June 13th, 2021, 10:00am PDT

Invited Speaker: Rafael Jesús González

Born in the bicultural/bilingual setting of El Paso, Texas/Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua, Rafael attended the University of Texas El Paso, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, & the University of Oregon. Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing & Literature, he taught at the University of Oregon, Western State College of Colorado, Central Washington State University, the University of Texas El Paso, and Laney College, Oakland where he founded the Mexican and Latin American Studies Dept. He was Poet in Residence at the Oakland Museum of California and the Oakland Public Library under a "Writers on Site Award" from Poets & Writers, Inc. in 1996. Four times nominated for a Pushcart Prize, he was honored by the National Council of Teachers of English for his writing 2003. In 2013 he received the César E. Chávez Lifetime Award and in 2015 the City of Berkeley also honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2017 he was named the first Poet Laureate of Berkeley.

http://rjgonzalez.blogspot.com/