Arizona International Latina/o Arts Festival
Kool Logic: A Celebration of Latina/o Art and Poetry
March-June 2006
Phoenix•Tempe•Scottsdale

Latino poets Urayoán Noel and Francisco Aragón will headline at this year's Arizona International Latina/o Arts Festival (AILAF), March 30 and April 1. The festival, with events held at two Valley locations, is free and open to the public.

Noel and Aragón will do two readings of their work on Thursday, March 30, 2006 —one at Arizona State University's West campus and the other at ASU Kerr Cultural Center. Urayoán Noel will also perform musically at ASU Kerr Cultural Center on the evening of Saturday, April 1, 2006 as ASU's Hispanic Research Center unveils its DVD Triumph of Our Communities: Artists and Art Organizations (featuring art, artist interviews, and brief descriptions of some of the community art organizations that have encouraged and promoted Latina/o artists) and opens an exhibit of works by Latina/o artists.

The art exhibit, “Latina/o Works on Paper: Recent Art from the U.S. Southwest,” will feature work by 26 artists and will run April 1-28, 2006. A second exhibit on cars and trucks in Chicano art will run at the Tempe Public Library, Lower Level Gallery, May 1-June 15, 2006.

Urayoán Noel, author of the recently released book Kool Logic/La logica kool (Bilingual Review Press, $12) and vocalist on the companion DVD entitled Kool Logic Sessions (Bilingual Review Press, $12), speaks to urban, multicultural youth as well as to poetry fans of all backgrounds and ages. Described as "funky and hilarious," Noel's poems and translations have appeared in Long Shot, Poetry Motel, Lost and Found Times, New York Quarterly, and magazines and anthologies in Latin America and Europe.

Francisco Aragón is the author of Puerta del Sol (Bilingual Press, 2005). His anthology publications include, Inventions of Farewell: A Book of Elegies (W.W. Norton), Under the Fifth Sun: Latino Literature from California (Heyday Books), American Diaspora: Poetry of Displacement (University of Iowa Press), How to Be This Man (Swan Scythe Press, and Bend, Don’t Shatter (Soft Skull Press). He is also the author of three-limited edition chapbooks. His poems and translations have appeared in various print and web publications, including Chain, Chelsea, Crab Orchard Review, Electronic Poetry Review, Jacket, Puerto del Sol, and ZYZZYVA. He is currently Director of Letras Latinas—the literary unit of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. A native of San Francisco and long-time resident of Spain, he resides in South Bend, Indiana.

Copies of Kool Logic and Puerta del Sol will be available for purchase at the festival events.

AILAF is part of Arte es Amor, an annual festival of arts events in Tempe and on the ASU campus sponsored by Arizona State University, the City of Tempe, the Tempe Visitors and Convention Bureau, and Southwest Airlines. For more information, visit ArteEsAmor.com.

Download AILAF Poster