"Orgasmos, Revolucion, and Letras": Poetry and Publicly Engaged Scholarship in Honduras

• In Event: 28.089 - MTCC Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: 28.089-6 - Global Multiliteracies: Adolescents' and Adults' Perspectives

Abstract

This paper explores a literacy arts project in Honduras where youth “reclaim public spaces” from violence by occupying street-corners with poetry, music, and performances. Honduras has high rates of violence and the goals of these youth are to associate public spaces with art as opposed to violence and oppression. We began this project in 2015 while in Honduras for dissertation fieldwork, and as an academic and community partner, we are in frequent discussion about how to best support each other’s individual and collective research and project goals in reciprocal ways. Given the national, racial, economic, linguistic, and power dynamics inherent in this project, these conversations and necessary ad perpetual as we work for a literacy-based social justice space.

Authors

• Kate E Kedley, Rowan University

• Hector Efren Flores, Fe y Alegria Honduras