Lowell Lecture
Luis Rodriguez
Date & Time
May 2, 2018 at 6 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Location
Boston Public Library - Rabb Lecture Hall
700 Boylston Street Boston, MA 02116
Driving Directions
Speaker(s)
Presenting Organization
Luis J. Rodriguez believes a writer can change the world. Through the power of words, this acclaimed poet, novelist, children’s book author and journalist saw his way out of poverty and despair. Successful as a Chicano poet, Rodriguez thought he had put the streets and his own days as a gang member behind him—until his young son joined a gang. Rodriguez fought for his child by telling his own story in the national bestseller Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. This vivid memoir explores gang life and cautions against the death and destruction that haunts its participants.A New York Times Notable Book, Always Running was named one of the nation’s 100 most censored titles by the American Library Association. The book has been included on school reading lists nationwide, but has often been the subject of controversy due to its frank depictions of gang life.
Rodriguez is the author of several collections of poetry, including My Nature is Hunger: New and Selected Poems 1989-2004 and Borrowed Bones: New Poems from the Poet Laureate of Los Angeles. He has won a Poetry Center Book Award, Paterson Poetry Prize, PEN/Josephine Miles Literary Award, and was honored with a Lannan Fellowship for Poetry. In 2014, Rodriguez was appointed Los Angeles Poet Laureate.