Join us in celebrating the launch of McAllen Poet Laureate Edward Vidaurre’s new collection of poetry, JAZzHOUSE. With readings from Edward, as well as Daniel García Ordaz, Reyes Cárdenas, Jo Reyes-Boitel, and Carolina Hinojosa-Cisneros.

JAZzHOUSE features compelling love songs to the intensity of everyday life; from the magic in the routine to the marvels and miraculousness of living. Edward Vidaurre takes us with him on his life trip, from East LA to the Rio Grande Valley and all the far-reaching roots that accompany him in the form of ancestors, spirits, family, and other familiars. JAZzHOUSE is a base camp, and a life. We are invited in to share some food, some cafecito, or a glass of wine—to sit awhile and be grateful for every minute we are alive.

Edward Vidaurre is the 2018-2019 McAllen,Texas Poet Laureate and author of five collections of poetry: I Took My Barrio on A Road Trip (Slough Press 2013), Insomnia (El Zarape Press 2014), Beautiful Scars: Elegiac Beat Poems (El Zarape Press 2015), Chicano Blood Transfusion (FlowerSong Press 2016), and Ramona & Rumi: Love in the Time of Oligarchy & Unedited Necessary Poems (Hercules Publishing 2018). Vidaurre has been published in several literary journals and anthologies. Vidaurre was the Director of Operations in 2018 for the Valley International Poetry Festival, moderator for Poets Responding, and founder of Pasta, Poetry & Vino, a reading series in the Rio Grande Valley. He is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and resides in McAllen. He writes from the front lines of the Mexican-American borderlands of El Valle in south Texas. Born and raised in Boyle Heights, California.