Poet Martín Espada will deliver the 10th Gordon K. & Sybil Farell Lewis Memorial Lecture: “Poetry of Protest, Grief & Love: A Reading & Conversation.” Presented by the Institute of Caribbean Studies [Instituto de Estudios Caribeños] this event takes place on April 23, 2026, at 5:00pm, at the Jesús E. Amaral Theater, School of Architecture, University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras, Río Piedras, Puerto Rico. As with all events hosted by the ICS/IEC, this event will be streamed through its YouTube channel Youtube IEC. Read more on the poet below (see a more detailed description at Poetry Foundation).
Martín Espada: As a poet, essayist, translator, editor, and attorney, Martín Espada has dedicated much of his career to the pursuit of social justice, including fighting for human rights and reclaiming the historical record. His critically acclaimed collections of poetry celebrate— and lament— the working-class experience. Whether narrating the struggles of immigrants as they adjust to life in the United States or chronicling the battles that Latin Americans have waged against their own repressive governments, Espada has given voice to otherness, powerlessness, and poverty into poetry that is at once moving and vivid. He is the author of more than a dozen collections of poetry and several books of essays, the translator of Puerto Rican poet Clemente Soto Vélez, and the editor of influential anthologies such as El Coro (1997) and Poetry Like Bread (1994).
Espada was born in Brooklyn, New York. His greatest influence is his father, Frank Espada, a community organizer, civil rights activist, and documentary photographer who created the Puerto Rican Diaspora Documentary Project. Espada earned a BA in history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned his JD from Northeastern University. For many years he was a tenant lawyer; his first book of poetry, The Immigrant Iceboy’s Bolero (1982), included photographs taken by his father. His subsequent books, including Trumpets from the Island of Their Eviction (1987), Rebellion is the Circle of a Lover’s Hands (1990), and City of Coughing and Dead Radiators (1993), received significant attention. Imagine the Angels of Bread (1996)won an American Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Often concerned with socially, economically, and racially marginalized individuals, Espada’s early work is full of engaging narratives. Rebellion Is the Circle of a Lover’s Hands (1990)won the PEN/Revson Award and the Paterson Poetry Prize. Though defiantly and insistently political, his work is also known for its gentle humor. Richard Blanco has commented, “Espada’s poems continue to define the role of the poet as an emotional historian. Like Whitman, Espada stirs in us an undeniable social consciousness and connectedness.”
Espada’s books of poetry include A Mayan Astronomer in Hell’s Kitchen (2000), Alabanza: New and Selected Poems, 1982–2002 (2003), The Republic of Poetry (2006), The Trouble Ball (2011), The Meaning of the Shovel (2014), Vivas to Those Who Have Failed (2016), and Floaters (2021), winner of the National Book Award for Poetry. His collection Alabanza won the Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement and was also named an American Library Association Notable Book of the Year; its title poem, which addresses 9/11, has been widely anthologized and performed. The Republic of Poetry, which is concerned with the political power and efficacy of poetry, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Taking cues from documentary poetics as well as formal argumentation and Espada’s ongoing fascination with Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, the volume interrogates the role of poetry in the public and private spheres: poems range from elegies to poets known and unknown—including Robert Creeley and Jeff Male—to treatments of the Chilean coup, to anti-war statements, to sage instructions for young poets.
Read more on the poet at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/martin-espada
For more information on the event, please write to iec.ics@upr.edu or call 787-764-0000 ext. 87739.
Poet Martín Espada will deliver the 10th Gordon K. & Sybil Farell Lewis Memorial Lecture: “Poetry of Protest, Grief & Love: A Reading & Conversation.” Presented by the Institute of Caribbean Studies [Instituto de Estudios Caribeños] this event takes place on April 23, 2026, at 5:00pm, at the Jesús E. Amaral Theater, School of Architecture,
