Join us for a very special afternoon of música and poesía that speak to the Arab and Chicanx diasporic hearts with themes of love, resilience, nostalgia and our shared commitment for collective liberation.
Featuring poets Zeina Hashem Beck and Naomi Helena Quiñonez and a special musical duet edition of Corazón de Cedro with Evelyn Donají and Camellia Boutros, who will be sharing Son Jarocho and Arabic folk songs. Presented by Acción Latina’s Paseo Artístico, free bilingual community art walk.
Zeina Hashem Beck is a Lebanese poet. Her collection of 40 palindromic sonnets, titled This Was Supposed to Be About Beauty, is forthcoming from Penguin Poets in Spring 2027. She’s the winner of the 2023 Arab American Book Award for Poetry for O, which was named a Best Book of the Year by Literary Hub and The New York Public Library. She’s also the author of Louder than Hearts and To Live in Autumn, as well as the chapbooks 3arabi Song and There Was and How Much There Was. Her work has appeared in LARB, Lithub, The Nation, Academy of American Poets, and elsewhere. She’s the co-editor, with Hala Alyan, of the anthology We Call to the Eye and the Night: Love Poems by Writers of Arab Descent. She’s the co-creator and co-host, with poet Farah Chamma, of Maqsouda, a podcast in Arabic about Arabic poetry. After a lifetime in Lebanon and a decade in Dubai, Zeina has recently moved with her family to California.
A 2024 winner of the Juan Felipe Herrera Prize in Poetry, Dr. Naomi Quiñonez, Chicana poet, educator and activist, is the author of three collections of poetry: Exiled Moon, The Smoking Mirror and Hummingbird Dream/Sueño de Colibri. Her work appears in many publications including In Xochitl in Cuicatl:100 years of chicanx/latinx poetry, Voices From Our Ancestors and Maestrapeace to name a few. She has been a featured poet for numerous readings throughout the U.S, Mexico, Cuba and Spain. She edited several publications including Invocation L.A: Urban Multicultural Poetry and Decolonial Voices. Quiñonez is a recipient of a Rockefeller Fellowship, the American Book Award, the City of Berkeley Lifetime Achievement Award in Poetry, the Bay Area Flor y Canto Teyolia Award and is a San Francisco Yerba Buena Center for the Arts honoree. She is featured in Notable Hispanic Women and the Dictionary of Literary Biography. Quiñonez holds a PhD in American history and contributes to the scholarship of Chicana/Latina women. She has curated literary fundraisers for families seeking asylum at the border and for banned books causes. She currently lives in Oakland, Califas.
Corazón de Cedro is an all-femme Son Jarocho and Arabic folk musical project based in San Francisco, California. The group’s arrangements explore the connection between Arabic and Mexican folk musical traditions through the Arabic oud, the jarana Jarocha, zapateado and more. Corazón de Cedro aims to serenade the diasporic heart through melodies, rhythms and poesia that speak of love, resilience, and our shared struggle for collective liberation. Featuring special duet by Evelyn Donají & Camellia Boutros.