Pilar Rodriguez Aranda from Tijuana, Mexico is the first visiting poet for the new 100 Thousand Poets for Change on Lake Jackson Residency Program, Tallahassee, Florida. Joining Pilar are poets James Kimbrell, fiction writer Laura Roque and others. Special MC for the night is Delia Poey, Professor of Modern Languages and Linguistics at FSU. Join us for a great night of poetry and prose, in English and Spanish, and learn more about latina/o poetry and literature.

The 100 Thousand Poets for Change on Lake Jackson Residency Program, Tallahassee, Florida is a writer’s retreat, performance and teaching project. Poets and writers from around the world will be invited to stay on Lake Jackson for up to two weeks. They are welcome to bring writing projects to work on. They will have an opportunity to meet and read with poets from the Tallahassee literary community. Reading events will be scheduled by 100TPC at local venues during residency. Also, workshops and classroom visits at local schools will be arranged as part of a community outreach and cultural exchange. Participants in the Residency Program will contribute poetry and prose writings to the book project, "On Lake Jackson", to be published by 100TPC in collaboration with Big Bridge Press. This book project will explore the ecology, natural history and cultural history of the area and will collect impressions of Lake Jackson to share with writers and readers around the world.

BIO- PILAR RODRIGUEZ ARANDA 1961, Was born in Mexico City and lives in Tijuana, Estado de Mexico. Pilar is a poet, video artist, translator by trade and border-crosser by vocation.She originally wanted to become a filmmaker, and started doing video while in college. Her video work has won numerous awards and has been shown in several festivals and museums in Europe and America. She has received grants from the Mexican Institute of Cinematography (IMCINE), the National Fund for the Culture and the Arts (FONCA), and the City of Austin Arts Commission, among others. Her poetry, prose and reviews have been published in many places including the anthology Cantar de Espejos: poesía testimonial chicana de mujeres (Song of Mirrors: Chicana Women's Testimonial Poetry) UNAM/Univ. del Claustro de Sor Juana, 2012 as well as in North America, like Voices of Mexico, Replicante, Ruptures, Tribuno del Pueblo, Saguaro, The America's Review, Bilingual Review, DoveTales, and Mujeres de Maíz Flor y Canto, and Voces sin fronteras II, Éditions Alondras, Montreal, Quebec, to mention a few. In 2012 she published her first book of poetry, Asunto de mujeres (Story of Women), Cascada de Palabras, México. In February of 2013, she received as an award for her poem Nuestras Luchitas, a scholarship to participate at the 8th Annual San Miguel Writers' Conference. She considers herself an "artivist" and is a founding member of the collective Contra la violencia, el arte (Against Violence, Art), and coordinator for 100 Thousand Poets for Change, Mexico chapter. https://pilarpoeta.blogspot.mx