Las Cruces Public Libraries will host a series of poetry discussions and crafting sessions titled “Palabras y Artesanias (Words and Crafts).” The first session will take place at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 14, at the Thomas Branigan Memorial Library, located at 200 E. Picacho Avenue.
The series is funded by the Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home grant, which aims to encourage nationwide discussions through a new poetry anthology. The City of Las Cruces highlighted the project’s goal of fostering community dialogue.
The anthology is divided into eight themes: ancestry and identity, language, voice and resistance, first and second homes, family and community, music and performance, labor, and Earth and myth. The Jan. 14 session will focus on ancestry and identity, featuring a craft project where participants will create their own lucha libre masks.
Subsequent sessions will take place on select Tuesdays at 4 p.m. through April at the Thomas Branigan Memorial Library. Participants are encouraged to read the poems connected to each theme before attending. Copies of the selected poems will be available online through the event’s calendar and at the library’s Picacho Avenue location.
This program is part of Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home, a nationwide public humanities initiative running through 2024 and 2025. The project is directed by the Library of America and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and Emerson Collective.
