Please join some amazing poets to celebrate the launch of a very special collection of poems, Counting Time Like People Count Stars, at 4:00 pm on December 16 at St. Peter’s Episcopal Parish (1610 South King St. Seattle, WA 98144). Guests include Washington State Poet Laureate Tod Marshall, Incoming State Poet Laureate (& Floating Bridge Press author!) Claudia Castro Luna, and Former Poet Laureate of Los Angeles Luis J. Rodriguez, as they celebrate the poems of the girls from Our Little Roses in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Afterward there will be a screening of the award-winning film that documents the creation of this extraordinary book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday, December 16, at 4:00 pm, publishers, poets, and filmmakers will come together for a documentary screening and book launch celebrating the lives and poetry of the girls of Our Little Roses Orphanage in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Both book and film document the girls’ work with poet and Episcopal priest Spencer Reece. The event is free and the public is cordially invited.

Spencer Reece, a winner of national poetry prizes and author of two highly-regarded poetry collections, earned a Fulbright Scholarship in 2012 to teach poetry to children at Our Little Roses. Both a home and school, Our Little Roses was founded in 1988 for abused and abandoned girls in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, a city ranked second for the world’s highest per capita murder rate. For one year, Reece taught poetry to the girls in the orphanage who are learning to overcome abuse, violence, and neglect. Twenty-four of the children’s poems are included in the new book, Counting Time Like People Count Stars , published by Tia Chucha Press in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. The book includes a foreward by poet and former New York State Poet Laureate Marie Howe, essays by Spencer Reece and Luis J. Rodriguez, the outgoing Poet Laureate of Los Angeles, and an afterword by Presidential Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco.

Greg Pardlo, winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, says of the book, “These poems dispense with the naivete that often makes children’s poems so charming. Instead, we find their haunting art burdened with premature and hard-earned wisdom. In their reckoning with despair and hope, these poems inspire admiration and awe.”

The Seattle event will mark the official launch of Counting Time Like People Count Stars. The book’s publishers, Luis. J. Rodriguez and Trini Rodriguez, who also guest-taught at Our Little Roses, will speak and read from the new book. Mr. Rodriguez is an internationally prominent poet, author, and social justice activist.

A screening of the film, Voices Beyond the Wall: Twelve Love Poems from the Murder Capital of the World , which documents Reece’s time with the girls in Honduras, will follow. Directed by Brad Coley and produced by Cassidy Friedman, with James Franco as executive producer, the film chronicles the experiences of the girls as they write about their life stories. The film has been called “eloquent” by The Hollywood Reporter and accepted to a number of film festivals including the Miami Film Festival. It recently won Best Documentary at the St. Louis International Film Festival. It has a running time of 1 hour 29 minutes.

The founder of Our Little Roses Orphanage, Diana Frade of San Pedro Sula, will also speak, as well as the current and incoming poet laureates of Washington, Tod Marshall and Claudia Castro Luna.

The event will include a reception, and copies of Counting Time Like People Count Stars will be available for purchase.

Contact: Kathleen Flenniken (Flenniken@comcast.net)

Visit our Counting Time Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/148661122525054/