"Toward a Mad Filipinx Poetics" will explore the incisive potentialities of Filipinx poetry, where "madness" is approached not only as mental illness, but as the subversive, transgressive, and imaginative techniques Filipinx artists use to survive, thrive, and critique dominant power structures. This talk will examine why poetry is essential to resistance movements, and how "madness" becomes an invitation to engage with the unruly, disorderly, and the unthinkable—to dream new worlds and modes of social organization where racism, imperialism, homophobia, and transphobia are dismantled. Through a reading, discussion, and writing exercise, we will be invited to think and write madly together!

MT Vallarta (they/them) is a poet and Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. They are the author of the poetry collection, What You Refuse to Remember, winner of the 2022 Small Harbor Publishing Laureate Prize. They have received fellowships from Lambda Literary, Kundíman, the Martha’s Vineyard Institute for Creative Writing, Abode Press, and Roots. Wounds. Words. Their poetry, creative non-fiction, and academic articles can be found in Amerasia Journal, The Asian American Literary Review, The Selkie, Shō, Nat. Brut, Apogee, and others. They are hard at work on a research monograph titled Dismantle Me: Queer, Mad, and Anti-Imperialist Filipinx Poetry that investigates the radical tradition of Filipinx poetry written by queer, trans, mad, and disabled artists. They live on Northern Chumash Lands, in CA’s Central Coast.

This event is FREE and open to the public! RSVP at slocountyarts.org/art-talks.