ABSTRACT

When teaching US Latino/a poetry, author seeks a balance between close reading and social analysis, between formalist and culturalist approaches. While arguing for a networked approach to form that reads and teaches poetry across media, he also arguing for a networked approach to questions of identity and belonging. Some of the most engaging contemporary Latino/a poets draw poetic and political inspiration from distinct community-specific histories and poetics even as their work evolves across a range of formal constellations. He share Pearce and Tan's investment in fomenting self-reflexive learning through the use of social media in the classroom, but he also wonder about their characterization of online videos as 'free content' that allows staff to not have to worry about 'the generation of new content' in a climate where resources are scarce. Following students presentations, he try to ask us to think about what it means to read in the digital age.