When Activism Meets Art: Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera Will Visit Smith

The role of the country’s poet laureate is a prestigious and coveted one, designed to help foster a national appreciation of poetry.

Juan Felipe Herrera, current U.S. Poet Laureate—and the first Latino to hold the position—interprets his mission this way: He says he aims “to encourage others to speak, to speak up and write with their voices and their family stories and their sense of humor and their deep concerns and their way of speaking their own languages.”

The campus community will have a chance to hear from Herrera when he visits Smith on Tuesday, Dec. 1, for a daylong series of events.

Herrera, whose career boasts an impressive 29 published books ranging from collections of poetry to children’s literature, will begin his visit with a Global Salon from noon to 1 p.m. at the Lewis Global Studies Center in Wright Hall. The topic will be his 2013 book, Senegal Taxi, which deals with the displacement of people in Africa.

The salon will give Herrera—who has described himself as “a poet concerned with the plight of people who suffer”—a chance to engage the Smith community on an urgent global issue.

Following that, at 4 p.m., the Smith Poetry Center will host Herrera for a question and answer session with students, faculty, and staff. His visit will wrap up with a public reading at 7:30 p.m. in Weinstein Auditorium, when Herrera will read a selection of his poems to an eager audience.

Originally from California, Herrera was inspired by his mother, who would often recite poetry and songs from the Mexican Revolution.

Herrera studied social anthropology at the University of California Los Angeles and Stanford University before earning an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He has taught Chicano and Latin American studies at California State University Fresno and creative writing at the University of California Riverside.

Jennifer Blackburn, administrative assistant at the Smith Poetry Center, says Herrera is significant as both a poet and an activist. His writing often focuses on social and political topics such as immigration and human rights.

Blackburn adds that Herrera’s work is perfect for a Smith audience. “Smith as a community is just so engaged with social issues,” she says. “His poems really speak to that.”

Elizabeth McCormack ’16, an intern at the Poetry Center, feels the same.

“The timing of Herrera’s visit is crucial in this moment of student activism and the evolving violence of our world,” she says. “This is a college where we are taught to use our voices to articulate beliefs, cultivate new ones and allow old-rooted passions to bloom.”

Herrera’s visit is the final reading the Poetry Center will host for the fall semester.

McCormack says she is excited to hear Herrera speak on campus. “This is a voice that goes where it needs to in order to tell, and to act; and it is one I feel humbled to soon hear,” she says.

Let Me Tell You What a Poem Brings

Before you go further,

let me tell you what a poem brings,

first, you must know the secret, there is no poem

to speak of, it is a way to attain a life without boundaries,

yes, it is that easy, a poem, imagine me telling you this,

instead of going day by day against the razors, well,

the judgments, all the tick-tock bronze, a leather jacket

sizing you up, the fashion mall, for example, from

the outside you think you are being entertained,

when you enter, things change, you get caught by surprise,

your mouth goes sour, you get thirsty, your legs grow cold

standing still in the middle of a storm, a poem, of course,

is always open for business too, except, as you can see,

it isn’t exactly business that pulls your spirit into

the alarming waters, there you can bathe, you can play,

you can even join in on the gossip—the mist, that is,

the mist becomes central to your existence.

Juan Felipe Herrera—from Half of the World in Light, New and Selected Poems

U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, the first Latino to hold the position.