PHOTOS: Translators Adam Wier, Marjorie Gonzålez and Carolina Feng Fung meeting at Hunter College, NYC to work on Jesus Papoleto Melendez’ book, HEY YO! YO SOY! (August 2012) Tony Medina being honored with the 1st Annual African Voices Literary Awards Honors at the Schomburg Center, NYC, reading from his book, BROKE BAROQUE. (June 2013) Brandi Dawn Henderson at her book party for WHEREABOUTS at John Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. (October 2013) Jesus Papoleto Melendez celebrating the first anniversary of the publciation of HEY YO! YO SOY! at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, NYC. (October 2013) Filmmaker Vagabond with poet Abiodun Oyewole in Harlem, NYC, videotaping a book trailer for his book, BRANCHES OF THE TREE OF LIFE, the night that Nelson Mandela passed away. (December 2013)
Introducing 2Leaf Press A SMALL PRESS WITH BIG IDEAS!
2LEAF PRESS publishes grassroots writers who are injecting new blood into the contemporary literary scene. We have a growing reputation for producing quality work in a wide variety of genres by culturally diverse authors. 2Leaf Press is committed to publishing literary fiction and cultural non-fiction, particularly works that have an edge to them, or are completely distinct from works published by most large commercial presses. What we lack in size, we make up for in integrity, energy and commitment.
We also pride ourselves in working closely with both emerging and established writers, and building ongoing partnerships so writers can call 2Leaf Press “home.” In order to broaden our mission, we have established three series: 2LP Translations that features cross-cultural literary works; Nuyorican World Series, which showcases established and emerging all-stars from the Puerto Rican Diaspora; and 2LP Classics, the reissuance of out-of-print books. Our books are available for distribution through Ingram. We also created 2LP Distribution Direct, so that bookstores can place orders directly with 2Leaf Press. 2Leaf Press takes full advantage of the latest technology, whether it’s utilizing print-on-demand, or creating quality ebooks for distribution. eBooks are available on Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iBookstore and Google Play. We publish hardcover books, and create promotional apps for some of our books. Our goal is to utilize the latest technology and create well-designed, award-winning books that provide readers with some new aspect of our own humanity. As a small press, we publish approximately twenty titles annually during the Fall and Spring seasons, so we’re committed to producing works that have an original approach in concept and execution that can make a difference. And so it begins: the birth of 2Leaf Press, a small press with big ideas! — Gabrielle David Publisher FALL | WINTER 2013
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2LP FEATURED WRITERS & ARTISTS The Writers Stephanie Agosto Usha Akella Fredrick D. Kakinami Cloyd Julian Cola Samuel Diaz Carrion Ezra E. Fitz Sean Frederick Forbes Odi Gonzales Brandi Dawn Henderson Patrick Colm Hogan A. Robert Lee Shirley Bradley LeFlore Tony Medina Jesús Papoleto Meléndez Claire Millikin Urayoán Noel Not4Prophet Abiodun Oyewole Dylcia Págan
Ana Rossetti Lisa Sánchez González J. L. Torres Vagabond Omar Villegas Adam Wier The Artists Miriam Ahmed Jeffrey Akers Gary Baller Jean-Michel Basquiat Eugen Berlo Michael J. Bracey Jaime “Shaggy” Flores Frank Frazier Sam Lahoz Kenji C. Liu Teofilo Olivieri Spencer Sauter
Allison Strauss Holly Turner Clare Ultimo Vagabond The Translators Bayrex Julian Cola Carmela Ferradáns Carolina Feng Fung Marjorie González Lynn Levin Kevin E. Tobar Pesántez Adam Wier
2LP STAFF Stephanie A. Agosto, IAAS Board Liaison Gabrielle David, Publisher Carmen Pietri-Diaz, Program Director Kevin E. Tobar Pesántez, Editorial Angela Sternreich, Editorial Adam Wier, Editorial and Translations Carolina Fung Feng, Editorial and Translations Vagabond Beaumont, Graphict & Video Production 2Leaf Press is an imprint of THE INTERCULTURAL ALLIANCE OF ARTISTS & SCHOLARS, INC. (IAAS) a NY-based nonprofit organization that promotes multicultural literature and literacy.
IAAS BOARD OF DIRECTORS Gabrielle David, Stephanie Ann Agosto, Sean Frederick Forbes Lynn Korsman, Shirley Bradley LeFlore, Michelle Aragón, Naydene Brickus, Angela Sternreich Andrew P. Jackson (Selou Molefi Baako), Advisor Kenneth Campbell, Robert Coburn, Advisory Board 2
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WHEREABOUTS: Stepping Out of Place
An Outside in Literary & Travel Magazine Anthology Edited by Brandi Dawn Henderson “The voices in Whereabouts offer a completely fresh approach to travel and life ‘out of place.’ Compellingly narrative and, at times, dazzlingly lyrical, we hear and feel the uncensored inside stories – both cerebral and sensual – of people settling in or on the move all over our bright world.” — HENRY HUGHES, “Harvard Review” “In reading this collection, you can explore the world without having to leave the comfort of your couch. But by the time you reach the last page, you’ll be itching to get off the cushions and book yourself a ticket to anywhere.” — COLIN D. HALLORAN, “Shortly Thereafter” “Whether sitting in the hut of a Nepalese wise man or navigating the American Thanksgiving dinner table, these writers marvel at the unique and esoteric while teasing out those universal threads – loneliness, love, friendship – that tie us together. . . . A joy to read.” — JOANNE CAVANAUGH SIMPSON, “Literature on Deadline”
OCT. 2013 | 210 pp. | 6” x 9” | ISBN: 978-0-9884763-6-3 (pbk.) | $19.99 ISBN: 978-1-940939-00-1 (eBook) | $9.99 WHEREABOUTS: STEPPING OUT OF PLACE is an anthology of the best nonfiction stories from Outside In Literary & Travel Magazine, an online journal founded in 2011. Editor Brandi Dawn Henderson presents thirty-eight emerging and established global storytellers who share stories discussing what it means to enter a new place; the kinds of worlds that exist to others that we, ourselves, do not experience; and how place and/or circumstance can affect who and what we are. Whether it is the story of a dog musher’s girlfriend, a heavy-metal-loving Marine, an Inner Mongolian lover, or a Mormon missionary living in a dangerous land, this anthology explores the question: Why does anyone take the first step to anywhere he or she doesn’t “belong?” BRANDI DAWN HENDERSON is a travelling writer on regular journeys that prove truths to be no stranger to fictions. Her work has appeared in Mason’s Road Literary Journal, JMWW, Three Quarter Review, 20 Something, Lost Literary Magazine, Urbanite, and Dillinet Magazine. She is the Editor-inChief of Outside in Literary & Travel Magazine, an online journal that seeks to promote cross-cultural understandings through global storytelling.
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Providencia
a book of poems by Sean Frederick Forbes Introduction by V. Penelope Pelizzon
“In Providencia, Sean Forbes presents poetry that is rich in a kind of spare aesthetics. Spare, as in clear, as in extra and its opposite, sparingly, as in leave uninjured, as in can-you-spare-adime — yes, especially that sense of provide.” — KIMIKO HAHN, “Toxic Flora” “In Forbes’ quest, you will find personal poems that strike with resounding social significance, as well as poems that survey a sometimes gentle and sometimes violent historical landscape with visceral intimacy.” — JONATHAN ANDERSEN, “Stomp and Sing” “With a yearning untainted by sentimentality, Forbes gracefully scribes his/our Caribbean diasporic family history in his debut book.” — LISA SÁNCHEZ GONZÁLEZ, “The Stories I Read to the Children, The Life and Writing of Pure Belpré”
OCT. 2013 | 104 pp. | 6” x 9” | ISBN: 978-1-940939-01-8 (pbk.) | $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-940939-02-5 (eBook) | $6.99 PROVIDENCIA, Sean Frederick Forbes’ debut poetry collection, provides deeply personal poetry that digs beneath the surface of family history and myth. This coming-of-age narrative traces the experience of a gay, mixed-race narrator who confronts the traditions of his parents’ and grandparents’ birthplace: the seemingly idyllic island of Providencia, Colombia against the backdrop of his rough and lonely life in Southside Jamaica, Queens. These lyric poems open doors onto a third space for the speaker, one that does not isolate or hinder his sexual, racial, and artistic identities. Written in both free verse and traditional poetic forms, PROVIDENCIA conjures numerous voices, images, and characters to explore the struggles of self-discovery. Cover art by Holly Turner. SEAN FREDERICK FORBES is a poet and teaches writing and poetry at the University of Connecticut. He studied English and Africana studies at Queens College (CUNY) where he was an Andrew W. Mellom Fellow; and received his M.A. and Ph.D in English from the University of Connecticut. Forbes’ poems have appeared in Crab Orchard Review, The Midwest Quarterly and Sargasso: A Journal of Caribbean Literature, Language, and Culture.
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Imaginarium Sightings, Galleries, Sightlines Poetry by A. Robert Lee
“A voyage with the ever present panoramic A. Robert Lee – poet, cultural historian, critical writer. This collection is a cartography, a call and response, a resonance and a celebration of “meticulous horizontals,” “Einsteinian screams” and other luscious optics and beloved poetries. I appreciate the close reading, scholarship, and delight of these imaginariums.” — ANNE WALDMAN, poet and author “A. Robert Lee imagines the sights and sayings of painters, poets and places, and detects the symbolic cues of continents, museums, and cultural coincidence.” — GERALD VIZENOR, “Almost Ashore” “This poet is ever on the move in all latitudes, not unlike a literary flâneur, engaging and commenting on the world before him with insight and energy, and sometimes humor . . .” — TINO VILLANEUVA, “Il canto del cronista, Antologia poetica”
OCT. 2013 | 126 pp. | 6” x 9” | ISBN: 978-1-940939-05-6 (pbk.) | $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-940939-06-3 (eBook) | $6.99 IMAGINARIUM: SIGHTINGS, GALLERIES, SIGHTLINES, A. Robert Lee’s latest collection of poetry, turns on two connecting keynotes: imagination and sight. Each sequence provides a broad canvas that explores the ways we go about imagining as much as seeing reality. Sightings commemorates a dozen or so celebrated visual artists, among them J.M.W. Turner and Frida Kahlo. Galleries extends the usual meaning of the term to include vantage-points like a French archeological cave, a Bosphorus Straits crossing or a Tokyo station. Sightlines frames a run of personal encounters within the heights and widths of buildings and landscapes. IMAGINARIUM: SIGHTINGS, GALLERIES, SIGHTLINES is a delightful yet informative collection that invites readers into a two-way exchange, imagination as seeing, seeing as imagination. Cover art: © DrAfter123/iStock Vector/Getty Images. A. ROBERT LEE is a retired English Professor who has taught in Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. Internationally-known for his academic works in multicultural literature, Lee’s recent creative work includes Tokyo Commute: Japanese Customs and Way of Life Viewed from the Odakyu Line (2011), Ars Geographica: Maps and Compasses (2012), and Portrait and Landscape: Further Geographies (2013). British-born, he currently lives in Murcia, Spain.
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The Last of the Po’Ricans y Otros Afro-artifacts
Poems by Not4Prophet | Graphics by Vagabond Introduction by Tony Medina
“Like a cool glass of water on a hot summer day . . . no . . . more like an oasis not a mirage on this desert we call earth . . . Not4Prophet comes to bring relief . . . to let you . . . me . . . all thinking people know . . . we are not alone . . . .” — NIKKI GIOVANNI, poet “not4Prophet delivers The Daily News of poetry . . . rapid fire political, apolitical, patriotic, treasonous, nationalistic, anticapitalistic, take it or leave it, fuck it, in your face poetry that excites and incites with kick-ass illustrations by Vagabond.” —JESÚS PAPOLETO MELÉNDEZ, “Hey Yo! Yo Soy!” “The poet’s nu, yo, and he’s rican as ri can. He claims to be po’rican, and that po is for the poEMS you know, bro, as the rican is rich as a tostones slangwhich. . . . a Prophet for our time.” — BOB HOLMAN, founder of the Bowery Poetry Club
NOV. 2013 | 140 pp. | 6” x 9” | ISBN: 978-09884763-3-2 (pbk.) | $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-9884763-2-5 (eBook) | $6.99 LAST OF THE PO’RICANS Y OTROS AFRO-ARTIFACTS, the debut poetry collection of Not4Prophet, provides an incredible verbal and musical profusion of poetry that reflects the cultural landscapes of the perpetual islands of Puerto Rico and New York City through the eyes of a Puerto Rican born in Ponce, living in El Barrio/East Harlem and the South Bronx. As he elaborates this “otherness,” which includes the hassles of poverty, racial pride and racial discord, Not4Prophet pays homage to the old school cats from the Nuyorican and Black Arts movements. Written in free verse and layered with cultural and historical references, LAST OF THE PO’RICANS breaks boundaries and challenges us with iconic imagery and word play that dares to speak of the unspeakable. Cover photo by Jeffrey Akers; cover design by Vagabond. NOT4PROFIT was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico and raised in El Barrio/ East Harlem and the South Bronx. He is a dirt roots community activist, underground-Hip Hop MC, political Punk Rock shouter, graffiti writer, actor and a poor (mans) poet and/or barrio bard. Not4Prophet has released several indie music CDs, two self-published poetry chapbooks, and his writing has been featured in various books and magazines. (Photo: Sam Lahoz)
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COMING SPRING 2014
Celebrate National Poetry Month with these great titles!
Puerto Rican Folktales / Cuentos folclóricos puertorriqueños by Lisa Sánchez González
Translated by Bayrex || Illustrations by Teofilo Olivieri Bilingual: English/Spanish
“With this dual language edition, Sánchez González earns her rightful place as cuentista right up there with Pura Belpré and Ricardo Alegría, collecting and re-telling the people’s stories so as to re-ignite that reflective flame that is our common humanity.” — ORALIA GARZA DE CORTÉS Latino Children’s Literature Librarian and Co-founder of the Pura Belpré Award “No longer erased by coloniality, the stories that Sánchez González has ‘heard, read, witnessed, written, revised and rewritten,’ will live on to illustrate the splendor, grace and vigor that is Puerto Rico. A brilliant, captivating contribution.” — EMMA PÉREZ, University of Colorado, Boulder
JUN. 2014 | 192 pp. | 8.5” x 8.5” | ISBN: 978-1-940939-12-4 (hdc.) | $29.99 ISBN: 978-1-940939-13-1 (pbk.) | $12.99 PUERTO RICAN FOLKTALES is the first offering in nearly 50 years of traditional Puerto Rican folktales and legends presented in book form. Rendered as wonderful short stories for both children and adults alike, author Sánchez González researched these colonial stories and has provided updated versions from a contemporary perspective with the beauty, humor, and urgent honesty they deserve. Readers will discover the real story of Yuisa and Pedro Mejías. A tale of a girl who goes on an adventure and rides home triumphantly on a magical horse with a rainbow tail. Talking trees and plants and magical machetes. PUERTO RICAN FOLKTALES will transport, transform and translate to readers a whole new universe of a quintessentially Caribbean culture that’s alive and well in Puerto Rico. Translations by Bayrex with illustrations by Teofilo Olivieri. LISA SÁNCHEZ GONZÁLEZ is a professor, scholar and folklorist. Sánchez is the author of Boricua Literature: A Literary History of the Puerto Rican Diaspora (2001) and The Stories I Read to the Children: The Life and Writing of Pura Belpré (2013). An Associate Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, Sánchez currently teaches courses in American, Caribbean, and western literary history.
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Branches of the Tree of Life
The Collected Poems of Abiodun Oyewole 1969-2013
Introduction by Betty J. Dopson | Edited by Gabrielle David “I have been listening to Abiodun since middle school and have had the honor to grace many stages with him. He is truly a pioneer . . . He will go in the archives for centuries to come.” — ETAN THOMAS, poet, author and NBA champion “Branches of The Tree of Life is a literary treasure. Abiodun Oyewole is a living legend who speaks truth to power and celebrates the life, struggles, triumphs, beauty and realities of being African in America.” — LINDA H. HUMES, African Studies Dept. John Jay College Founder, Yaffa Cultural Arts Inc. “Abiodun Oyewole is one of the most important voices of his generation and my own. He opens up his heart and allows us to be one of the branches of a tremendous tree he has planted inside this revolutionary language called poetry. A mentor, a critic, and an inspirational voice of truth, I am forever grateful for being one of the flowers he helped bloom.” — JESSICA CARE MOORE, award-winning poet and publisher
MAY 2014 | 274 pp. | 6” x 9” | ISBN: 978-1-940939-03-2 (pbk.) | $24.99 ISBN: 978-1-940939-04-9 (eBook) | $9.99 BRANCHES OF THE TREE OF LIFE is the first comprehensive volume of poems by Abiodun Oyewole, many of them never before published. Oyewole’s poems are powerful, often political, always lyrical and profoundly moving. During his forty year career and his long affiliation with The Last Poets, Oyewole is often credited for liberating American poetry by creating open, vocal, spontaneous, energetic and uncensored vernacular verse that paved the way for Spoken Word and Hip-Hop. Using the spiritual, the sacred and the mystical, Oyewole turns to the tree as a symbol of change and growth. His poetry rebranches into different directions, becoming grandeur in its proportions, and more complexly diversified in its structure. BRANCHES OF THE TREE OF LIFE is a living testament to a stunning career that confirms Abiodun Oyewole’s place at the forefront of poetic achievement. Cover art by Vagabond. ABIODUN OYEWOLE is a poet, teacher, and founding member of the American music and spoken-word group The Last Poets, which laid the groundwork for the emergence of Hip-Hop. Over the years, Oyewole has collaborated on more than a dozen albums and several books. He travels around the world, performing poetry and teaching workshops. (Photo: Vagabond)
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Our Nuyorican Thing
The Birth of a Self-Made Identity by Samuel Diaz Carrion Introduction by Urayoán Noel
“Our Nuyorican Thing by Sam Diaz is a must read about all things Nuyorican in essays that emerged from the heart of the Mother Matrix, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe . . . a poetic buffet for the universal creative spirit that is comprehensive, intelligent, insightful, sensitive and beautifully written ‘. . . in the service of poetry.’ Bravo!” —SANDRA MARÍA ESTEVES, poet, teacher and activist “Sam Diaz, an original from the time the Nuyorican poets first walked as in Genesis, deconstructs and reconstructs all of those assumptions of identity and poetry that wonders identity. Take the plunge, you may find your own ‘Nuyoness.’” — KEITH ROACH, poet, author, activist and former Nuyorican Poets Cafe SlamMaster “This book will provide deep insight and first hand observations on the Nuyorican movement from the inside out.” — BONAFIDE ROJAS, “Renovatio” and “When The City Sleeps”
MAY 2014 | 132 pp. | 6” x 9” | ISBN: 978-1-940939-07-0 (pbk.) | $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-940939-08-7 (eBook) | $6.99 In OUR NUYORICAN THING, BIRTH OF A SELF-MADE IDENTITY, poet, writer and activist Samuel Diaz Carrion explores the question, “What is a ‘Nuyorican’?” What started out as blog correspondence for the Nuyorican Poets Cafe’s website (2001-2004), quickly turned into a cultural exchange about the Cafe and Puerto Rican culture. OUR NUYORICAN THING is a compendium of those blog entries and emails, that includes Diaz Carrion’s poetry, seen through the eyes of a “Puerto Rican Indiana Jones” who has quietly studied “the trade route of a new language . . . collecting poetry and stories as the artifacts of the day.” This collection is riveting, informative and delightful, and will satisfy any reader with an appetite for cross-cultural discussions. Cover art by Clare Ultimo. SAMUEL DIAZ CARRION is a Puerto Rican poet and writer born in the South Bronx. While working as a chemist, he participated in meetings that led to the founding of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, New Rican Village and other venues. Over the years, he has coordinated poetry and reading series, notably for Pedro Pietri and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. (Photo: Vagabond)
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Birds on the Kiswar Tree by Odi Gonzales
Translated by Lynn Levin Bilingual: Spanish/English || 2LP TRANSLATIONS
“A haunting gallery of indigenous painters from colonial Peru, most anonymous, is mapped out by Quechua poet Odi Gonzales in this admirable collection . . . . Poetry, Gonzales persuades us, is a tool to unveil the past, to come face to face with history.” —ILAN STAVANS, editor of “The FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Latin American Poetry” “This bilingual edition offers readers an eyeopening, rich and transformative experience. Lynn Levin’s translation captures the power and nuanced registers of Odi Gonzales’ tour de force: a gift to Anglophone readers!” —THALIA PANDIRI, Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature, Smith College Editor-in-Chief, “Metamorphoses” “Birds on the Kiswar Tree is a powerful, poignant and compelling series of poems, truly a verbal museum or gallery of works by underappreciated artists quietly defying their oppressors.” —CAROLYNE WRIGHT, American Book Award, Blue Lynx Prize
MAY 2014 | 140 pp. | 6” x 9” | ISBN: 978-1-940939-24-7 (pbk.) | $18.99 ISBN: 978-1-940939-25-4 (eBook) | $9.99 BIRDS ON THE KISWAR TREE by Peruvian Andean poet Odi Gonzales presents poems that sing in the voices of native birds and speak through the devout, but subversive, Quechua artists of Peru’s colonial era. Canvas by canvas, poem by poem, Gonzales gives us a poetry collection as a living and talking museum in which the Quechua artists of Peru’s past demonstrate both their sincere Christian faith and their opposition to the Spanish destruction of the Inca empire. Originally published in Peru in 2005 as La Escuela de Cusco (The School of Cusco), BIRDS ON THE KISWAR TREE stands as an elegant and richly imagined tribute to these indigenous and mestizo artists. Odi Gonzales is the author of seven poetry collections. BIRDS ON THE KISWAR TREE, an English translation by Lynn Levin, is Gonzales’ first book to be published in a bilingual Spanish/English edition. Cover art by Eugen Berlo. ODI GONZALES is an award-winning poet who writes in both Quechua and Spanish. In collaboration with writers and academics, Gonzales has translated into English a significant body of work on the Peruvian oral tradition for institutions such as the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC. Since 2000, he divides his time between Peru and the US, teaching courses in Quechua language and culture, and prehispanic literature of the Andean region at NYU. 10
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Boricua Passport by J. L. Torres
“J.L. Torres’ poems draw a line in the sand from the blue green crystal clear agua buenas of Puerto Rico to the blue salsa funk of the Boogie Down. . . . You don’t need a passport to be transported to the world(s) in the words of Torres’ verse — just your heart and head and an imagination scopic and distended as the universe.” — TONY MEDINA, poet and activist, author of “Broke Baroque” “This is not your abuelita’s poetry, except that it is — tu sabes? In the spirit of Rev. Pedro Pietri, Torres seeks out the ‘location of this nothingness’where we all scrawl our own passports in in(di)visible ink. Watch /here/ and /there/ blur! This /Boricua Passport/ has your name.” — URAYOÁN NOEL, poet, professor and scholar
MAY 2014 | 116 pp. | 6” x 9” | ISBN: 978-1-940939-19-3 (pbk.) | $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-940939-20-9 (eBook) | $6.99 BORICUA PASSPORTevokes the complex in-betweeness that represents the contemporary Puerto Rican condition as filtered through the prism of poet J.L. Torres’ life experience. For many Puerto Ricans the sense of being unhomed — having a homeland but not really feeling at home anywhere — is a real lived experience determined by a persisting and unsettled colonial condition. In BORICUA PASSPORT, Torres, screams, shouts, rejoices, celebrates, tickles and challenges with a poetry sprinkled with Spanish/Spanglish that is immediate and urgent. His is a testimony to the indefatigable Puerto Rican spirit which, although burdened by this colonial condition, still strives to cobble a hybrid world full of love, passion and hope. It’s your passport into a world simultaneously real and imaginary, one most people don’t even know exists. A must read! Cover art by Vagabond. J. L.TORRES is Professor of English at SUNY Plattsburgh, where he teaches both American and Latina/o Literatures, and Creative Writing. He is the author of The Family Terrorist and Other Stories (2008), and the novel, The Accidental Native (2013). Torres also serves as Editor of the Saranac Review, and is co-editor of Writing Off the Hyphen: New Perspectives on the Literature of the Puerto Rican Diaspora. His poetry has appeared in numerous publications. FALL | WINTER 2013
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After Houses
Poetry for the Homeless by Claire Millikin Introduction by Tara Betts
“An astute critic as well as a scrupulous and admirably driven poet, Millikin combines formal élan and emotional intensity. I think of her poems as following in the noble, painful tradition of Maurice Blanchot — language reaching toward silence.” — WAYNE KOESTENBAUM Distinguished Professor of English, CUNY Graduate Center “Claire Millikin’s deeply perceptive and elegiac poems remind us that the words we use to define the world are the same words that define our losses. . . . Both lush with language and haunting, After Houses is a work of uncanny beauty.” — KATHLEEN ELLIS, “Vanishing Act” “As Claire Millikin puts it in the final poem of her After Houses, Poetry for the Homeless, ‘This is a book of escape & survival.’ Although all of us readers’ lives differ, this book can also be shared as ‘our history. Don’t turn away.’” — HENRY BRAUN, poet and peace activist, author of “Loyalty, New and Selected Poems”
MAY 2014 | 160 pp. | 6” x 9” | ISBN: 978-1-940939-30-8 (pbk.) | $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-940939-31-5 (eBook) | $6.99 AFTER HOUSES is an extended meditation on homelessness. In unflinching, raw poetry, poet Claire Millikin explores states of homelessness, and a longing for, even a devotion to, houses — houses as spaces where one could be safe and at ease. The poems move through an American landscape, between the South and the North, between childhood and adulthood, reaching toward a home that’s never reached, but always at one’s fingertips. Throughout the collection, Millikin draws from personal and family history, from classical mythology and architectural theory, to shape a poetry of empathy, in which some of the places where people get lost in America are faced and given place. AFTER HOUSES echo the voices of girls who have not quite survived, but who persist, intact in the way that Rimbaud insists on intactness, in words. Cover photo by Gary Baller. CLAIRE MILLIKIN is a poet, professor and scholar. Her poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals and magazines, and she has published the chapbook The Gleaners (2013), her first poetry collection, Museum of Snow (2013). Millikin’s book, Witnessing Sadism in Texts of the American South, is forthcoming. She currently teaches Art History and Sociology as a Lecturer at University of Virginia. www.claireraymond.org.
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Incessant Beauty, A Bilingual Anthology by Ana Rossetti
Edited and translated by Carmela Ferradáns Bilingual: Spanish/English || 2LP TRANSLATIONS
“At last English-speaking readers can indulge in Ana Rossetti’s enticing poetic banquet, deliciously daring to somberly meditative. . . .This long overdue translation by Carmela Ferradáns is most welcome.” —SHARON KEEFE UGALDE University Distinguished Professor, Texas State University “The English-language versions of these poems celebrate paradox; they are erotic and erudite, earthy and ethereal. . . . Ferradáns has given Anglophone readers a gift whose beauty is, indeed, relentless and incessant. And we are very grateful.” —VIRGINIA BELL, Ph.D, Senior Editor, “RHINO Poetry” Adjunct Professor of English, Loyola University Chicago “Incessant beauty subsana esta carencia de una forma atrevida y equilibrada . . . la función poliédrica del arte, oficio e inspiración a partes iguales, artificio y talento en el sabio recorrido de un banquete poético. Imprescindible.” —TINA ESCAJA, artist and professor of spanish at the Unviesity of Vermont
MAY 2014 | 168 pp. | 6” x 9” | ISBN: , 978-1-940939-21-6 (pbk.) | $18.99 ISBN: 978-1-940939-22-3 (eBook) | $9.99 INCESSANT BEAUTY is a feast for the senses and the mind. Ana Rossetti from Cádiz, Spain, is an award winning poet and writer. She became prominent among the many women poets who used the lifting of Spain’s censorship to produce a fresh, often daring, body of poetry. INCESSANT BEAUTY offers to an English-speaking audience a first glimpse into Rossetti’s eclectic and voracious symbolic universe. Editor and translator Carmela Ferradáns has selected poems that offer a wide range of themes that span more than thirty years, varying from the playful, often cheeky, early poems for which she is well-known, to the more brooding meditations on transcendental human qualities, to the latest festive celebrations of the poetic word itself. Cover art by Spencer Sauter. ANA ROSSETTI is an award-winning Spanish poet from Cádiz, Spain, known in some circles as the “Madonna of Spanish Letters.” Her most wellknown poetry collections include Los devaneos de Erato (Premio Gules, 1980), Indicios vehementes (1985), Yesterday (1988), and Punto Umbrío (1996). In INCESSANT BEAUTY, editor and translator Carmela Ferradáns provides a wide range of selected works that capture the essence of Rossetti’s poetry.
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SNEAK PEAK FOR FALL 2014
Meet the authors who are writing memoirs, tributes, translations, a novella and travelogue, and more!
Guided By Love: A Tribute to Dylcia Pagán, Former Puerto Rican Political Prisoner edited by Dylcia Pagán and Lisa Sánchez González
ISBN: 978-1-940939-15-5 (pbk.) | ISBN: 978-1-940939-16-2 (eBook)
GUIDED BY LOVE provides an introspective look at Dylcia Pagán’s life as an artist as well as an activist, balancing the more salacious subject matter of her imprisonment and her role as “freedom fighter.” This collection includes personal tributes to Pagán, including poety and artwork by Pagán herself, as well as essays from family, friends, scholars and activists. Throughout this time-honored tribute, GUIDED BY LOVE asks readers to think deeply about Puerto Rico and its status as an American colony, the U.S. legal systems, its treatment of political prisoners, and the consequences of leading a life as a political and cultural activist. Cover art by Vagabond.
DYLCIA PAGÁN is a producer, director, political activist, artist, healer and former political prisoner. Born and raised in New York City, she is best known as one of the first Latina television producers in the United States who was instrumental in groundbreaking Latino and African American programming. Arrested and charged with Seditious Conspiracy in 1980, Pagán was sentenced to 63 years of imprisonment. In 1999, President Clinton offered executive clemency to Pagán and when she was released from prison, she relocated to Puerto Rico. Besides working on documentaries, art, poetry and special events, Pagán is an international speaker who talks about justice, media, culture and the Independence Movement.
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The Rosary of Latitudes poems, prose & photos by Usha Akella
ISBN: 978-1-940939-09-4 (pbk.) | ISBN: 978-1-940939-10 (eBook)
In THE ROSARY OF LATITUDES, POETRY, PROSE & PHOTOS, poet, author and playwright Usha Akella investigates her Indian identity with place and travel through poems, prose and photographs. While the beads on her rosary come from different latitudes in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia, she has found a way to combine them in a harmonious collection that flows like water and sings in many voices. Just as Pablo Neruda and Walt Whitman explored travel and place, THE ROSARY OF LATITUDES shows readers how travel has shaped and informed Akella’s literary outlook on life through language, rhythm and landscape. Cover art by Allison Strauss. USHA AKELLA, born in India, moved to the U.S. in 1993. The author of the poetry collections …Kali Danced, So Do I… (2000) and A Face That Does Not Bear the Footprints of the World (2008), Akella’s work has appeared in many U.S. and India-based journals and books. She recently wrote the musical, Ek: An English Musical on the Life of Shirdi Sai Baba (2011).
Dream of the Water Children
Memory and Mourning in the Black Pacific by Fredrick D. Kakinami Cloyd
Introduction by Gerald Horne with a Foreword by Velina Hasu Houston ISBN: 978-1-940939-28-5 (pbk.) | ISBN: 978-1-940939-29-2 (eBook)
DREAM OF THE WATER CHILDREN, at once a haunting collective memory and a genre-bending critical account of dominance and survival, interweaves intimate multi-family details with global politics spanning generations and continents. Fredrick D. Kakinami Cloyd’s debut work is a one-of-a-kind ‘non-fiction’ interdisciplinary evocation that will appeal to not only those interested in Black and Asian relations and mixed-race Amerasian histories, but also a wide general audience, moving readers through emotional depths. Cover art by Kenji C. Liu. FREDRICK D. KAKINAMI CLOYD is scholar, writer and artist. Cloyd, who received his Masters in postcolonial cultural anthropology from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, has published in a number of prestigious journals, and was featured online in such sites as “Discover Nikkei” and “Black Tokyo.” He presents at academic as well as artistic and literary venues, and has been interviewed for numerous articles, and on radio and television. FALL | WINTER 2013
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Nothing to be Gained Here by Vagabond
ISBN: 978-1-940939-32-2 (hdc.)
NOTHING TO BE GAINED HERE originally began as a blog for artist, writer, filmmaker, anarchist and idealist vagabond. It was a virtual space that vagabond carved out for himself to present his less than ideal art and ideas for a less than ideal world. The book of the same name is a collection of poems, prose, essays, sketches, paintings, digital graphics, and scripts. Most of the work for NOTHING TO BE GAINED HERE is taken from the blog while other pieces have never before been published. Vagabond is 2Leaf Press’ resident videographer, photographer, graphic designer and all-around team member. This is his first book. VAGABOND is a filmmaker and multi-disciplinary artist born in Brooklyn to Puerto Rican and Jamaican parents. He attended The School of Visual Arts but dropped out after his first year to work on independent black films such as Spikes Lee’s Do The Right Thing, where he quickly learned all aspects of filmmaking and forged his own alternative aesthetic. Vagabond has written, produced and directed the documentary Ricanstructing Vieques, and the award-winning feature film, Machetero. He also creates posters, pamphlets, videos and all kinds of agit-propaganda for “the cause or just because.” www.nothngtobegainedhere.com
Poems for Canjira
An English Translation of the Afro-Brazilian Poets Sacolina, Elizandra Souza, Sergio Ballouck and Maria Tereza Edited and translated by Julian Cola
Portugese/English || 2LP TRANSLATIONS ISBN: 978-1-940939-17-9 (pbk.) | ISBN: 978-1-940939-18-6 (eBook)
POEMS FOR CANJIRA invites us to the fiery and pulsating vitality of Afro-Brazilian poetry that brings together representative works from four contemporary poets: Sacolinha, Elizandra Souza, Maria Tereza, and Sergio Ballouk. Editor and translator Julian Cola has selected poems that summon issues of love, family, social struggle, and religious beliefs that navigate the conscious of Afro-Brazilians. POEMS FOR CANJIRA should be of interest to anyone who wants to know more about the richness and variety of Afro-Brazilian culture from poets who are making significant contributions in Brazilian literature. JULIAN COLA is an interpreter/translator of Portuguese (Brazil), an editor and photographer. Cola received his BA, cum laude, in Portuguese from the University of New Mexico. He is a FLAS Fellowship recipient, a member of Phi Lambda Beta Honor society in the study of Portuguese and Brazilian literature and culture; and was awarded a CELPE-Bras Certificate by the Brazilian Ministry of Education and Universidad Federal da Bahia. POEMS FOR CANJIRA is his first collection of translated Afro-Brazilian poetry.
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The Death of the Goddess A Poem in Twelve Cantos by Patrick Colm Hogan
Introduction by Rachel McDermott ISBN: 978-1-940939-34-6 (pbk.) | ISBN: 978-1-940939-35-3 (eBook)
THE DEATH OF THE GODDESS is an epic, narrative poem that is a moving account of affection, personal loss, and grief. Its central figures are two lovers who refuse to accept unjust social hierarchies and suffer separation and death for that choice. In this groundbreaking narrative, Patrick Colm Hogan sets out to re-synthesize ancient Indian philosophy and myth, with a beauty and literary feeling (called “rasa” in Sanskrit) that are the central aspects of this poem. THE DEATH OF THE GODDESS is an excellent literary achievement to be read by serious poetry lovers and students in mythology or epic literature alike. PATRICK COLM HOGAN is a Professor at the University of Connecticut, where he is a member of the Department of English, the Program in India Studies, the Program in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, and the Program in Cognitive Science. The author of sixteen books, Hogan’s best-known book is The Mind and Its Stories: Narrative Universals and Human Emotion (2003). He has published fiction in The Journal of Irish Literature and poetry in minnesota review, Kunapipi, the Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies, and elsewhere.
The Morning Side of the Hill A Novella by Ezra E. Fitz
Introduction by Ernesto Quiñonez ISBN: 978-1-940939-26-1 (pbk.) | ISBN: 978-1-940939-27-8 (eBook)
In THE MORNING SIDE OF THE HILL, Ezra E. Fitz’ debut novella, he asks readers: What if you anted up and kicked in everything you had on a belief, a hope, a dream, on faith, and you lost? This is one of the questions facing Willie and Mo, the two insecure, incomplete protagonists that was inspired by — and is an homage to — William Faulkner’s classic novel The Wild Palms. Faulkner fans may think they know what the end holds for these characters, but rest assured, THE MORNING SIDE OF THE HILL exposes an unexpected coincidence that Faulkner may have hinted at but never fully explored. Cover art by Vagabond. EZRA E. FITZ began his literary life at Princeton University, studying under the tutelage of James Irby, C.K. Williams, and Jonathan Galassi. He has worked with Grammy winning musician Juanes, Emmy winning journalist Jorge Ramos, and the king of soccer himself, Pelé. His translations of contemporary Latin American literature by Alberto Fuguet and Eloy Urroz have been praised by The New York Times. His work has appeared in The Boston Review, Harper’s Magazine, and Words Without Borders. Fitz is an Affiliate Faculty member at University of Illinois Center for Translation Studies. www.ezrafitz.com. FALL | WINTER 2013
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2LP BACKLIST
Brassbones & Rainbows Broke Baroque
by Tony Medina Introduction by Ishmael Reed JULY 2013 ISBN: 978-0-9884763-5-6 (pbk.) | $18.95 ISBN: 978-9884763-9-4 (epub) | $9.99 BROKE BAROQUE is the third in a series of Broke Books by award-winning poet, Tony Medina, who articulates Broke’s erratic experiences on the streets of Any City, USA. With razor-sharp scatological whimsy, Medina’s iconic ironic existential everyman — Broke — bears witness to the plight of homelessness from his curbside porch, torching the capitalist system and its myriad societal contradictions. Through tall tales, anecdotes, rants and jokes, Medina portrays Broke’s anger, fear, humility and resolve that conveys his marginalization in a grossly unaccommodating society. Funny and perversely sharp, whimsical and impassioned, BROKE BAROQUE is compulsively readable and will connect with fiction and poetry lovers alike. Cover art: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump, 1982; Cover design: Miriam Ahmed
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The Collected Works of Shirley Bradley LeFlore MAY 2013
ISBN: 978-0-9884763-4-9 (pbk.) | $18.99 ISBN: 978-9884763-8-7 (epub) | $9.99 BRASSBONES & RAINBOWS is the debut poetry collection of Shirley Bradley LeFlore, an oral poet and performance artist from St. Louis, Missouri who has been in the literary scene for over five decades. In BRASSBONES & RAINBOWS, LeFlore’s poetry weaves the fabric of verse through jazz, blues and gospel in an easy going, smooth and soothing Southern American dialect mixed with African American Vernacular that will certainly roll off your tongue. While LeFlore tackles social, political and cultural issues with a profound love for humanity, she also provides insight into self-identity, inner-strength, beauty and faith. With a foreword by Amina Baraka and introduction by Gabrielle David, this collection also includes historical photos of LeFlore and other prominent poets and writers. Cover art: Frank Frazier.
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Rivers of Women,The Play by Shirley Bradley LeFlore with photographs by Michael J. Bracey MAY 2013 ISBN: 978-0-9884763-7-0 (pbk.) | $12.99 In RIVERS OF WOMEN, THE PLAY, Shirley Bradley LeFlore has outdid herself in this groundbreaking collection of dramatic poems written in vivid and powerful language that is simple yet breathtaking. Here is the complete text, including stage directions, accompanied with photographs by award-winning, Chicago-based photographer Michael J. Bracey. This poignant, heartfelt, humorous and powerful play explores family, love, woman-towoman experiences, race and religion, speaking to the very soul of the reader. In all, it is a descriptive, evocative, lyrical production filled with folk sentiments, conjuring familiar images that seem to be more the craft of an urban anthropologist than a poet, which is clearly the genius of Shirley Bradley LeFlore. Cover photo: Michael J. Bracey.
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Hey Yo! Yo Soy!
40 Years of Nuyorican Street Poetry The collected works of Jesús Papoleto Meléndez OCT. 2012 ISBN: 978-0-9884763-0-1 (pbk.) | $25.00 ISBN: 978-9884763-1-8 (epub) | $9.99 HEY YO! YO SOY! is an historical poetry collection comprised of legendary Nuyorican poet Jesús Papoleto Meléndez’ three previously published books. In this collection, Meléndez shares stories about growing up Puerto Rican in New York City’s El Barrio during the 1960s and 1970s. The poems also cover social and political topics that remain relevant even today. Foreword by Sam Diaz and Carmen M. Pietri Diaz; introduction by Sandra Maria Esteves; and an afterword by Jaime “Shaggy” Flores. Edited by Gabrielle David and Kevin E. Tobar Pesántez, with translations by Adam Wier, Carolina Fung Feng, and Marjorie González. Includes photos and an interview. Cover design: Jaime “Shaggy” Flores. SPRING PREVIEW 2014
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SUPPORT 2LEAF PRESS! 2LEAF PRESS is an imprint of the Intercultural Alliance of Artists & Scholars, Inc. (IAAS) a NY-based nonprofit organization that promotes multicultural literature and literacy. Our press was launched in 2012 with our first book, Hey Yo! Yo Soy! 40 Years of Nuyorican Street Poetry, A Bilingual Edition by Jesús Papoleto Meléndez. Our founding was made possible with funding by a group of poets, writers, scholars, artists and activists, with profits and sales ploughed back into future publishing. While we are now vigorously seeking support from foundations, corporations, and state and federal funding, 2Leaf Press continues to push forward with the generous support from individuals who believe in the publication of quality work by culturally diverse authors. 2Leaf Press salutes its supporters as seen listed below. Their support helps us publish the decidedly non-commercial books of poetry, prose and all in-between; the printing, promotion and distribution of our books; and innovative programming and events, such as our “2Leaf Press Presents” at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City. We ask that you join us today in helping to insure the future of 2Leaf Press. You can donate on our website, www.2leafpress.org, or contact us at 646-801-4227 for further assistance.
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The Intercultural Alliance of Artists & Scholars, Inc, is a 501(c)(3) organization and a registered nonprofit corporation in the state of New York. All donations are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law. Online donations processed securely via PayPal. 20
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DISTRIBUTION Ingram and 2LP Distribution Direct | 2lpdd@2leafpress.org | 646-801-4227
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