Annenberg Beach House Artist in Residence

Before providing all the details about the first of four emerging women of color writers reading and discussing her work next Tuesday evening, October 24, I want to share our first phone conversation. It was after a long day agonizing over how to put the Annenberg programs together and stressing about not getting enough of my own writing finished. We agreed to an 8 pm call with me, sitting at my desk, scribbling notes as Roxana told me about herself and her work. 

I was up at Dorland, on the mountain, as we used to say, and my cabin had just settled in for the night. Crickets and katydids, the owl and toad outside my window, and Roxana's strong, confident, and authentic voice fit right in with the concert warming up all around me. I knew at that moment, I was talking to someone perfect for our first evening. It didn't matter that she is a poet, and my project identified fiction writers as its core focus. 

What mattered is Roxana's truth. Her ability to maintain her own identity and sanity despite all the noise around her. Roxana moved from Jalisco, Mexico, to America when she was four. At sixteen, she came out to her mother as a lesbian and was promptly kicked out of the only home she knew only to find out she was undocumented. Tethered neither to her mother, nor to the country she has always called home, Roxana was homeless and without an anchor. 

Today, she has graduated from college, is a social justice activist, and works with youth in Boyle Heights and East LA. Her dedication to helping young people in the Latino LGBTQ community facilitate telling their own stories through poetry means she regularly visits libraries, schools, and youth centers. 

By the time we hung up, I was near tears (takes a lot to get me there), and I was overcome with gratitude that I had been connected to Roxana through Thea Monyee, a poet, YA spec fiction writer, and CSULA professor, who will read on 11/14. I can't wait for Tuesday night, because Roxana and the rest of the emerging women writers of color are the voices that will contribute towards changing how we view each other.

Roxana's official bio:

Roxana Preciado is an indie author and artist recognized for her work as a poet and an activist. Born in Jalisco, Mexico, she immigrated to the US at 4-years-old. Not a Fairytale is Preciado's first book recounting her life through poetry and encompasses the harsh realities of overcoming family tragedy, homelessness, and learning what life is like without an anchor to parent or to country.

Preciado has used poetry to support community engagement and activism around DACA, to bring awareness to violence against women through Take Back the Night, and to help Latino LGBT teens tell their own stories in Boyle Heights. Her book has been used as an interactive summer Lavender Book Club selection by teens at Mi Centro in Boyle Heights. She often speaks to LGBT teens and young adults about finding their own voice to tell their stories.

Preciado is completing her graduate degree at CSULA, while working on her autobiography, and resides in Los Angeles with her wife and son.

Reception at 6 pm; Program begins at 6:30 pm in the Marion Davies Guest House. RSVP via Eventbrite.