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Internationally-acclaimed Colombian poet draws power out of pain

Courtesy Arcea Zapata de Aston

An internationally-recognized Colombian poet is sharing her stories of love and loss tonight in Owensboro.  It’s part of a program created to empower Latina women.

Antonieta Villamil says poetry is a way for humans to carve beauty out of their suffering and share it with the world.

And she has a poem to back it up. It’s a message to her little brother Pedro, who disappeared in 1990.

AntonietaQueridoPedro.mp3
Antonieta Villamil reads from her poem "A mi hermanito Pedro" (in Spanish and English).

“I think it's the most terrible thing that can happen to a family," Villamil said. "When someone disappears, you are there to wait forever because there is always that possibility that he might come back one day."

Villamil was invited to read a selection of poems as part of a writing workshop based in Owensboro called, “Cronicas.”

Arcea Zapata de Aston, a Spanish professor at Kentucky Wesleyan, started the program, which walks Latina women through the process of writing, editing and publishing their own stories.

“The main idea is to empower women and to convey the idea that these women, and any other woman anywhere in the world, has the power if they have a way to have their voice listened to,” Zapata de Aston said.

You can hear Anonieta Villamil read her work, in English and Spanish, tonight in Rogers Hall at Kentucky Wesleyan College at 7:00pm.

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