Tree Fruit is a collection of poems and images by the author and her daughter. The book includes thematic works about the garden, family, love, and healing.

Images by Reva Santo
7.5 x 7.5 “
49 Pages
Perfect Binding

LISTEN TO A POEM

SPEAKING IN SIGNS

1 Poem 4
7th Street

Speaking in Signs is a poem and chapbook with street images taken from Google Earth. The work was created for Writers on Seventh, an event sponsored by Wordspace in collaboration with the Los Angeles Conservancy.

4.5 x 5.5″ chapbook
16 Pages
Saddle Stitch

Available through the author

With support from Margarita Antonio and the capable staff at the Autonomous Regional University of the Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast (URACCAN), the VIVA! project convened its IV international gathering from April 28-30, 2010. Read more about URACCAN’s mission to support community based, intercultural, poly-lingual education.

Read more about URACCAN at URACCAN SITE

Having previously convened project participants in Canada, Panama, and Mexico, and having facilitated student internships between universities in Panama, Mexico, United States, and Canada, the IV VIVA! Project encounter was set in Puerto Cabezas Nicaragua on the Caribbean Coast.

The VIVA! Project Encounter at URACCAN on Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast observed the following objectives and dynamics.

Objectives:

1) Interchange between representatives of the various regional initiatives and new local projects and speakers

2) Deepen the reflection about community art, education and communications and the construction of autonomy, promotion of human rights, cultural revitalization and intercultural dialogue.

Conference Dynamics:

1) Share diverse panels and experiences with a broad regional public, other Nicaraguan and international invitees, and an international group of VIVA! Project participants.

2) Develop workshops fostering reflection, interchange, and collective analysis.

Watch a short synopsis video about the VIVA! Project:

VIVA! Project Synthesis Video from The VIVA! Project on Vimeo.

URACCAN coordinates an accelerated high school degree program for young leaders from local indigenous communities. The accelerated high school is lovingly nicknamed “La Prepa.” Under the general umbrella of leadership development, students complete their requirements for high school graduation, and also choose a focus in a specific area of specialization.

I had a chance to spend time, teach, and learn from the students who focus on cultural promotion. Young leaders in the cultural emphasis group study, research, and uplift Miskito culture including songs, music, dance, storytelling, and indigenous knowledge.

I’ve translated excerpts from their opinions into English for those who don’t speak Spanish. A full detailed transcript in Spanish and Miskito is also provided below thanks to the efforts of Ms. Sasha Marley.

A leader has to be able to conduct a group of people
A leader has to be conscientious of many things
A leader must have discipline
A leader should be respectful
A leader has to work with others in ways that are mutually beneficial
A leader has to support local residents
A leader has to help the community
A leader has to be kind
A leader has to be able to work well with other leaders
A leader has to be honest and speak the truth
A leader needs to work hard to progress and help develop themselves more with the community
A leader needs to be transparent
A leader has to be humble
A leader has to be active
A leader needs to communicate with different societies and get along with mutual understanding and respect.

UN LIDER ES…
• Un líder tiene que tener la capacidad de conducir un grupo de personas.
• Un líder tiene que estar consciente para cualquier cosa.
• Un líder tiene que ser disciplinado.
• Un líder tiene que tener respeto.
• Un líder tiene que trabajar mutuamente.
• Un líder tiene que apoyar a los pobladores
• Un líder tiene que ayudar a la comunidad
• Un líder tiene que ser amable.
• Ta brabrira kum sika dukanka pain nani brikaiasa /Un líder debe demostrar tener un buen comportamiento, buena actitud.
• Ta brabrira kum sika dukanka pain nani brikaiasa tawan ra taim líder baku upla kan kahbi brih tauki kaia sa /Un líder debe demostrar tener buenas actitudes y debe guiar a su comunidad.
• Lider kum ba sika tawan wal wapni tawan bilara trabil nani sut ba witin dauki wapni mankisa / Un líder debe permanecer en orden con la comunidad, ser recto y responder a la solución de los distintos problemas que ocurren en la comunidad.
• Líder kum ba sika disciplina pain bri kaia sa / Un líder debe ser disciplinado.
• Un líder tiene que trabajar con los otros líderes.
• Tiene que ser honesto y decir la verdad
• Tiene que trabajar, salir adelante y salir adelante y desarrollarse más con la comunidades.
• Ta upla kum ba kristian kaia an upla nani wala aikuki aisaia ba sin respect laka brikaia sa / Un líder debe ser cristiano y debe poder comunicarse con la comunidad en condiciones de respeto mutuo.
• Un líder Tiene que ser transparente con la gente.
• Un líder tiene que ser humilde.
• Un líder Tiene que ser activo.
• Un líder tiene que comunicarse con la sociedades y vivir mutuamente y con respeto.
• Well yang nani ba sika ta bra brira asla takanka lupia kum banghwisna nara Miskitu nani witin nani ai tnatka kat witin nani ai daukanka nani bri kan ya ba yawan nani, ai culturika well brikan nani ba / Nosotros somos un pequeño grupo de líderes que mantenemos nuestras costumbres de vida Miskitu y procuramos rescatar y promover nuestra cultura.
• Yang nani ba sika ta bra brira nani grupo ka kum sna, baku sin Miskitu ai wina daukan ka nani ba nara lan taki yakawisna an yag nani ba asla takisna ta brabrira aipaskanka kum / Somos un grupo de líderes que estamos aprendiendo de nuestra forma de ser como Miskitu y nos hemos organizamos como un grupo de liderazgo.
• TODOS: Yang nani ba ta bra brira kum sna, wan iwan ka natka alki briaia wan kainara impakaia bara wan natka luan ba kau wan kainara nu taki waia an upla nani lalma wina bali bara nu muni waia / Somos líderes, procuramos mantener nuestras prácticas culturales para seguir adelante y aprendemos de nuestras tradiciones culturales para darlas a conocer también a quienes vienen del norte.

{This video was filmed at URACCAN in Bilwi, Nicaragua during the VIVA! Project gathering of April 2010. Young musicians and dancers who are completing the leadership program share their views about leadership (Spanish and Miskito languages).}

This took place on the opening day of the VIVA! Project conference coordinated by Margarita Antonio and sponsored by the autonomous intercultural community university of the Atlantic Coast URACCAN

What better way that to put URACCAN’s mission as an intercultural community university, but to think and act across languages? Andira Watson (Nicaragua), Yolanda Rossman (Nicaragua), Bayardo Montenegro (Nicaragua) and Nancy Zuniga (Mexico) generously helped me translate two poems so I could read them at the evening’s recital. As we bounced up and down on the bus from Bilwi to URACCAN Yolanda and Andira counseled and helped me find the right words for shadow, potted plant, and many more words. Their own innate talents move mountains and they extended their openness to me who was graced by their gifts. “Siempre se pierde” in translation,” Andira worried. But, when one relaxes into the translation and liberates oneself from literal reflections, the writer can take liberties by staying true to the meaning first and the letters secondarily. The two poems we translated follow.

It is the fragility of a pulse

The susceptibility of consciousness

That endears these humble experiments in humanity

To one and other

We are kin in life

and our mortality

There is no forever

There is only this

I see you

I know you

I love you

now

I can romanticize fruit because they have lessons to teach me
Flowers don’t cry over lost loves
They burst open spilling seeds and petals
To be reborn again
In ways unimaginable

Life is the pit of a broken seed
and the triumph of garnet roses
It is the deformed lemon green that won’t ever become someone else’s yellow
and the tree that was sawed down to make room for others

The cycle of natural things
Welcomes death
as the bearer of future fruits
with proper care
the recycling of life continues
ready to rot and give seed
to be born and cut down