Stay tuned for details

Friends and family of Avenue 50 Studio are welcome to join us for a townhall about the future of Avenue 50 Studio. December 2024 will be our last month at 131 N Ave 50, so what’s next?

This is the first of our town halls. We’ll do a virtual one afterward.

Think of this as resource mining. Bring ideas.

Sunday, May 26 11 am - 1 pm
(time is sharp)

Alternative Field is proud to once again sponsor the one and only

FREE COMMUNITY BOOF FAIR!!!

Brown Girl Travels is at it again, and you don’t want to miss this!

at

Avenue 50 Studio
May 19th, 1pm - 5pm

JOIN US on Zoom on Thursday, April 18th, 3pm-4pm pacific. Wendy C. Ortiz and Alternative Field’s Jessica Ceballos y Campbell will be in conversation with poet Vickie Vértiz about her book AUTO/BODY. RSVP by sending an email to wendycortiz@buttondown.email to receive the zoom link the day before.

Join us for zine-making and poetry reading with Avenue 50 Studio

Saturday, November 4, 2023 starting at 3:00 PM

La Tierra de la Culebra Park
240 S Avenue 57,
Los Angeles, 90042

Join us at the Women Who Submit table at 2023 Indie-Pendent Voices

at Central Library in downtown!

Join us on August 6th to celebrate our Latina writing community! Our three roundtable discussions will be happening simultaneously, so choose your interest. You'll want to stay after the discussions for a special performance by Maria de la Ghetto and the Chulita Vinyl Club will be spinning tunes to dance! We'll also have plenty of vendors, so bring your cash! And Latino Arts Network with the Latina Writers Conference committee will be presenting the 2023 Maestra Award to the one and only author, community educator, bookstore owner, curator, and performance ethnographer Sarah Rafael García!

3:00 PM Registration

4:00 PM PR and Business for Latina Writers: How to Get Your Work Noticed with Li Yun Alvarado & Ena Coleman

This engaging and informative 75-minute roundtable discussion aims to equip writers with practical insights and strategies to effectively navigate the realms of promotion, branding, and entrepreneurship in the literary world.

Author, educator, and advocate Li Yun Alvarado, Ph.D., will delve into various aspects of PR and business tailored specifically to the needs and experiences of Latina writers. Participants will gain valuable knowledge on crafting an author brand, creating and maintaining a writer's CV and your first author website, setting intentions for a successful writing practice, leveraging social media platforms, securing speaking engagements, and fostering relationships with agents, editors, and/or publishers. Additionally, the roundtable will explore effective marketing strategies, self-promotion techniques, and the importance of community-building for long-term success.

4:00 PM Empowering Journeys: Writing as a Catalyst for Healing, Inspiration, and Personal Growth with Marisa Urrutia Gedney & Linda González

In this transformative 75-minute roundtable discussion, writers will explore the power of writing to heal, inspire, and empower, aiming to provide a nurturing space for Latina writers to explore their unique journeys while acknowledging the systemic challenges they may face.

For this interactive session, life coach, writer, speaker Linda González MSW, MFA, and writer, cultivator, DEI consultant, sahumadora, Marisa Urrutia Gedney, will guide participants through a journey of self-discovery, providing practical strategies to tap into their creative potential and overcome obstacles. Through engaging discussions and writing exercises, attendees will explore the role of writing in fostering healing, personal growth, and resilience. Linda and Marisa will help writers explore ways to harness their own experiences, voice, and imagination to tell stories that matter and inspire positive change.

4:00 PM Navigating the Publishing Journey: From Submission to Success

with Cybele Garcia Kohel, Neelanjana Banerjee, & Ramona Pilar

In this enriching 75-minute roundtable discussion, writers will discuss the intricacies of publishing their work: from understanding the importance of submitting their work to organizing their writing for submission and crafting compelling proposals, attendees will gain practical insights on how to present their work effectively to publications.

During this interactive session, writers and Women Who Submit coordinator Cybele Garcia Kohel, MLIS; writer and managing editor at Kaya Press, Neelanjana Banerjee; and story-diviner, singer, and creative nonfiction editor at Exposition Review, Ramona Pilar, will share their expertise and guide participants through the entire publishing process. The discussion will cover a wide range of topics, including researching literary markets, identifying the right publications for your writing, polishing your submissions, and navigating the editorial process. You’ll leave this discussion empowered with the knowledge and strategies to navigate the publishing world with confidence.

5:00 PM presenting the Chulita Vinyl Club

Chulita Vinyl Club is made up of women, gender-non-conforming, non-binary, people of color, who utilize music and vinyl as a form of resistance against the erasure of culture. Each DJ has their own personality and specialty, however you can expect a dance floor driven focus on Latin, Cumbia, Reggaeton, 90’s and 2000’s R&B, Funk, New Wave, Soul, Post-Punk, and House.

6:00 PM Maestra Award Presentation to Sarah Rafael Garcia

Sarah Rafael García is an award-winning author and literary arts advocate raised in Santa Ana, California. As a child of immigrants and a first-generation university graduate, she knows first-hand what it means to fail and triumph in life. Her first book Las Niñas (2008) speaks to her loss and upbringing, and her second book, SanTana’s Fairy Tales (2017), is part of an oral history multimedia exhibition awarded by the Andy Warhol Foundation, and most recently a required Ethnic Studies text in the Santa Ana Unified School District. She has co-edited various anthologies, including pariahs: writing from outside the margins (2016) and Speculative Fiction for Dreamers (2021), among other publications. García is the founder of Barrio Writers (2009), LibroMobile (2016) and Crear Studio (2017). In 2023, she was honored as a Woman of Distinction by State Senator Tom J. Umberg and a Kickass Woman by Orange Coast Magazine.

As a Chicana multimedia artist, García addresses what it means to be a child Spanish speaker, a teen trauma survivor, a nontraditional M.F.A graduate in the American School System — and now an arts leader who aspires to build equity and visibility for her BIPOC community in Orange County via the LibroMobile Arts Cooperative. Currently, she splits her time establishing collaborative arts programming through the digital humanities, which includes community-based partnerships, with UCI Libraries & Special Collections and the Digital Ethnic Futures Consortium at CSUF. Most recently, Sarah Rafael García was announced as the CSUF Chicana/o Studies Department & Latinx Lab Visiting Professor of Creative Writing for the 2023-2024 academic year.

6:30 PM Dinner

7:00 PM Special Guest Performances: Maria De La Ghetto

Native Angeleno, Half Filipina and half Mexican, Maria uses comedy as a way to narrate her unique cultural identity as well as navigate through social norms she’s never quite fit into. She shares her experiences about being ethnically ambiguous and plus sized in a world where everyone wants to put you in a box that’s “one size fits all". She's performed all over Southern California including Mad House Comedy Club, Mic Drop Comedy Club, and The Comedy Store in San Diego. Flapper’s Comedy Club, Haha Comedy Club, and Laugh Factory in Los Angeles. She's also featured for headlining comedian Rex Navarrete at Brea Improv and Queen Bee’s San Diego

7:20 PM Dance Party!

8:00 PM Goodnight

Click here for free Eventbrite tickets!

Join Latinx in Publishing for a reading of horror and Gothic stories by 5 Latina authors who explore themes of family, love, grief, violence, brujería, patriarchy, capitalism, and colonialism. These critically acclaimed authors are innovating the genre and moving beyond it to show how we deal with death, as Latinas.

Hosted by Camille Corbett & Featuring Toni Margarita Plummer, Carribean Fragoza, Lilliam Rivera, Marytza K. Rubio, Mary Castillo

Matilija Lending Library, 3571 Lexington Avenue, El Monte, CA 91731

This panel gives a voice to Latina High School Writers studying film at the LACHSA. The students and Latina writer, Claudia Forestieri, will talk about their journey as writers and hopefully inspire future Latina writers. We want to highlight more diversity for our future generations especially in the writing area, whether that's writing scripts for movies or writing books.

Moderated by Equity Coordinator, Esmeralda Xochitl Flores & Featuring Jimena Mendez, Claudia Forestieri, Angela Alvarado, Andrea Ramirez Romo, Juliana Diaz

LACHSA's Caroline's Loft - Circle Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90032

Click here to RSVP for this session

Celebrating Women of Resilience: A Photographic Tribute to the Activists. Women, Mujeres, Ixoq: Revolutionary Visions showcases the creativity of women artists committed to social justice. Through photos, videos, and oral histories, this project aims to inspire and transform communities. The book highlights the resilience of women and encourages young minds to become role models, emphasizing the importance of nurturing respectful men. It reminds us that every woman has a revolutionary story.

Featuring Claudia D. Hernández, Felicia Montes, Josie Méndez-Negrete, Leticia Hernández-Linares, Margaret Garcia

Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291

Click here for free Eventbrite tickets!

This is an in-person, bilingual workshop for 20 Mexican immigrant women in the Palo Verde Valley who will be asked to tell their stories to each other. Using writing prompts, model texts, and specific revision strategies, writers will turn their verbally expressed thoughts into cuentos de nuestra cultura.

Facilitated by Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera & Carmela Garnica

Escuela de la Raza Unida (this is a private event)

This workshop will give Latina writers insight on how to overcome our limiting beliefs from our ancestors so that we can be successful writers who have absolute clarity about our themes, messages, and purpose for sharing our stories and inspiring our community. Participants will leave this workshop knowing how best to execute their stories, the genre that best suits their stories and insights as to how their unconscious mind works and how to overcome writer's block. Having over 35 years of experience being a professional writer, I want to help other Latinas just starting out to gain the courage to write their stories and not sabotage themselves.

Facilitated by Josefina Lopez

Casa 0101, 2102 E. 1st., Los Angeles., CA 90033

Reserve your spot for this workshop. Space is limited.

Washington Heights, The Bronx, Compton, and San Bernardino are often depicted in the media as crime ridden, impoverished, and undesirable. This misrepresentation has become the dominant narrative about these places and the residents. Four Latinas share how they counter the misconceptions of their communities, past and present, and in their writing.

Featuring Lucy Rodriguez-Hanley, Luivette Resto, Jenise Miller, Liz González

Virtual Meeting ID: 832 9435 3052 Passcode: 959221

Tatiana de la Tierra (1961-2012) was a Latina lesbian writer and literary trailblazer. In the 1990s, amidst all the possible isms imaginable in publishing, Tatiana co-founded and co-edited the magazines Esto No Tiene Nombre, Conomoción, and La Telaraña. These magazines featured poetry, prose, photography, spells and musings from Latina Lesbians in both the U.S. and Latin America. These herstorical publications were groundbreaking, offering bilingual and Spanglish literary lifelines to Latina lesbians across borders. tatiana went on to produce several of her own works, among them her iconic For the Hard Ones: A Lesbian Phenomenology (published in 2002 by Calaca Press and in 2018 by Sinister Wisdom). Although largely invisibilized in the “mainstream,” Tatiana de la Tierra remains beloved and vibrant in Latina lesbian and feminist literary circles. In fact, it is queer and feminist women who have assured her legacy be kept alive. In Oct 2023, Redonda y radical: Antología Poética de Tatiana de la Tierra was published by Sincronía Casa Editorial in Bogotá, Colombia.

This panel brings together Tatiana’s literary executors, the women of Sincronía (via Zoom), and local writer friends of Tatiana’s to discuss the author’s work, her literary activism, and her most amazing sapphic life. Join us for Tatiana de la Tierra poetry, Colombian music by Langosta, and refreshments.

Featuring Olga García Echeverría, Carribean Fragoza, Myriam Gurba, Rocio Cely Herrera, Laura Arenas, Maylei Blackwell

Altadena Library, 600 Mariposa Street, Altadena, CA 91001

Featuring 3 Latina animation writers, this panel will showcase the different career stages of writing for animation from staff writer (Jeannette Lara) to story editor (Norma P. Sepulveda) to showrunner (Natasha Kline). The discussion will also dig into how each writer navigates and draws inspiration from their respective identities and histories.

Moderated by Angela M. Sánchez & Featuring Natasha Kline, Norma P. Sepulveda, Jeannette Lara

This event will be streamed on Facebook Live. Be sure to sign up for a reminder.

Avenue 50 Studio, 131 North Avenue 50, Los Angeles CA 90042

Click here for free Eventbrite tickets to this session!

5 Latinx/Chicanx authors will share their work at two different brown-owned businesses in Sejatnga, Unceded Tongva Territory otherwise known as Whittier. These 5 authors will read from their collections and explore the liberating practice of storytelling.

Featuring Brenda Vaca, Annalicia Aguilar, Anastasia Helena Fenald, Paola Gutierrez, Diosa Xochiquetzalcóatl

Starting at Midnight Books LA , 7201 Greenleaf Ave. Suite D, Whittier CA 90602 Culminating at Uptown Plants at Casa Verde LA,12909 Philadelphia St., Whittier 90601

Click here for free Eventbrite tickets!

Join us for an IG chat with Oombi Solis Flores on Thursday, 11/17 at 8:00pm PDT

We'll be talking with Oombi about their book, (Be)longing.

(BE)LONGING
(World Stage Press, 2022)

(Be)longing is a coming-of-age journey across borders and binaries. In their debut poetry collection, Flores offers memories and visions of self-discovery and queer intimacy. (Be)longing serves as a self-love handbook that will appeal to the deep longing we all share– to find a place where our hearts and souls can rest.

(BE)LONGING is achingly beautiful and brilliant. Each poem, delicately crafted, appeals to the deep longing we all have—to find a place where our hearts can rest—whether in the arms of a lover or in our own arms. (BE)LONGING is not only a fight to acquire one’s identity but a handbook on how to love oneself through grief and questioning. Oombi Solis Flores leads us on their uphill journey to a mountainous view where we can stand in awe and collectively say “we belong / we are here.”

You can purchase (Be)Longing at https://worldstagepress.org/product/belonging-by-oombi-solis-flores/

And follow Oombi on Instagram @jotitadeamor

Do you have a book you wanna talk about? Hit us up! #supportpoets

Join us for a Live Chat with L.A. poet, Jerry Garcia, Wednesday 11/16 at 7pm PST.

We’ll be chatting about his writing journey and his latest book, Trumpets in the Sky

Trumpets in the Sky
(Moontide Press 2022)

”…a collection of poems that point to the universe while proclaiming the complexities of living on planet earth. These poems are full of astonishment, absurdity, reverence, and social science. Some are surreal, some are staid, all are sincere.”

Jerry Garcia is a poet, photographer, and filmmaker from Los Angeles, California. His poetry has been seen in Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, The Chiron Review, Coiled Serpent Anthology, and Voices from Leimert Park Redux, among others. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has published three books of poetry: Trumpets in the Sky, On Summer Solstice Road, and the chapbook Hitchhiking With the Guilty. He has been a producer and editor of television commercials, documentaries, and motion picture previews. Jerry lives in Southern California with his wife Becky and their poetic dog, Japhy.

To purchase Trumpets in the Sky and more of Jerry’s books, visit
https://www.gratefulnotdead.com/buy-trumpets-in-the-sky.html
And follow him on Instagram @gnd54

Do you have a book you wanna talk about? Hit us up! #supportpoets

Join us for a Live Chat with Deborah Ortiz, Wednesday 11/9 at 4pm PDT.

We’ll be chatting about her poetry collection, 'She' is the Sweetest Word.

'She' is the Sweetest Word
(2021)
’She’ is the Sweetest Word is a book about love and loss and finding beauty all around.

To purchase her book, visit
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09M9BJJ8K
And follow her on Instagram @ deborahnoemiortiz

Do you have a book you wanna talk about? Hit us up! #supportpoets

Join us for an IG chat with J. Daniel Cruz Tuesday, 10/25 at 1pm PDT

We'll be talking with Jesus-Daniel about A Path of Roses and Thorns.

A Path of Roses and Thorns
(2022)

Mexican LGBTQ writer, artist, and poet J. Daniel Cruz pulls from his experiences as a gay man and recipient of D.A.C.A. in this evocative collection of poetry. Expressing himself through eloquent verse, he takes on several themes: the push and pull between romance and self-preservation. The pain of growing up and living as a person of color in America. The passion of an artist. The frustration with national and global injustice.

Reflecting the author’s roots, original poems written in both English and Spanish are included. Also included are specially dedicated poems to celebrate beloved members of Cruz’s communities.

A Path of Roses and Thorns is a powerful and emotive collection echoing experiences that members of any community can empathize with.

You can purchase the book at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B92LDZ52
And follow him on Instagram @j.daniel.cruz.

Do you have a book you wanna talk about? Hit us up! #supportpoets

Join us for an IG chat with Cyan Villanueva Tuesday, 10/18 at 3pm PDT

We'll be talking with Cyan about The Loversfortune: Vol 1.

The Loversfortune: Vol 1.
(2022)
There were many loves that could not stay, what is left of them; I keep here.

You can purchase the book at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TV5729L
And follow her on Instagram @poetcjv

Do you have a book you wanna talk about? Hit us up! #supportpoets

Join us for an IG chat with Sofía Aguilar Friday, 10/14 at 2pm PDT

We'll be talking with Sofía about Streaming Service: Seasons 1 & 2


Book 1: STREAMING SERVICE: golden shovels made for tv

STREAMING SERVICE: golden shovels made for tv is an ode to the historic, moving mode of episodic and serial storytelling. Without regard for genre, location, or air date, Sofía Aguilar borrows spoken tv dialogue penned by other writers and makes each word the sternum of her poems through an unusually structured but culturally transformative poetic form. Blurring the lines between fiction and reality, character and person, identity and heartache, Aguilar honors the stories that shaped her, that have been told before—all while bringing forth her own.

Book 2: STREAMING SERVICE: season two

STREAMING SERVICE: season two is the long-awaited sequel to Sofía Aguilar’s debut poetry chapbook, STREAMING SERVICE: golden shovels made for tv (2021). With a growing masterful hand, Aguilar returns to a familiar poetic form to weave together dialogue from more tv shows past and present (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Bridgerton, I Love Lucy) with her own personal experiences of break-ups, new love, kinship, family, and navigating multi-faceted identity while still processing the trauma of history. Roping in fellow contemporary poets for collaboratively-written golden shovels (“crossover episodes”) and lyrics from a few of her favorite artists to create song-inspired golden shovels (“season soundtrack”), she creates an ever-expansive, ambitious, and most of all, tender love letter to television itself—all while writing her own story.

You can purchase the series directly at https://sofiaaguilar.bigcartel.com/product/physical-bundle-streaming-service-seasons-one-and-two

And follow her on Instagram @sofiaxaguilar

Do you have a book you wanna talk about? Hit us up! #supportpoets

Join us for an IG chat with Andrea Lopez, Sunday, 10/9 at 11am PDT

We'll be talking about Andrea's self-published poetry chapbook, You Will Soon Bloom.

You Will Soon Bloom
(self published, 2021)

Andrea is a 20-something-year-old latina author & poet from California! She has been writing as a creative outlet since she was 13, but really found a love for poetry about 4 years ago. Her favorite poets are Reyna Biddy, Yesika Salgado and Nayyirah Waheed. Aside from writing, she enjoys listening to music & tending to her plants.

To purchase her book and learn more about Andrea, visit
https://msha.ke/im.andrea.lopez#links
And follow her on Instagram @im.andrea.lopez

Do you have a book you wanna talk about? Hit us up! #supportpoets