Blood Secrets
Poetry Reading and Book Launch
Blood secrets, written by Anita Rodriguez, Joan Ryan, & Andrea Watson and published by 3:A Taos Press, includes poems laden with history, enigma, and insight—inspired by the Hidden Lives of Northern New Mexico.
WHEN: Sunday, August 20, 2023 at 5:00 p.m.
COST: Free (donations most welcome)
ABOUT THE POETRY READING:
What is it like to live in a house alcoved in mystery and keep your soul as hidden as the Hebrew scroll concealed in the tiny Madonna by your front door? Or to be drawn—ghost hands guiding you to light tallow candles—to rites you don’t understand?
How does it feel to suddenly learn that your grandmother, who lived just down the road, held very different beliefs than those you were raised with? Or to see, in a flash, the significance of the symbols and mystifying objects a favorite cousin showed you but refused to explain?
In poems laden with enigma and insight, three New Mexico writers explore the emotional and physical journeys of the secret Jews who, centuries ago, fled to this state to escape the Inquisition and those of their descendants who have recently discovered their long-hidden roots.
Blood Secrets is available from 3: A Taos Press at our online bookstore at www.3taospress.com, Amazon, and at independent bookstores.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Founding publisher of 3: A Taos Press, Andrea Watson’s poetry has appeared in Nimrod, Rhino, Subtropics, Cream City Review, Ekphrasis, The Feminist Journal of Studies in Religion, and The Dublin Quarterly, among others. She is co- editor of the poetry anthologies, Collecting Life: Poets on Objects Known and Imagined and Malala: Poems for Malala Yousafzai.
A resident of Taos since 2009, Joan Ryan is the author of the poetry collection Dark Ladies & Other Avatars (3: A Taos Press, 2017). Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including the Atlanta Review, Nimrod, The Sow’s Ear Review, Naugatuck River Review, Ekphrasis, Calyx, Cold Mountain Review, Crab Orchard Review, and The Taos Journal of International Poetry and Art. She currently is working on a potpourri of love poems and recipes, tentatively titled Aphrodisia.
Descended from one of Taos’ founding families, Anita Rodriguez grew up on the Taos plaza where her father had a drugstore in the 1940’s. Throughout her life she has been an outspoken activist, advocating for social, economic, and racial justice. Anita resurrected the technology of las enjarradoras, or traditional female adobe finishers, and has been a major contributor to the earth-building industry and an advocate for the preservation of New Mexico’s architecture. She spent twenty-five years as a licensed contractor, was invited to Egypt by Hassan Fathy, author of Architecture for the Poor, and is featured in multiple books about earth building. Upon retiring her contractor’s license at 47, Rodriguez became a successful painter and, in her seventies, wrote a prize-winning book. She lives in her self-built house in Taos where she continues to paint, write, and work on several books.
Gary Worth Moody will also read poems from his third collection THE BURNINGS, (3: A Taos Press: 2019) co-winner of the 2020 New Mexico / Arizona Book Award in Poetry.A falconer, Gary Worth Moody is the author of two other collections of poetry: HAZARDS OF GRACE (Red Mountain Press: 2012) & OCCOQUAN (Red Mountain Press: 2015). He lives in Santa Fe, with the writer and artist Oriana Rodman who provided the cover & interior artwork for THE BURNINGS.