Poet Laureate 6: Lecture at Clarke University

Another cherished activity I engage in as Iowa Poet Laureate is giving poetry lectures. On 6 October 2024, I was honored to give the Mackin-Mailander Guest Lecture at Clarke University on the topic "An Asian American Poet on Race and Diaspora." Here is the flyer for the lecture (click on it to see it larger). My lecture that afternoon was a tour throughout my career of poetry I've written and published on race, ethnicity, and the Philippine diaspora. It was a very enjoyable event with lively discussion afterwards, and then visiting with audience members who wanted their books signed. Fun as always! Here are some photos from that event (again, click on each to see it larger). Here's the poem I was reading in that last photo above, where I'm showing slides of statues of the 1500s Philippine hero Lapu-Lapu. Just War Pale blonde sand glaring white into his eyes, Lapu-Lapu stood on the beach with his tribesmen. His wooden shield — a vertical rectangle rounded at top and bottom, scalloped inward on the sides — rested on a sinewy left arm, his lean legs slightly spread, brown muscled chest rising, falling, softly. Clenched in his right hand, his sharp kampilan, a hefty metal sword with ornately carved hilt. Tramping up the sand from rowboats beached on a reef, los conquistadores labored in helmets and breastplates, cutlasses drawn. In the lead, Ferdinand Magellan, a dandy’s pointed beard, sweat stinging his eyes in harsh tropical sun. With a crash of wood and metal, like trees falling under the typhoon’s wind and thunder, the two met, swords arcing like lightning bolts. Thrusts, parries . . . then Ferdinand’s eyes opened wide a moment as Lapu-Lapu’s blade swooped over his, an eagle diving from the sun. The Spaniards turned, fled as Lapu-Lapu thrust the severed head into the blue dome of sky. Magellan’s vaunted circumnavigation: a lie. Lapu-Lapu, brave brown defender, circumcised that vainglorious invader’s ultimate round trip. —Vince Gotera, first appeared in Pinoy Poetics (2004). This poem dramatizes the killing of Magellan by the Filipino chieftain Lapu-Lapu during war, so that, as the poem says, Magellan never actually completed the circumnavigation of the world, though he is often credited with that feat. Just a little correction of history. Many thanks to Professor Gina Burkart for organizing this event. She's a former colleague at the University of Northern Iowa, and it was a treat to see her again. Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Thanks! Ingat, everyone.  ヅ