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Red Poppy is dedicated to promoting the power of Latin American poetry: the power to evoke emotions and foster social consciousness. Our current priority is completing an important documentary on the Chilean Nobel Laureate activist Pablo Neruda. We are also creating a bilingual anthology of Latin American "Poetry in Resistance". We have official 501(c)3 status with the IRS.
Making a difference in this world, one poem at a time.
The Chilean Nobel Laureate Neruda is one of our major inspirations, in how he infused the power of poetry into the world, in how he used his pen as a tool mightier than the sword in his fight for social justice.
We are also currently working on an anthology of Poetry of Resistance in Latin America, as well as illustrated books of Neruda's odes and The Book of Questions for young adults.
We need your help. Please join us.
For more information, email us or
call 888-876-1533.
Some of the faces of the Red Poppy family:
(none of the three below have yet to take any pay for their Red Poppy
work.)
Mark Eisner, Red Poppy's Founder and President
In college, Mark studied abroad in Central America, where he read Neruda to campesinos en the mountains of El Salvador while working with the FMLN to set up rural cooperatives two years after the peace accords. Ten years later, his bilingual The Essential Neruda was published by City Lights. It has become the bestselling edition of Neruda in the States. Mark was the editor and some of his own translations appear, as they do in several other books and anthologies. On Neruda's centennial, July 12th, 2004, Mark read Neruda's poetry and was interviewed on NPR's Morning Edition, and that night led a reading at an overflowing Theater Artaud in San Francisco, along with other contributors to the Essential, including the great Beat capitán Lawrence Ferlinghetti and former US Poet Laureate Robert Hass. The reading was followed by the premier of the first version of Red Poppy's The Poet's Calling, which Mark produced, directed, and wrote. It was part of a two week-long festival which Red Poppy produced, which the San Francisco Chroncile called "a perfect birthday party." Mark has a MA in Latin American Studies from Stanford, where he later was a Visiting Scholar. More on Mark...
Tina Escaja, Vice Presidenta
Tina is a dynamic creative writer and scholar from Zamora, Spain. She has published extensively on gender and 20th/21st Latin American poetry and fiction. Her last book of poetry, Caida Libre (2004), won the Premio Hispanoamericano Dulce María Loynaz. She also works with experimental and multimedia works, including hypertext, and has displayed her art internationally. Tina is currently Professor of Spanish Literature and Director of Latin American Studies at the University of Vermont, where she is also a member of the Film Studies Faculty. As she says, " Poetry must tear open, articulate the pain of the tremendous senselessness of human existence.
Words and beauty ought to serve to fill this void. Denunciation and artfulness, a jump from a
precarious parachute, technology and alienation in service of
ourselves and the people. I subscribe to this minimum responsibility that I undertake completely. Poetry is a risk and an exercise in salvation
that has to be done." More on Tina...
Catherine Howard, Secretary
Catherine Howard is an anthropologist and designer interested in the role that objects and images play in mediating relationships between people. Catherine's passion for documentary film and photography has led her from Alaska to England to Brazil and Mexico. Along the way she has produced several television documentaries for the PBS and A&E Networks. Catherine is an associate producer of The Poet's Calling and she recently wrote her first film, an educational feature on comparative religion. She holds an M.Sc. in Material Anthropology and Museum Ethnography from Oxford University, and a BA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Carlos Bolado, Co-Director of our documentary, Pablo Neruda: The Poet's Calling
A rising cineaste of a new generation of Mexican filmmakers. Carlos brings the ideal passion, creativity, and expertise to make our film the lyrical, compelling, powerful, and important art for which we are striving. Starting in high school, Neruda’s poetry and political commitment have been a key influence on the development of Carlos’ creativity and drive. He holds an ardent love for the bard.
Carlos directed and edited Promises, nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary of 2002, a film about Israeli and Palestinian children. The first feature which he directed and produced himself, Bajo California, won 2 Ariels, Mexico’s highest cinematic award, for Best First Work and Best Editing; he was nominated for Best Director.
His Solo Dios Sabe was selected for the 2006 Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize for World Drama. He will soon direct a major feature starring Alec Baldwin. Bolado edited Como Agua Para Chocolate, and was an advising editor for Amores Perros. More on Carlos...
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