Ortiz at Dodge Poetry Festival
A beautiful moment at the Dodge Poetry Festival came when I shared a piece about going through a border checkpoint with an auditorium of NJ high school students and their teachers. This narrative, of an, “invasion of the border,” that must seem so far away for most of the folks in that room became reframed. The level of militarization that we in southern AZ experience daily, was made visible by this poem. After reading the piece, I asked the students how many different types of militarized technology or weapons they thought I named in the poem. As they shouted out numbers, there was a moment of broadening. We had a moment of connecting in a shared reality — which I think is such an incredible gift in this political moment in time. To be present with an experience, a reality, that was different than what they might hear on TV or through social media. It was a memorable moment, and one that I will carry with me, as the consequences of this rhetoric continue to escalate where I live.
As a disabled Mestize not living on a coast, it is incredibly difficult to access opportunities to engage in artistic exploration and to be able to share my work. Letras Latinas the literary initiative at the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, invited me to represent them on their panel, “Because We Come from Everything,” and the Festival invited to be part of their panel, “Disability Visibility.” Letras Latinas supported me to attend and has opened doors for me to share work virtually but also in-person. I travel with a personal care attendant and assistive devices such as mobility scooter. I cannot count the number of times I have been invited to collaborate and participate in an in-person event, and then when I disclose the accommodations I need in order to travel, the opportunity is revoked. Letras Latinas not only helped support me to attend the Dodge Poetry Festival and share my work centered at the intersection of disability and climate action, but they advocated alongside me in the process of requesting accommodations.
This tremendous amount of unseen labor is something I am required to do each and every time I share my work in-person. It was a powerful experience to have Letras Latinas beside me witnessing, supporting with follow-up, and to help to share the load. And sharing the load is a part of Latinx community culture, que no? I like to think that modeling this kind of solidarity did not just impact me, but helped contribute to conversation around accessibility and poetry performance within the festival itself.
Statement by Naomi Ortiz
