Rising Voices Writers Conference
Organized in partnership with Phoenix Center for the Arts
June 1, 2019
8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Phoenix Center for the Arts
1202 N 3rd St, Phoenix, AZ 85004
Registration: $79
Early Bird Discount: (Deadline, May 21) $69
Students/Seniors/Veterans, $59
(Additional discount available for event volunteers.)
To register: bit.ly/2Jap45z
Information at risingvoiceswriters@gmail.com
Tel. 623-252-2772
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Rising Voices Writers Conference is a new annual event dedicated to emerging and experienced writers of all ages and backgrounds with a goal of cultivating ideas and perspectives exploring the issues and interests of multicultural America.
The inaugural conference, hosted in partnership with Phoenix Center for the Arts and produced by the New Carpa Writers Institute, will feature an all-day, multidisciplinary array of workshops, panels, readings and performances.
A noon panel discussion will explore publishing tips and opportunities from experience writers in fiction, theater, poetry and journalism. Workshops will include instruction on drama, poetry, fiction, essay writing and storytelling.
Writing instructors for the event will include journalist, playwright and ASU adjunct professor James E. Garcia; ASU Senior Lecturer, short story writer and oral historian Julie Garcia (Julie is also the publisher of Canyon Voices online literary magazine at ASU); and poet and actress Anna Flores, author of Pocha Theory. (Additional speakers, instructors and topics TBA)
James E. Garcia, a widely published journalist and author of more than 30 plays, will be our keynote speaker.
Keynote Bio:
As a journalist, James E. Garcia has worked as a reporter, columnist, editor, foreign correspondent and television and radio commentator. He is a columnist for AZMirror.com, editor and publisher of VanguardiaArizona.com, and founder of the soon-to-come Vanguardia America podcast and weekly news update.
James is an adjunct professor at Arizona State University, where he has taught ethnic studies, Latino politics and a wide range of creative and non-fiction writing courses. An accomplished playwright, he is founder and producing artistic director of New Carpa Theater Co., which stages Latino and multicultural works.
Garcia has been creating live theater and performance for more than 30 years in the Southwest. New Carpa, founded in 2002, features new and emerging Latino and multicultural productions. In its nearly 20-year history, the nonprofit theater company has cultivated the careers of countless emerging artists of color. Most of Garcia’s own creative work — he is the author of more than 30 plays — has highlighted contemporary social justice issues in America.
His play, “1070 (We Were Strangers Once Too), is the story of an immigrant family coping with the passage of Senate Bill 1070 in Arizona, regarded at the time as the most anti-immigrant legislation in the nation; “Voices of Valor” recounts the impact of Latino veterans and their families during WWII; “American Dreamer: the Life and Times of Raul H. Castro” is the story of Arizona’s only ever Hispanic governor; “Ghost Dance Messiah” is a theatrical commentary on historical and contemporary Native American life.
Garcia’s upcoming work includes “Miranda’s Curse”, which opens at Herberger Theater Center May 13, is a contemporary adaptation of The Tempest set in the southern Arizona desert.
“My work has been presented in spaces ranging from a 2,500-seat Gammage Auditorium to the parking lot of a local art gallery and everywhere in between. In each instance, I’ve tried to ensure that my plays reflect the story of my community, not just the Latino community or communities of color but the American community as a whole.”
Garcia has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Arizona State University.