Poetry in Dangerous Times, From Witness to Resistance, Revisited: with Demetria Martinez. Mini-Retreat October 24-25, 2025
In-person at Jules’ Poetry Playhouse, Placitas, NM - two days!
Friday, Oct 24 3 – 5 pm
followed by optional meal at the Bernalillo Range with Demetria and class
Saturday, Oct 25, 10 am – 4 pm (with on-site lunch break)
$170 includes all materials
This is a two day retreat class. Please plan on commuting to Jules Poetry Playhouse for Friday afternoon, with optional out to eat after, and then returning for Saturday day. Lunch break on-site on Saturday. Bring your own lunch if desired. Plentiful snacks and beverages provided (coffee, tea, water, bagels and fruit in morning, afternoon snacks). Ample time to explore the grounds of Jules’ Poetry Playhouse and walk the labyrinth.
The practice of poetry, both as both readers and writers, has been crucial during times when resistance to the powers that be has seemed all but impossible. During this retreat, we will continue the journey of reading the work of poets who have not only borne witness to injustice, but who have done so from a place of hope to resist injustice. We will look at a new roster of poets, including Audre Lorde, Naomi Shihab Nye, George Evans, Martin Espada, Mary Oishi, and many more, including writers who appear in the Poets Speak anthology series by Poetry Playhouse Publications. Demetria had her poetry used against her by the U.S government when she was facing a potential 25-year prison sentence in connection with the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s.
Join us as we are guided in the process of writing your poems—to build a “portfolio” of work to sustain and nourish your vision and activism in these times. Participants are also encouraged to bring one or two poems-in-progress that you would like to have reviewed by Demetria and the group.
No formal writing experience is needed to participate in this retreat; all writers, beginner or advanced, are welcome. Activists, contemplatives, and everyone in between are encouraged to participate. This two-day session allows for in-depth exploration with ample time for reading poems by others and our own writing. Handouts will be emailed prior to the retreat and used in class.
Writer, poet and immigrant rights activist, Demetria Martinez was born and raised in Albuquerque. She earned a BA from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs from Princeton University. Her poetry collections include The Devil’s Workshop (2002), Breathing Between The Lines (1997), and Turning (1987), which appeared in an anthology of three Chicana poets. She is the author of the novella, The Block Captain’s Daughter, a recipient of the 2013 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, and the widely translated novel, Mother Tongue (1994) which won a Western States Book Award. The novel was inspired by her 1988 indictment on charges of conspiring to smuggle Central American refugees into the United States. A reporter for the National Catholic Reporter, she was later acquitted on First Amendment grounds. In 2013 she coauthored an ebook with former Oklahoma Senator Fred Harris, These People Want to Work: Immigration Reform. Her essay collection, Confessions of a Berlitz-Tape Chicana (2005) won an International Latino Book Award. She has been a recipient of the Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature. With Rosalee Montoya-Read, she coauthored Grandpa’s Magic Tortilla (2010), which won a New Mexico Book Awards’ Young Readers Book Award. In 2024, her translations of her grandfather’s corridos—which she worked on with Mexican poet Hector Contreras—appeared in the Southwest Historical Review. In the fall of 2025, Poetry in Dangerous Times, Two Women, Two Worlds ——a book of poetry and prose, coauthored with Susan Sherman—will be released and published by Casa Urraca Press. Martinez lives with her wife in La Cienega, New Mexico.