▼ Culture Fighting Words Dallas poet laureate builds house of poems, responds to residency questions. BY CHRISTIAN MCPHATE W hen Joaquín Zihua- tanejo was a child, his uncle Silastino asked, “Mijo, what do you want to be when you grow up?” “A poet,” Zihuatanejo replied. “A poet,” Tío Silastino repeated as if he were tasting it. “A poet. A poet. How are you going to build a house? What are you going to build, a house of poems?” Though his uncle may not have under- stood, he did support his mijo’s dreams. Along with Zihautanejo’s grandfather, he had been raising his nephew in a one-bed- room dilapidated house on Henderson Ave- nue in Old East Dallas. One day, he brought home a box of used books, pulled out the Norton Anthology of Poetry and challenged Zihuatanejo to read the poems aloud. “I’d been writing poetry, but didn’t think that poems were for audiences but for the page,” Zihuatanejo says. In the evenings, Zihuatanejo would read poems aloud and watch as his uncle’s face changed and contorted with the rhythm of the words. He knew then what kind of poet he wanted to become. For the next 40 years, Zihuatanejo, who is now in his early 50s, devoted himself to building his house of poems. His poetry has appeared in several literary journals, on the local news, cable TV and public radio and in six books of poetry collections he authored. In the early 2000s, he became a slam poetry champion for The Dallas Poetry Slam, one of the longest-running poetry organizations. Zihuatanejo won a couple of world slam po- etry championships in 2009 and a few years later founded the nonprofit Dallas Youth Po- ets, where he spent six years inspiring young spoken word poets in Dallas and taking them to youth poetry slam festivals around the country. He’d been working with young poets at Elevate Studios in Oak Cliff when he found out in early April that he’d been selected as Dallas’ new poet laureate, an initiative be- tween the Office of Arts and Culture, the Dallas Public Library and independent pub- lisher Deep Vellum Books. Zihuatanejo had applied seven months 10 10 before, after it had been suggested to him by a Dallas poet friend, Karen Mizner. She’d met Zihuatanejo at the poetry open mics she Jess Ewald held around Dallas and had collaborated with him when she became involved with WordSpace, a Dallas nonprofit that seeks to provide public exposure for North Texas writers. Mizner calls Zihuatanejo a team player and praises his work with youth poets. She had tried recommending him, but then real- ized that he had to recommend himself, so she contacted him and told him about it. “He checked all the boxes for the crite- ria,” she says. “There are a lot of fine voices in Dallas, but not all of them checked all of the boxes. ... They made the right choice. He will be a fantastic representa- tive of literary arts in Dallas, as well as on the same page on con- temporary conversations to rec- ognize women, people of color and excellence in writing and performing.” “I’ve been talking with slam A few days after his win, Zihuatanejo wrote in an April 10 Facebook post: “When I was a mocoso [snot-nosed kid] poets and anyone who would lis- ten to me for years,” Zihuatanejo says, “and my question was, ‘Why don’t we have a Dal- las poet laureate? San Antonio has one.’ It was always met with, ‘Yeah, you’re right,’ and then nothing.” Dallas poet Christine Allison, a judge for “I JUST WISH THE PERSON WHO WON, THAT SOMEOME LIVED IN THE CITY.” –POET RAWLINS GILLILAND my Tío Silastino told me, ‘Maybe words will be your way out of the barrio, maybe words will be your way back into the barrio to save us all.’ This is why I founded and in many in- stances funded Dallas Youth Poets for six years in my city, and paid myself a salary of zero dollars the entire time. I didn’t do it for the money. I did it to save as many as I could, to live up to my tío’s dream for me. But I cannot begin to tell you how it feels when the people of your city see your good work and acknowledge you.” But not all Dallas poets agree that the new poet laureate was the best choice to represent Dallas. Poet Rawlins Gilliland, an NPR and KERA alumnus, wrote a Facebook “novella,” as he called it, in which he outlined his own qualifications and the labor in- the title of Dallas Poet Laureate, agreed with Mizner and wrote about Zihuatanejo in an April 6 D Magazine article, “In a pandemic- bruised city, with a war raging on the other side of the world and politicians gone mad, he seems to occupy an honest, quiet head- space, a space where people would want to be, whether they live in Vickery Meadow or Highland Park.” volved in the application process. He ques- tioned in his post the two-week deadline extension and his opposition to the fact that Dallas’ poet laureate did not reside in Dallas. Zihuatanejo is a longtime Denton resident. He received dozens of comments of support. “I just wish the person who won, that someone lived in the city,” Gilliland tells the Observer. Melissa Dease, the spokesperson for the Dallas Public Library, said the deadline was extended simply because they had only seven applicants in November. They de- cided to extend it from December 2021 to January 2022. Twenty-two people applied. Dallas’ first poet laureate, Joaquín Zihuatanejo, doesn’t live in Dallas. But does it matter? As for the residency requirement, Dease said that some poets had asked about ex- tending the residency requirements since many of them have been forced to move to towns around Dallas due to skyrocketing rent prices and the lack of affordable hous- ing in the city. D Magazine dropped a report on apartment and housing increases in Jan- uary, showing that rent has increased 5% in Dallas with the median rent of $1,250 for a one-bedroom apartment. According to the poet laureate applica- tion rules, which can be found on the li- brary’s website, applicants for the position “should reside in Dallas County and demon- strate either a residential or professional re- lationship to the City.” “Should” is the keyword. Ultimately, the questions raised by Gillil- and and other speak more about Dallas’ in- ability to house its own artists, even those very artists who are qualified to publicly represent the city. “The rules are written that they need ei- ther to live in Dallas or have a work history, influence in Dallas and work address in Dal- las,” Dease says. “[Zihuatanejo] grew up in Dallas. He graduated from a Dallas high school. He started the youth poetry slam, and he has an office in Dallas where he talks with young poets.” Zihuatanejo began chasing his childhood dream thanks to one of his young students. A teacher at the time, he’d been sharing his po- ems with his students in English class when MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 APRIL 28–MAY 4, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.comdallasobserver.com
