Immigration and Identity
Oct 20 @ 7PM
Free on Zoom

The City of Newark is a longtime haven for immigrants, many of whom come from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Today a multitude of languages are spoken throughout the city, and ethnic markets, bakeries, restaurants, bars and social clubs line the streets of many wards.

Typical of immigrant communities, each generation faces tensions between assimilation and cultural preservation. Join our virtual conversation for a discussion of the immigrant experience and the impact of political, social and economic challenges on the development of cultural identities and how neighborhoods like the Ironbound in Newark are emblematic of these larger issues.

The PSEG Social Impact Film is Immigration – Love Me and Finding Home, an episode of the Our Time PBS series that focuses on the experiences of first generation immigrants.

How to participate:

1. Register here.

2. Watch Immigration – Love Me and Finding Home in advance at home.

3. Join us for a virtual panel discussion on Mon, Oct 20, at 7PM.

In partnership with Dodge Poetry, the program will open with poetry from Hugo dos Santos who was born in Portugal and grew up in the Ironbound. Dos Santos is also participating as a panelist.

Our panel will be moderated by Dr. Sherri-Ann Butterfield, Senior Vice President of Social Impact at NJPAC.

Other panelists include:

Adriana Morales García, a student at Middlesex College and the daughter of immigrants from Mexico

Ana Paula Rodrigues, born and raised in the Ironbound, is the author of Voices and Voyages: Portuguese Immigrants Share Stories of Turmoil and Triumph in Migrating to America

Ivonne Salazar, Chief of Staff at La Casa de Don Pedro, a social service provider and the largest Latinx-led organization in New Jersey

register

Event: Paterson Poetry Festival: Words Around the World

• Date: Saturday, October 11th

• Time: 12:00PM - 3:30PM

• Location: The Great Falls Amphitheater, Paterson, NJ

Passaic by PaulA Neves 

Passaic is a collection of poems that reflect on the Passaic, an 80-mile long river coursing through prime New Jersey real estate in counties that run the gamut from affluence to working class. Apart from the river’s association with William Carlos Williams’ Patterson and other works, and its prominence in the greater Newark metro area, it is also one of the biggest environmental atrocities in the state—and the country. When I recently mentioned the river to an out-of-state acquaintance, his first response was, “Worst Superfund site in the country, ” which isn’t entirely accurate, but not far off the mark. Williams’ epic was published around the time the toxic assault on the Passaic was reaching its tipping point, and the pollution along its lower half was affecting middle and working class residents, which included immigrants and others from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds, many of whom worked in factories or lived in communities along or near its banks, the kinds of communities that have always made New Jersey strong and distinctive, despite our complicated histories. The actual and spiritual descendants of those mid 20th century inhabitants, and of the Lenape long before them who fished peacefully in its once pristine waters, continue to be affected by the Passaic’s destruction, its fitful, politically charged rehabilitation, and the current challenges of climate change and “economic development.” They and the river deserve many poems and songs. This collection offers up some of these, primarily from the perspective of immigrant and first generation Americans—as prayers, laments, even humorous musings—and acknowledges that there is so much more that needs to be remembered—the pains, losses, and joys that galvanize us to be mindful stewards of what we have been given, or what we have taken from those who came before us. Our future depends on it. Rivers, both literal and metaphorical, are deep legacies. The Passaic is a symbol of both New Jersey and America.

“The river that runs through paulA neves’ unforgettable debut collection is at once majestic and toxic, a lifeblood of family, factory work, and more than a few miracles of faith and transformation. Rooted in the Portuguese-American experience of Newark’s Ironbound district, an unlevel playing field of immigrant dreams and early deaths, Passaic is a powerful hymn to place and the people we share it with, if only briefly. Having read its last gorgeous line, I felt not so much like a better person, but a more human human.” 

–Theresa Burns, author of Design and Two Train Town

In this beautifully crafted collection, a resurrected Passaic River returns color and flavor to the long-muted worlds adorning its banks. The places and names in these poems sing to us from long-forgotten memories. Amid all the change the Passaic has seen, this collection reminds us of all the ways “the words will write themselves again,” and expand beyond their immediate geography. 

–Hugo Dos Santos, author of Then, There and translator of A Child in Ruins

Passaic illustrates affection for tenacious immigrant roots like no other with these heartfelt poems that greet us like “a rain of reminiscence and receipts,/ postcards sent from/ the other shore.” After reading this collection, I’m convinced the Passaic River has a water spirit and a poet laureate, and that’s paulA neves.

--Rigoberto González, author of To the Boy Who Was Night"

In these deeply human poems, the accents and grit of Newark and communities along the Passaic River come alive. We hear the unsentimental perspective of a first-generation American daughter who is “riding memory hard.” Teeming with myth, rich with fado, these poems are strong and yearning, authentic and profound. They speak to a restlessness that cannot be quenched—or drowned—by the promises of America. As an immigrant mother on her deathbed remarks, “I thought there’d be more.”

–Olga Livshin, author/translator of A Life Replaced: Poems with Translations from Anna Akhmatova and Vladimir Gandelsman

neves’ poems transcend the generic and move the Luso-American narrative into different spaces, not asking permission for her poems to think and bleed. They create a universe both doubling as reality and dreamscape. A place of created mythos that is ultimately country and home.

– Dimitri Reyes, author of Papi Pichón and Shadow Work for Poets 

Reading from ironbound - a blog, as part of Dodge's Brick City Voices panel. 

More information at Dodge Poetry's site or at their Facebook page.