Quique Aviles

Being bilingual doesn’t just mean that someone speaks two languages. Often, the bilingual in this country are also bi-cultural. Mexican-Americans along the southern U.S. Border, for example, have for decades celebrated belonging to two-cultures. And for other groups, like the Irish, many of their cultural celebrations have become an integral part of the American fabric, like St. Patrick’s Day.

Poet and performer Quique Aviles was born in El Salvador and is a graduate of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C. Much of his writings and performance art is about finding one’s voice in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural world. His poem, “My Tongue is Divided in Two,” was published in his book The Immigrant Museum, which incorporates two-decades of his poetry.

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Watch a YOUTUBE Video Interview IN SPANISH
with Quique Aviles as part of Telemundo’s
“reportage escolar” youth media program.
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Video en Español…

(Posted February 4, 2009)

Quique Aviles is a poet and performer whose work addresses social issues. A native of El Salvador and a graduate of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Quique has been writing and performing in the US for over 20 years, appearing throughout the Washington area, in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Santa Fe. His poetry has been featured on NPR’s “Latino USA” and on subway posters through Washington’s “Metro Muse.” He has written and performed five one-man shows: Caminata: A Walk Through Immigrant America; Chaos Standing/El Caos de Pie; Latinhood/Latinez; Los Otros Dos/The Other Two; and Salvatrucans. He has also performed with Nuyorican Poets, and with Guillermo Gomez-Peña, Roberto Sifuentes, B Stanley, Silvana Straw, and Michelle Parkerson in The Dangerous Border Game. A 1991 recipient of the Washington, DC Mayor’s Arts Awards, he is founder and artistic director of Sol & Soul, where he continues a lifelong commitment to mentoring emerging artists and helping young people find their voice. Quique’s first book of poetry, The Immigrant Museum, was published recently in collaboration with Raices de Papel, a design and bookbinding workshop based in Mexico City.

Quique Aviles on NPR’s “This I Believe” series:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5587766

Duke Ellington School for the Arts
http://www.ellingtonschool.org/home/index.html

Sol y Soul Arts for Social Change
http://solysoul.com/