Àṣẹ Poetry Slam: Cuban Slam Poets Anthology
Edited by Luz De Cuba and Paul S. Flores
Translations by Paul S. Flores
 
Featuring poetry by: Luz De Cuba, Yordanis Febles Lazo, Anderson "Andy" Ruiz, Plácido Pasillo (Roy Hall Delgado), Irina Rodríguez, Emily Dumois, Gertrudis Durán Limonta, Max Fonseca, Liober Griñán, Thalía Morán, and Papagoza (Andreis Mendoza).
 
 
"Àṣẹ Poetry Slam: Cuban Slam Poets Anthology is a testament to the power of the spoken word in Cuba. Curated with the spirit of rhythm, resistance, and revolution, this anthology amplifies the voices of slam poets who blend ancestral wisdom, Afro beats, and poetic fire. An important and necessary collection that honors the roots of oral tradition while shaping the future of Cuban poetry."
 
—Danny Glover, Actor/Activist
 
 
“Discover yourself in this new discovery—multivisions reflect the world in recognition of themselves. The best of new Cuban poetry from spoken word to rap to slam to suave can be found here. Re: Discover América in all her heart/beat son.”
 
—Lorna Dee Cervantes, author of Emplumada, winner of the American Book Award and From the Cables of Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger, winner of the Latino Literature Prize and the Paterson Poetry Prize
 
 
“In the pages of Àṣẹ Poetry Slam: Cuban Slam Poets Anthology, culture and history align, giving readers rewards of truth and conviction. Brought together with sensitive translations, the collection widens understanding between islands, continents, language and feelings.  Edited by Luz De Cuba and Paul S. Flores with El Martillo Press, Àṣẹ Poetry Slam is an enormous accomplishment conveying literary art and expression from writers that need to be heard.
 
—Francisco Letelier, Visual Artist/writer
 
 
“Àṣẹ Poetry Slam: Cuban Slam Poets Anthology is an empowering set of poems of self-realization, exploration, and cultural reclamation; sweet “cups made of gourd and coconut” in a collection of Spanish spoken word with English versions that move far beyond mere translation. There’s an extra strength you gain if your ear can hear and understand poetry in more than one language—if you can hear the whispers of ancestors or the living families and histories of a sweeter time left behind. But if you know only English, take heart as I have. Your soul will still hear the canción of Cuban energy rapping through each English verse; hear what the collection’s translator Paul S. Flores refers to in the book’s introduction as “the generational howl.” The poems in Àṣẹ Poetry Slam pound between personal stories and the pull of memories, inviting you to reach far back to Oshun, to Egungun—then propel you forward into the now; into the momentous urgency of voice. As you read this collection from award-winning poets, you will live through a mixture of rebeldiá and pain, el poder and love. As a woman and poet born and raised in Barbados and living in the diaspora of the US, I understand the voices in Àṣẹ Poetry Slam: Cuban Slam Poets Anthology. If you’re not of the region, by the time you reach the last poem, you will understand too. Àṣẹ! Slam, Slam, Slam.”
 
—Lynda V. E. Crawford, author of Washing Water (World Stage Press)
 
 
“Oscuridad luminosa teje estas páginas entrañablemente. Hijxs volcánicas de los Orishas: multi-colored birds (on a cage?) or just atomic whispers, screams and roars cocooned in an ancestral guava tree... Let this earthquake of a book blossom in your heart. And let’s march/dance/dream/slam along with all this wisdom and stories that beams from Cuba.”
 
—Rojo Córdova, espokenworista, polinizador interdisciplinario 
and Mexican slam hero