Hard Hat Reading: Desirée Alvarez
Poet and artist Desirée Alvarez reads “Dear Frida” by Alice Paalen Rahon (translated by Mary Ann Caws), and her own poem “Diary of the Ghost of a Mestiza,” from Raft of Flame.
Click here to check out Desirée’s Nov 12 Workshop, Art & Poetry Sandwich!
Desirée Alvarez is a New York City born poet and painter. Among her awards are fellowships from: Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, American Academy of Arts and Letters, and European Capital of Culture. Her second book, Raft of Flame, 2020, received the Lake Merritt Poetry Prize from Omnidawn. Devil’s Paintbrush, her first book, received the May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize.
Her poetry is anthologized in Other Musics: New Latina Poets (University of Oklahoma Press), Stronger Than Fear: Poems of Empowerment, Compassion, and Social Justice (Cave Moon Press), and What Nature (Boston Review). Her poems are published in Poetry, Lit Hub, Massachusetts Review, Fence, The Iowa Review, and Ecotone. Alvarez exhibits her paintings in galleries and museums widely and teaches at CUNY and The Juilliard School.
Bonus video: Desirée Alvarez reads “Dear Frida” by Alice Paalen Rahon in the original French