On Saturday, May 14th, at 9:00 am, City of Madison Poet Laureate Angie Trudell Vasquez will address a record graduating class of Chican@ & Latin@ Studies Certificate students. A poet, writer, performer, activist and publisher, Angie Trudell Vasquez received her MFA in poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Her work was recently featured by Tracy K. Smith, former U.S. Poet Laureate, on the poetry podcast, The Slow Down, which is broadcast daily on Minnesota Public Radio. Most recently her work has been published in Taos Journal of Poetry, Yellow Medicine Review, Raven Chronicles, The Rumpus, Cloudthroat, South Florida Poetry Journal and Poem-A-Day. She has poems on the Poetry Foundation’s website, and was a Ruth Lilly fellow while at Drake University. In 2018 she was a finalist for the New Women’s Voices series and her book, In Light, Always Light, her third collection of poetry, was published by Finishing Line Press in May 2019. She guest edited the Spring 2019 edition of the Yellow Medicine Review with Millissa Kingbird. She co-edited a collection of poetry with Margaret Rozga, then 2019-2020 Wisconsin Poet Laureate, entitled Through This Door, that was released in late 2020. She serves on the Wisconsin State Poet Laureate Commission as Chair. In 2021 she became a Macondo Fellow, a Macondista. Her fourth collection of poetry, My People Redux, was published by Finishing Line Press in January 2022.
For Spring 2022, fifty-one graduating seniors are set to receive the Chican@ & Latin@ Studies Certificate. This is the largest graduating class in the Program’s history, and CLS faculty and staff are proud of the students’ accomplishments. The ceremony will take place in Ingraham Hall B10 and will be done in time for students to make the main graduation ceremony in Camp Randall. Image credit: John Ficenc.