So pumped to kickstart La Tolteca 2.0 this weekend! Check out La Tolteca (2010-2016) Well, wha happen was…2016. Then a mental dive about it in January 2017…but we see the light at the end of this purgatory, trial for humanity and we’re back! You’ll be able to check us out here. The blog will be La Tolteca 2.0 and virtual. We’ll do what we did before–feature reviews, photography, interviews, essays, poetry and commentary as…
Continue readingFor now, on behalf of my loved ones to your homes, please stay safe, be well and don’t forget you have a voice.
Continue readingHello, hola–whoever checks in during these dark times. If you have a journal and haven’t been using it this is the time. If you don’t have a journal but would like to journal loose pages will do, a roll of paper will do. If you prefer to work on a iPad, Notebook, your phone or laptop, computer… date it and take off. Some guidelines I came up for myself since day one–no censorship, don’t worry…
Continue readingDo follow me on Instagram the official Ana Castillo. Or if you wish, FB. Be warned, I’m opinionated. I don’t care to debate with anyone. I’m not on social media for the sake of hearing from haters or professional trolls. Stalkers sent back to their private hells. All people of consciousness welcome.
Continue readingI hope readers here are staying safe & well. We are all mostly home these days. I’ll be posting a few prompts & exercises for writing poems here over the next days. In the meantime, I’d like to share with you again a poem I wrote in 2018. It was written on the occasion the inauguration of the first African American woman president of my alma mater in Chicago, NEIU. I was invited to…
Continue reading20th Anniversary new edition. (intro by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola-Éstes) UNM Press, 2014) (UNM Press, NM; 1994)
Continue readingTwo Men and Me I left Bukowski again, went back to Bolaño, both men bad to their women. Me, like the rest, couldn’t get enough. Both smoked and drank themselves to death. They liked it rough, said that was how they got their best writing done. One winter we all ended up in hell, ran into each other at a café. [REVISION: bar, public bath…FILL IN THE BLANK.] Chuck wanted to fuck. Roberto punched him…
Continue readingAlgo de ti [An Ekphrastic Exercise] Algo de ti me recuerda a casa; no la de hoy, de otros tiempos– Las tortillas de la abuela sobre su comal ardiente; el perfume de la buganvilla en el jardín Tus pestañas estrelladas– de niñez como las estrellas mismas que contemplaba yo, me parece hace siglos ya. Algo de ti me llama en la noche cuando te estrechas en tu cama como te imagino que lo haces,…
Continue readingIn recognition of National Poetry here is a poem I written in 2018 in commemoration of the first African American woman president at my alma mater in Chicago, NEIU. I had the distinct honor to read it at her inauguration ceremony. Enjoy! These Times I In these times, you and I share, amidst the air you and I breathe, inspiration we take from day to day thriving, opposition we meet, the sacred conch…
Continue readingHola Comunidad: As promised–I’m online until 5 p.m. CST. Thanks to those who’ve participated, commented here and sent emails. Today starts Nat’l Poetry Month. Please post your own favorite poems in the comments section here. It goes without saying we can also use it in these 21st c. pandemic times.
Continue reading
