Poetry Workshops with Donato Martinez and David A. Romero

Join Donato Martinez and David A. Romero for free poetry workshops for the community!

The Cheech

3581 Mission Inn Avenue, Riverside, CA 92501

ALL AGES

About the Workshops:

Workshop #1:

I'm All the Way Up! with Donato Martinez. Have you ever encountered conflict, setbacks, negative experiences or even just hateful comments from others that have tried to “bring you down?” In this workshop, students will reflect on experiences within one’s family, in relationships, with work, in one’s life that have challenging or difficult to overcome. Students will turn this into writing an empowering and inspiring piece about who you are and what you have been through. I often think of Biggie Smalls in his opening lines of “Juicy” – “Yeah, this album is dedicated/To all the teachers that told me I'd never amount to nothing/To all the people that lived above the buildings that I was hustling in front of/That called the police on me/When I was just trying to make some money to feed my daughter.” These lines can help fuel your passion to declare who you are. It will give fire to your struggles. This workshop is inspired by the poem, “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou.

Workshop #2:

That's Not My Name! with David A. Romero. Has anyone ever mispronounced your name? Given you a nickname that you don't like? Do people continue to call you by a dead name you no longer identify with? In this workshop, we discuss the often problematic implications of each. Participants will write about the etymologies behind both their chosen and given names, as well as what their names mean to them. Students can choose to assert pride in their racial and/or familial identities by writing about their last names or can choose to write about the positive or negative feelings their first names or nicknames inspire. This workshop is based on David A. Romero's "My Name is Romero," a poem inspired by Corky Gonazlez's "I am Joaquin."

Donato Martinez:

Donato Martinez was born in a small pueblo, Garcia de la Cadena, Zacatecas, Mexico and immigrated into the USA at six years old. He teaches English Composition, Literature, and Creative Writing at Santa Ana College. He has also taught classes in Chicano Studies. He has been a co-coordinator of the Puente Program for 25 years. He hosts and curates many artistic events that feature poetry and music at his campus or in the community. He is also a poet and writes about his barrio experience, his community, his Chicano culture, bilingual identities, and other complexities of life. He is influenced by the sounds and pulse of the streets, people, music, and the magic of language. He has a self-published collection with three other Inland Empire poets, Tacos de Lengua. His work has been published by City Works, East Side Rose, The Acentos Review, San Diego Poetry Annual, Ofrenda Magazine, The Mixtape Literary Journal, Latin@ Literatures, and La Raiz Magazine. He loves the outdoors and is inspired by books, music, and his children, Gabriel and Abigail.

David A. Romero

David A. Romero is a Mexican-American poet, novelist, and publisher from Diamond Bar, CA. He is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of El Martillo Press. Romero is the author of the novel The Enemy Sleeps (El Martillo Press, 2026) and the books of poetry My Name Is Romero (FlowerSong Press, 2020) and Diamond Bars 2 (Moon Tide Press, 2024). Romero has received honorariums from nearly a hundred colleges and universities in thirty-four different states in the USA and has also performed live in Mexico, Italy, and France. His poem, "You Were Born a Tree" was sent to the Moon by NASA in 2025 as part of the Lunar Codex. Romero's work has been published in literary magazines and anthologies in the United States, Mexico, England, Scotland, Cuba, Canada, and Hungary. Romero has opened for Latin Grammy winning bands Ozomatli and La Santa Cecilia. Romero's work has been published in anthologies alongside poets laureate Joy Harjo, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Luis J. Rodriguez, Jack Hirschman, and Tongo Eisen-Martin. Romero has won the Uptown Slam at the historic Green Mill in Chicago; the birthplace of slam poetry. Romero's poetry deals with family, identity, social justice issues, and Latine culture. 

The Cheech

Open since June 17, 2022, The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture aka “The Cheech” (3581 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside, CA 92501) resides in a renovated mid-century building that originally opened as the City of Riverside, California’s public library in 1964. Dedicated to showcasing Chicana/o/x art, honoring and exploring its continued social, cultural, and political impact, it’s the first cultural center of its kind. The Cheech is home to the unparalleled Cheech Marin Collection of Chicano art. It is a space for continued exhibition, scholarship, and dialogue of Chicano art’s deep roots in the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s to its contemporary and evolving response to current social conditions and global artistic movements. The 61,420-square-foot center houses hundreds of paintings, drawings, photographs, and sculptures by artists including Patssi Valdez, Sandy Rodriguez, Carlos Almaraz, Frank Romero, and Gilbert “Magú” Luján.

El Martillo Press

Founded by Matt Sedillo and 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.