Meet the Poet: Lupe Mendez
Great poetry. Free books. And you might win a free fajita dinner!
Meet award-winning poet Lupe Mendez as he presents his new book PRAYER HOLDING NIGHT: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS as part of the NP Global Reading Series, brought to you in part by the Brown Foundation. This is a Big Read Kick-Off Session. Free admission. Order exclusive signed copies at www.NuestraPalabra.org.
Nuestra Palabra (NP) will provide book sales of PRAYER HOLDING NIGHT and other titles. Meet Lupe after the reading. Take a pic with him. Get copies of Lupe's book for your family library and donate a copy to one of our underground libraries.
NP is proud to organize the Texas-wide tour of Lupe Mendez, an alum of NP, co-founder of the Librotraficante Caravan, and Tintero Projects. He's currently the Poetry Editor for The Texas Observer. The poems in this collection span a 20 year writing career (2005 – 2025) in which Mendez has worked to speak on issues and everyday experiences. The poems here cover his view on travel and art, historical events and disasters and even a response to Texas politics with a series of never before seen blackout poems.
Mendez has over 20 years of experience as a performance poet - having opened up for notable writers as Dagoberto Gilb, Esmeralda Santiago, U.S. Poet Laureates, Juan Felipe Herrera and Ada Limon and legendary writers such as the late Raul Salinas.
In the foundational tradition of Nuestra Palabra, we will also feature new, up-and-coming writers and surprise guest poets. Do not miss this.
Master of Ceremonies: Professor Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, founder of Nuestra Palabra. Author of THE TIP OF THE PYRAMID: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital.
The stellar line up celebrating Lupe Mendez includes:
Miriam Damaris, Aris Kian, Jasminne Mendez with the literary debuts of Patrick Sanchez and Melissa Herrera. Bios below.
Win Dinner for Two at The Original Ninfa's: 1700 Post Oak Blvd #1-190, Houston, TX 77056. We will have a drawing for two tickets for dinner for two at Ninfa's.
It's easy to enter:
RSVP to our LUMA Invite. (This one.)
Check in when you arrive at the event.
Hang out. Winner must be present.
Free Poetry Anthology: Nuestra Palabra is a proud recipient of a Big Read Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
First 100 attendees who RSVP via Luma (This one here.) and check in that evening receive a free copy of the poetry anthology YOU ARE HERE: Poetry in the Natural World, edited by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón. A book talk will follow. Please share with us work inspired by the anthology.
Bios:
Miriam Damaris Mardivino is the founder of Colectiva Feminista Colibrí and served as the manager of El Proyecto de la Literatura Puertorriqueña/The Puerto Rican Literature Project, funded by the Mellon Foundation and housed at the U.S. Latino Digital Humanities Center (USLDH) at the University of Houston. She is a Puerto Rican poet, writer, social worker, activist, dancer, and healer. She also serves the community as a social worker and is a member of the Puerto Rican Groups Collective of Houston. Her book Enraizada was published in 2022; its English translation, Rooted, was released the following year. Mardivino earned a Master's degree in Women's Affairs from the Universitat de Barcelona and a Master's degree in Creative Writing from Universidad Sagrado Corazón in Puerto Rico. She received the LULAC Award in 2022, along with the BANF Artist Award, and in 2024 she was honored as a Community Champion by the NFL Houston Texans, in addition to being nominated as Texas Poet Laureate. Her book Hamaca Blues will be published in 2025.
Aris Kian (she/her) is a Houston enthusiast and student of abolition. Her poems are published with Button Poetry, West Branch, Obsidian Lit, and elsewhere. As an Inprint C. Glenn Cambor Fellow, she received her MFA from the University of Houston. Her team Smoke Slam coached by Ebony Stewart ranked #1 at the 2025 Bigfoot Regional Poetry Slam and #1 at the 2024 Southern Fried Poetry Slam. She previously served as the 2023-2025 Houston Poet Laureate and was chosen as a 2025 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellow.
Jasminne Mendez is a best-selling Dominican-American poet, translator, playwright and award winning author of several books for children and adults. Including the middle grade novel in verse Aniana del Mar Jumps In (Dial) which received a 2024 Pura Belpre Honor Award. Her other books have received prizes from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Writer's League of Texas and the International Latino Book Awards. She is an MFA graduate of the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University and a University of Houston alumni. Her YA fiction debut The Story of My Anger (Dial) will be released September 2025.
With debuts by:
Melissa J. Herrera
and
Patricio Sanchez is an educator, veteran, and advocate for equity in education. A native of Houston, Texas, he grew up in the 5th Ward and across much of the city's Northside. Overcoming the challenges of poverty, he became a first-generation college graduate and went on to earn a Master's degree in Education with a focus on Equity and Social Justice. After serving five years in the United States Army, Patricio returned to Houston and now teaches 11th Grade AP English at Scarborough High School. He is deeply committed to inspiring and empowering students, drawing from his own journey to show them what is possible. Beyond the classroom, he is a devoted husband and father to two young daughters. Patricio aspires to pursue a doctorate in School Psychology.
This is what Nuestra Palabra is all about-young writers making their debut on our stage to perform alongside published Latino writers and icons, so that they become, like Guadalupe Mendez, the published writers that inspire and mentor new voices. #Legacy.
Brought to you in part by The Brown Foundation, The BIPOC Arts and Network Fund, The Law Offices of Carolina Ortuzar-Diaz, PLLC, MONDAY Paper, and Que Onda Magazine.