29 Sep Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month at MTP!
Join us for a day of special programming on Sunday, October 5 to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month at MTP, featuring poets from El Martillo Press and Grupo Folklorico Mexica de CSULB! Here’s a look at what we have on the stage.
11:50 AM-12:20 PM: Haunted Native Drum Performance
This October, the Autry Museum and Greenway Arts Alliance present the Native Voices National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of Haunted. Native Voices will bring a Drum Performance to the Greenway Main Stage to kick off the day.
Ash and Aaron have been dead for twenty years, and the Indigenous siblings pass their time dancing to Britney Spears, haunting the families that try to move into their house, and wondering if they’ll ever be free from the shackles of racist stereotypes. As the cycle begins once more, the siblings ask: Will their souls ever make it to the Spirit World? A satirical ghost story with the coolest Y2K hits, Tara Moses’ Haunted forces us to confront the very land we walk on and our relationship (or lack thereof) with Indigenous communities today.
2:25-2:55 PM: El Martillo Press Poetry Readings
Melrose Trading Post welcomes El Martillo Press to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with authors: Matt Sedillo, Ceasar K. Avelar, Margaret Elysia Garcia, and Iris De Anda!
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- Matt Sedillo
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- Ceasar K Avalar
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- Margaret Elysia Garcia
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- Iris De Anda
- Matt Sedillo has been described as the “best political poet in America” as well as “the poet laureate of the struggle.” His work has drawn comparisons in print to Bertolt Brecht, Roque Dalton, Amiri Baraka, Allen Ginsberg, Carl Sandburg, and various other legends of the past.
- Ceasar K. Avelar is the second poet laureate of Pomona, CA. His poems speak the truth, not only to people in a position of power, but also to the everyday person that views the working class as a stigmatized identity.
- Macondo Fellow Margaret Elysia Garcia is the author of poetry collections Iconistas! (Lit Kit Collective, 2025), the daughterland (El Martillo Press, 2023), and Burn Scars, (Lit Kit Collective, 2022). She is the author of the short story collection Graft (Tolsun Books, 2022), and the forthcoming Chicana Noir and Other Stories (El Martillo Press, 2025).
- Iris De Anda is a Guanaca Tapatia poet, speaker & musician who has been featured with KPFK & KPFA Pacifica Radio, organized with Academy of American Poets, performed at Los Angeles Latino Book Festival, LA Times Festival of Books, UNAM in CDMX, CECUT in Tijuana,Mexico, and Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba.
About El Martillo Press: Founded by Matt Sedillo and David A. Romero, El Martillo Press publishes writers whose pens strike the page with clear intent; words with purpose to pry apart assumed norms and to hammer away at injustice. El Martillo Press proactively publishes writers looking to pound the pavement to promote their work and the work of their fellow pressmates. El Martillo is the builder of bridges and the destroyer of walls.
3:00-3:15 PM: Grupo Folklorico Mexica de CSULB
Grupo Folklorico Mexica de CSULB is returning for a dance performance at MTP for the first time since January 2024, when they performed in support of “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter” at Greenway Court Theatre! They are a Mexican folk dance group based out of CSULB seeking to promote culture awareness & community support through dance.
