Responsible for the Mandarache project in Cartagena, publishes ‘Do you want to be called a sissy?’, which will be presented this Friday in Murcia
“Do you want to be called a sissy?” is the title coined by Alberto Soler (Cartagena, 1980), poet and coordinator of the Mandarache and Hache Awards of the City Council of Cartagena, to group the five poems that make up the new installment – the twelfth – of Ad minimum micro editions, an independent editorial project, dedicated to the publication of small format works, directed by Olivia Martínez Giménez de León and Beatriz Miralles of Imperial. The new issue, featuring an illustration by Indian artist Siddharth Gautam Singh, will be presented in Libros Traperos (Ronda Garay, 39) this Friday at 7pm in Murcia.
«This notebook of five poems», explains Soler, also author of the collection of poems ‘Los tigres devour poetas por amor’ (Balduque), «is at the same time an inevitable emotional release – a bombshell – and also a map of gender tensions” “The writing of the poems,” he explains, “starts in January 2017, when National Geographic published a special issue on the genre. Reading that opened up for me a process of self-knowledge and search for other texts around the genre that since then has permeated my way of living, doing and writing».
The poems, the author specifies, “reflect two tangents of tension: a first personal axis to my own past, and another axis of tension between the humanities as an engine of knowledge in the face of the ubiquitous scientific gaze and the misuse of science as a mirage of reality and as an explanation – patriarchal? – currently imposed on every sphere».
And, adds Soler, «there are other streams flowing beneath the surface, such as: a sense of one’s own privilege; the nuclear family as an amalgamated substrate of sentimental upbringing and traumatic experiences; or the search for an emancipatory language and the assumption that you have to learn to speak anew every day». And more: «The calm acceptance that nothing we name is immovable -because our languages change as we get to know the world- and that it is necessary to cultivate an open mind that rejoices in the processes of renaming and renaming ourselves».
The title of the notebook, ‘Would you like to be called a ladybug?’, appears as a cross on the card. A pivotal moment that took place in a time without structures of its own that is unfortunately quite a common experience in the childhood of the people who inhabit gender dissent.
«I like», he continues, «that the title is stripped of lyricism because – to paraphrase something I heard from the poet and editor José Alcaraz – in poetry I am not looking for style but for honesty, and sometimes I think the usual quest for the poetic voice hides a warped capitalist competitive zeal.
The Ad minimum publishing project was founded in 2014 in Murcia. The notebooks are published “in a short run, simple format and infinite possibilities”.
The catalog has two collections. The Poetry Collection brings together different forms of poetic expression, complemented by works of illustration, while the Ideas Collection is devoted to topics of thought. The Poetry Collection started with the title ‘Los affluentes del frío’ by Manuel Pujante, with an illustration by Violeta Palomo.
Source: La Verdad
I am David Jackson, a highly experienced professional in the news industry. I have been working as an author at Today Times Live for over 10 years, and specialize in covering the entertainment section. My expertise lies in writing engaging stories that capture readers’ attention and deliver timely information about the latest developments.
