The Connective Corridor encourages you to visit Point of Contact gallery for its Cruel April events at the Nancy Cantor Warehouse, 350 West Fayette Street on the Corridor. Enjoy a month-long series that features spoken word in a beautiful gallery setting. All events begin at 6 and end at 8. Readings are followed by informal dialogues with the poet(s) and a reception. They are open to the public, free of charge.

During the Cruel April series, the Point of Contact Gallery will host the exhibition “Darkness/Detritus/Illuminations,” a gallery-wide installation of drawings, photography and video by Lalo, one of this year’s featured poets and contemporary visual artist.

The program celebrates National Poetry Month.  Cruel April also marks the release of a new poetry collection by Point of Contact: “Corresponding Voices” (Vol.8), edited by Pedro Cuperman.

APRIL 2: OPENING EVENT, Poetry Reading in English and Spanish by Eduardo Lalo

Born in Cuba (1960) and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Eduardo Lalo is an internationally renowned author, visual artist and educator. Completed his studies at Columbia University (New York) and Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris), and is currently a Professor in the Humanities at the University of Puerto Rico. His work integrates visual arts (drawing and photography), essays and fiction. Lalo became an internationally acclaimed literary figure in 2013 upon receiving the most prestigious award in the Hispanic-American literary world, the Rómulo Gallegos Award, for his novel Simone. A habitual columnist and literary critic in the San Juan-based periodical 80 Grados, he is also a video artist. Some of his best known works include donde (2005) and La ciudad perdida (2006). His work in photography has been featured in dozens of exhibitions nationally and abroad. His work presents an esoteric look at urban spaces through black and white images, sounds and narrative that capture the isolation and decay of the post industrialization era. In the new volume of Corresponding Voices, the poems of Eduardo Lalo are featured in their original version in his native Spanish, along with the English translations.

APRIL 9: CRUEL APRIL presents Emerging Voices in Poetry

A new offering in the Cruel April series, this event will showcase students from Syracuse University’s MFA Creative Writing Program.

APRIL 16: Poetry Reading in English and Spanish: Jaime García Maffla and Jessica Cuello

A poet and essayist from Cali, Colombia, García Maffla‘s work contains strong influences from the Hispanic tradition and existentialism. Head of Humanities at the Universidad de Los Andes and Director of the Department of Literature at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, he co-founded the poetry magazine Hit Dice, which appeared in 1972. A collaborator in the Diccionario de Construcción y Régimen de la Lengua Castellana, of the Instituto Caro y Cuervo, he is also listed in the group of poets known as Generación sin Nombre (Unnamed Generation). In 1997 he received the National Prize for Poetry from University of Antioquía. Maffla is actively involved in the Art is Colombia Foundation and publishes the blog vocesdelvigia.blogspot.com.

Jessica Cuello is the author of the chapbooks My Father’s Bargain (Finishing Line Press, 2015), By Fire (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2013), and Curie (Kattywompus Press, 2011). She was the winner of the 2013 New Letters Poetry Prize and the recipient of The Decker Award for outstanding secondary teaching from Hollins University. Her first full-length manuscript, Pricking, is forthcoming from Tiger Bark Press in 2016.