Monday Muse: Martin Espada

. . . I grew up in an activist household. . . Resistance

was as natural as breathing. . . .

~ Martin Espada

Poet Martin Espada recently was interviewed at Democracy Now. For those unfamiliar with Espada, who has a legal background, the interview, recorded in the video below, is a good introduction.  (Also see the PEN America interview to which I link below.) Espada reads several poems from his new collection, Vivas To Those Who Have Failed (W.W. Norton, 2016); the first is "How We Could Have Lived or Died This Way" and the second, "El Morivivi", was written for his father Frank Espada (1930-2014), a photojournalist, activist, and teacher. 

Espada, in addition to being a prolific poet, is an essayist, translator, and editor. Some of his other collections are The Trouble Ball (2011), The Republic of Poetry (2006), a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and Alabanza: New & Selected Poems 1982-2002 (2003). Selections of poems from these collections are available on Espada's Website.

Transcription of Democracy Now Interview

Martin Espada Website

Nicole Sealey, "The PEN Ten with Martin Espada", Interview, PEN America

Also see my posts "Monday Muse: Espada Talks About Poetry" (April 1, 2013) and "Monday Muse: 'Soldiers in the Garden" (May 11, 2015), a animation of Espada's poem.