Children of Light and Wrath by Francisco Álvarez Koki

In his latest work, Galician writer Francisco Álvarez Koki explores topics rooted in his native Galicia and the city of New York, where he has lived and drawn significant artistic inspiration.

Known for his socially engaged voice, Koki addresses topics such as love, social justice, and migration. His poetry draws influence from figures like Federico García Lorca, Miguel Hernández, and José Saramago, with a consistent focus on envisioning a more hopeful future. This event will be presented alongside Carlos Aguasaco, a Colombian-born poet, scholar, and professor of Latin American Cultural Studies at the City College of New York, and will offer an evening dedicated to poetry, reflection, and community engagement.

Francisco Álvarez Koki

Francisco Álvarez Koki migrated to New York in 1984 and is a prolific author in both Galician and Spanish, especially in poetry (for example Máis aló de Finisterre, 1991 and Entre tu cuerpo y mi cuerpo, 1997), but also narrative (Ratas en Manhattan, 2007), children’s literature (Un neno na emigración/Un niño en la emigración/An immigrant child, 2014) and theatre (Quemar as naves co-author with Miguel Falquez-Certain).

He is the editor of the anthologies Piel palabra (muestra de la poesía española en Nueva York) (2003) and Luna y panorama sobre los rascacielos (2021), and contributed to the volume Seis narradores españoles en Nueva York (2006). In the 1990s, he created the Colectivo Celso Emilio Ferreiro, which organized cultural events such a Galician book fair within the book fair of the Instituto de Escritores Latinoamericanos de Nueva York, or a poetry reading of Celso Emilio Ferreiro’s poetry in Park Avenue, for the Americas Society.

Carlos Aguasaco

Carlos Aguasaco was born in Bogota, Colombia, in 1975. He has edited eleven literary anthologies and published seven books of poems, most recently The New York City Subway Poems (Ashland Poetry Press, 2020). He has also published a short novel, an academic study of Latin American superhero El Chapulín Colorado, and is the editor of Transatlantic Gazes: Studies on the Historical Links between Spain and North America (IF-UAH, 2018).

His latest book, Cardenal en mi ventana con una máscara en el pico / Cardinal in My Window with a Mask on its Beak (University of Arizona Press, 2022), translated by Jennifer Rathbun, was selected for the 2021 Ambroggio Prize by Rigoberto González.

The founder and director of Artepoetica Press, Aguasaco is also director of The Americas Poetry Festival of New York and coordinator of The Americas Film Festival of New York. He is a professor of Latin American Cultural Studies and Chair of the Department of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at the City College of the City University of New York (CUNY).