READING | THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5 | 6 PM (DOORS AT 5:30) | $15 General, $10 Members
516 ARTS invites you to delve into the history of the American West through the lens of Chinese and other railroad workers’ histories, and through the railroad’s impact on America with a dynamic, inter-media live reading and visual presentation from poet and scholar, Paisley Rekdal. Join us on Thursday, December 5th at 6 PM (doors at 5:30) at FUSION | 708.
Existing as an interactive website and as a book published by Copper Canyon Press—West: A Translation features poetry, lyric essays, and video. At the event, Rekdal will read selections from West with guidance from the audience, aided by its visual components, in a moving, powerful, informative, and cathartic experience. Following this presentation will be a Q&A and moderated discussion with 516 ARTS curator Olivia Amaya Ortiz.
In 2018, Rekdal was commissioned as Utah’s Poet Laureate to write a poem commemorating the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental completion. The result was West: A Translation, a linked collection of poems that respond to a Chinese elegy carved into the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station where Chinese migrants to the United States were detained. This live reading is in conjunction with the exhibition, The Other Side of the Tracks, which examines and challenges the narrative of the American railroad. The exhibition is on view now at 516 ARTS through February 8.
About Paisley Rekdal:
Paisley Rekdal is the author of four books of nonfiction and seven collections of poetry. West: A Translation was longlisted for the 2024 National Book Award in Poetry, and the winner of the 2024 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, and the 2024 Reading the West Award in Poetry. She is the editor and creator of the digital archive projects West, Mapping Literary Utah, and Mapping Salt Lake City. Her work has received the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an NEA Fellowship, Pushcart Prizes, the Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, and state arts council awards. Rekdal is a former Utah poet laureate and teaches at the University of Utah where she directs the American West Center.
About the Moderator:
As 516 ARTS Curator, Olivia Amaya Ortiz maintains a passion for reconciling essentialist narratives of identity by advancing relationships to decolonial theory, collaborative programming, cultural revitalization and preservation, and to the poetics of representation. Prior to joining 516 ARTS, Olivia worked for the Indian Arts Research Center (IARC) in Santa Fe, NM as well as the Tucson Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA Tucson) in Arizona. Previous experience includes working in art journalism, gallery management, art education and she served as an Indigenous Educator Corps (IEC) member at the Native American Community Academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
About 516 ARTS:
516 ARTS is a non-collecting contemporary art museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico that celebrates thought-provoking art of the here and now. 516 ARTS connects contemporary artists with diverse audiences through exhibitions and public programs that feature local, national, and international artists, with a focus on Indigenous and Latinx voices of the region and beyond. 516 ARTS is dedicated to fostering a multifaceted and inclusive arts community, prioritizing creative experimentation that delves into timely and pressing themes like climate change, migration, and social, economic, and environmental justice. 516 ARTS is located at 516 Central Ave. SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102.