Miller park

Fast currents breathe in my mind

A poet once wrote a poem

About the river and your veins…

Luz Maria Espinoza

 

Rudy Castillo is a poet and chef living in Sonoma County.

 

The eyes belongd to a huge bull that roamed a watermelon patch

About half a mile from our house. “Walk slow,” whispered my brother.

I walked right up his back as he stopped to tell me not to show

I was afraid because the bull would smell it and charge us

I almost quit breathing I wanted so much not to be scared….

Rudy Castillo

 

 

Go Chanting, Libre! is a production of KRCB TV.