Perversions / Perversións / Perverseco

--a night of code-switching, collisions of tongues, and translation

a bi-lingual or maybe tri-lingual poetry and spoken word with Arturo Mantecon and MK Chavez

Oakland based Latinx writer, MK Chavez is the author of several chapbooks including
Mothermorphosis. Dear Animal, (Nomadic Press) received the 2017 Pen Oakland Josephine
Miles Award. Chavez is co-founder/curator of the reading series Lyrics & Dirges and co-director of the Berkeley Poetry Festival. She is a fellow with CantoMundo and a writer in residence at
Alley Cat Books. Chavez’s poem The New Whitehouse, Finding Myself in The Ruins, was
selected by Eileen Myles for the Cosmonauts Avenue 2017 Poetry Award.

Arturo Mantecón is a poet, story writer and translator.
His poetry has been published here and there. A collection of his short stories, Memories,
Cuentos Verídicos, y Otras Outright Lies, was published by En Casa in 2014.
He has translated the poetry and prose of the mad Spanish poeta maldito, Leopoldo María
Panero, in three collections: My Naked Brain (Swan Scythe Press, 2011), Like an eye in the
hand of a beggar (Editions Michel Eyquem, 2013), and Rosa Enferma / The Sick Rose (Swan
Scythe Press, 2016).
He has also translated the prose and poetry of the uniquely erudite Spanish writer, champion
poker player and ornithologist, Francisco Ferrer Lerín in a volume titled Chance Encounters and
Waking Dreams (Editions Michel Eyquem, 2016).
He is currently working on translating the work of Mario Santiago Papasquiaro, the Mexican
infra-realist poet, and a volume of these translations is due out in 2018.

Arturo Balderrama is a pan-instrumental musician-- violin, guitar, flute, kalimba, keyboard,
percussion-- who has played in numerous venues in the Sacramento area.