Miriam Damaris Mardivino: Hamaca Blues
Nuestra Palabra's Winter Lit Series kicks off 2026, showcasing Puerto Rico. Free admission. This is great practice for the Super Bowl Halftime Show, which will be performed by Bad Bunny, also from Puerto Rico. It's time to profoundly understand your neighbors.
NP is celebrating the publication of Hamaca Blues by Miriam Damaris Mardivino with a performance of the work, followed by book sales and signing.
Special musical guest: Legendary Puerto Rican singer Lourdes Jiménez, more info about her below.
Master of Ceremonies: Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, founder of Nuestra Palabra. Author of The Tip of The Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital.
With debuts by new writers, too.
Café de Mami will be joining this event with homemade coquito, café de olla, and cajeta lattes, all brewed using coffee from Jayuya, Puerto Rico.
Hamaca Blues, the new poetry collection by Puerto Rican poet Miriam Damaris Mardivino, interweaves Caribbean memory, diaspora, ancestral lineage, and feminist resistance. Published by Letras en la Frontera, this book moves fluidly between body, land, and blues—a lyrical exploration of what it means to live suspended between islands, cities, languages, and histories.
Featuring artwork by artist Dafne Elvira, whose visual language expands the poetic universe of the text, Hamaca Blues continues to gain recognition across Puerto Rico, the U.S., and the Caribbean literary diaspora.
Lourdes Jiménez is a Puerto Rican singer who has been performing since the age of five.
Early in her career, while performing at the National Assembly of the Puerto Rico Teachers Federation, its president called her "the Mercedes Sosa of Puerto Rico," words that inspired her to explore and pursue the Nueva Trova genre, a style of music that emerged out of Cuban music around 1967 and propelled protest folk music throughout South America.
Her performances include backing vocals for Ángela Carrasco and Celia Cruz at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City, several concerts at Café Teatro La Tea, and other important venues in San Juan. In Denver, Colorado, Lourdes also opened for Celia Cruz and Tito Puente, Willie Colón, and Sonora Ponceña.
Buy books by Latino writers who give back to the community at www.NuestraPalabra.org.
Sponsors:
Casa Ramirez Folk Art Gallery
The BIPOC Arts Network and Fund - BANF
The Law Office of Carolina Ortuzar-Diaz, PLLC
ALMAAHH