El Martillo Press at Vroman's

El Martillo Press reading with playwright Herbert Siguenza (Culture Clash) and poets Lorna Dee Cervantes, Paul S. Flores, Sonia Gutiérrez and Ceasar K. Avelar.

Introduction by Pete Hsu, author of If I Were The Ocean, I'd Carry You Home (Red Hen Press, 2022).

Hosted by El Martillo Press Editor-in-Chief David A. Romero.

El Martillo Press publishes writers whose pens strike the page with clear intent; words with purpose to pry apart assumed norms and to hammer away at injustice. El Martillo Press proactively publishes writers looking to pound the pavement to promote their work and the work of their fellow pressmates. El Martillo is the builder of bridges and the destroyer of walls.

Herbert Siguenza was recently the Playwright in Residence for the San Diego Repertory Theatre, thanks to a generous grant from the  Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Herbert is also a founding member of the performance group CULTURE CLASH.  

Born in San Francisco, raised in San José, Barrio Horseshoe, Lorna Dee Cervantes was a self-taught activist by fifteen, taught herself how to run her own printing press and was founding editor/publisher of MANGO Publications at twenty, and author of the American Book Award winning EMPLUMADA at twenty-four.

Paul S. Flores is one of the most influential Latino performance artists in the country and a nationally respected arts educator. He creates plays, oral narratives, and spoken word about transnationality and citizenship that spur and support societal movements that lead to change.

Sonia Gutiérrez is the author of Spider Woman / La Mujer Araña and the recipient of the Tomás Rivera Book Award 2021 and the International Latino Book Awards 2022 for her novel, Dreaming with Mariposas. 

Ceasar K. Avelar is the second poet laureate of Pomona, CA. His poems speak the truth, not only to people in a position of power, but also to the everyday person that views the working class as a stigmatized identity.