Gómez-Peña’s Mex Files: Chicago Poets, Part I

Portrait of Guillermo Gómez-Peña — Guillermo Gómez-Peña, courtesy of the artist.

A man sits upright at a table wearing a black hat, sunglasses, and an open black jacket with yellow shoulder pads exposing his chest with tattoos. A stack of white paper sits on the table along with a vase of flowers, an intricate ash tray with skulls, candles, and a plastic alien head labelled with the text “Alien Pops.” The room is red behind the seated figure, with artworks, photographs and carved items decorating the walls. A prominent neon sign that reads "La Nostalgia BAR” sits above the seated person.

The series Gómez-Peña’s Mex Files: Audio Art and Strange Poetry from the US/Mexico Border are a multi-lingual live radio and archived audio program by performance artist, writer, activist, and MacArthur fellow Guillermo Gómez-Peña addressing the multiple pandemics of racism, sexism, militarism, and colonialism.

For this episode, three generations of Chicago poets and luminaries create a literary time capsule reflecting on our troubled times: race, gender, sexuality, confinement and the city itself! These recordings were part of Guillermo Gomez-Peña and La Pocha Nostra’s residency in the Windy City in October 2021.

Chicago Poets Part 1 features: Gregorio Gómez, Shontay Luna, Maria Gaspar, and Dragonfly.

Production Team: Charly García, Stephanie Manriquez, Emma Tramposch & Aranza Cortés.

Presented in partnership between Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Public Media Institute, and the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art. The series is an initiative of Toward Common Cause: Art, Social Change, and the MacArthur Fellows Program at 40.