Local Latina to represent MN at int’l poetry slam

Only 60 competitors from around the world will compete at the event, and just making it there is a huge honor, says Duarte. The Slam that she won is organized by Slam Minnesota! and was held at Kieran’s Irish Pub in Minneapolis. Slam Minnesota! will pay for Duarte’s registration fee and membership fees to compete at the Individual World Poetry Slam.

Winning the event also qualified Duarte to compete at the Minnesota Slam team finals in April, where 14 poets will compete for five slots to represent Minnesota at the National Poetry Slam Championship in August of 2007.

About Duarte:
Lorena Duarte was born in El Salvador and raised in Minnesota. She holds a degree in Hispanic studies/Romance languages and literature from Harvard University and now lives in Minneapolis. For three years she served as editor of La Prensa de Minnesota, a bilingual Latino newspaper, before joining the Department of Chicano Studies at the University of Minnesota where she heads up the Minnesota Media Empowerment Project.

She performs regularly with Palabristas, a Minnesota-based Latino poetry collective. She is currently co-editing a Palabrista poetry collection, which will be published in early 2007. She also contributed to and co-edited ¿Under What Bandera? Anti-War Ofrendas from Minnesota y Califas, published by Calaca Press in 2004, and will also be featured in the forthcoming anthology Telling Tongues, to be published in 2007 by Calaca Press and Red Salmon Press.

Duarte performs her work regularly for universities, organizations and institutions ranging from the Loft to First Avenue and has shared the stage with performers such as Jimmy Santiago Baca and Amalia Ortiz. In 2006, she was a part of Found in Translation, winners of the Minneapolis MOSAIC spoken-word commission and was also the recipient of a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Duarte has facilitated poetry workshops and programs for youth throughout the Twin Cities, in both English and Spanish.

Aside from poetry, she is active in several organizations that focus on the issues of community and social justice. Duarte was named as one of the top 25 emerging Latino leaders in Minnesota by the Minnesota Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in 2005.

For more information about Lorena Duarte, see http://www.myspace.com/
lorenaduarte. Find more information about slam poetry at http://www.poetryslam.com.