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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 14, 2008
Contact:
, Austin Public Library, (512) 974-7379
Fax: (512) 974-7442
Breathing Life into Words Writing Workshop
Hampton Branch at Oak Hill
Breathing Life into Words Writing Workshop presents Poetry for the People: Social and Personal Transformation, a discussion led by Poet Rene Valdez, on Monday, December 1 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Hampton Branch of the Austin Public Library at Oak Hill, 5125 Convict Hill Rd. Learn how to transform your thoughts into words. No prerequisite in writing required.
The discussion is sponsored by the Friends of the Austin Public Library. It is free and open to the public. For more information please call 512-974-7400 or visit www.cityofaustin.org/library.
About Rene Valdez
Hailing from East El Paso, Texas, Rene Valdez is a working-class Chicano cultural worker, community organizer, and media activist, who migrated to Austin in the late 1990's. He began as a volunteer for both Red Salmon Arts (RSA), a literary/cultural arts non-profit organization, and community-based Resistencia Bookstore. Since 2000, he has worked closely as a student, political comrade, and caring son of Xicaninidio elder poet/human rights activist Raul Salinas who founded RSA and Resistencia Bookstore. Presently, Valdez is the Executive Director of Red Salmon Arts and one of the many caretakers of Resistencia Bookstore. For the past three years, he has co-facilitated the intensive writing workshops of the RSA project, Save Our Youth (SOY), at Johnston High School. Also, he has co-edited several SOY collections of poetry and writing which have featured the youth from Johnston.
About the Hampton Branch at Oak Hill
With great ceremonial fanfare, the Hampton Branch of the Austin Public Library opened its doors to the communities of Southwest Austin on April 26, 1997. The branch was named in honor of Austin civic leader Will Hampton, who died on September 24, 1996. A colorful relief painting of water birds in flight currently surrounds a large round window in the branch lobby. The painting, created by artist David Everett as part of the City’s Art and Public Places program, is set against a pitched ceiling of skylights to give the lobby an atrium quality. The Hampton Branch is one of the busiest branches in the Austin Public Library system. It is a modern, people-oriented, facility with a large neighborhood following.
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