Rey M. Rodríguez at Lamanda Park Branch (Pasadena Public Library)

Rey M. Rodríguez presents his debut poetry collection Todos Somos Sagrados/All Are Sacred at Lamanda Park Branch (Pasadena Public Library).

1 - 2 pm

Lamanda Park Branch (Pasadena Public Library)

140 South Altadena Dr

Pasadena, CA 91107

Todos Somos Sagrados/All Are Sacred

“A treatise in poetry about one of the most important stories of our time—the formation and work of Proyecto Pastoral in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. Violence, drugs, and death plagued these streets, which in the 1990s and into the 2000s were the most gang-inflicted in the country. But mothers stood up for healing, peace, for saving the children. Projects arose to help youth but also the unhoused and migrants. People in need. God’s work. Powerful figures like Father Greg Boyle met the call. Here Rey M. Rodríguez uses poems to carry their voices, stories, pains, and joys. In Spanish and English, in any language, it’s a work of art, a work of action.”

—Luis J. Rodríguez, former Los Angeles Poet Laureate, author of Always Running, La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.” and It Calls You Back: An Odyssey through Love, Addiction, Revolutions, and Healing

Rey M. Rodríguez

Rey M. Rodríguez is a writer, advocate, and attorney. He lives in Pasadena, California. He is working on a novel set in Mexico City. He attended the Yale Writers’ Workshop multiple times and Palabras de Pueblo workshop once. He participated in Story Studio’s Novel in a Year Program. He received his MFA in fiction from the Institute of American Indian Arts in May 2026. His poetry is published in Huizache. His interviews and book reviews can be found at La Bloga, Chapter House’s Storyteller’s Corner, Full Stop, Pleiades Magazine, and the Los Angeles Review. He is a graduate of Cornell, Princeton, and U.C. Berkeley Law School.

El Martillo Press

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.

Lamanda Park Branch (Pasadena Public Library)

The first Lamanda Park Branch opened in 1922, in a small room in Emerson School. Continued growth of the branch necessitated another move on July 5, 1923, this time to larger, rented quarters on the second floor of a store building at 2614 E. Colorado Boulevard. A permanent home was established for the branch when the building that had formerly housed the Central Library Boys’ and Girls’ Department was relocated from Memorial Park to 2520 Morningside Street. On August 5, 1927, the branch, in its newly-redecorated and refurbished quarters, officially opened its doors to an enthusiastic crowd of 650 people. This was demolished in the 1960s and the current building, designed by Pulliam, Zimmerman and Matthews, Architects and Planners, was completed on October 14, 1967 and is 6,200 square feet. Branch staff can accommodate English and Spanish speaking patrons.