Apr 06 2020
Mega Corazon 2020 (Pandemic Proof!)

Mega Corazon 2020 (Pandemic Proof!)

Presented by The URBAN-15 Group at URBAN-15 Studios

As an online broadcast, URBAN-15’s Mega Corazón has from the beginning prioritized poetry audiences that are distant, dispersed, and digitally available. Always ahead of its time, Mega Corazón now finds itself strategically well-positioned to inject a much-needed artistic infusion into our strange, new reality of social distancing.

In other words, Mega Corazón lives on despite the pandemic, celebrating National Poetry Month with a literary livestream featuring San Antonio’s premiere performance poets—all of whom nimbly agreed to shift from live sets to self-filmed performances. Celebrating a hybrid San Antonio poetic tradition that combines street, classical, and slam performance styles, Mega Corazón promises to be frontal, improvisational, at times painful, and choreographed for a highly visual impact. This year’s Mega Corazón will take place on Monday, April 6th from 10am-1pm (youth focus, for those students now learning from home) and again from 6-10pm (for general audiences). All performances can viewed for free online HERE.

Poets confirmed to date include current San Antonio Poet Laureate Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson, former San Antonio Poet Laureate Octavio Quintanilla, and inaugural San Antonio Poet Laureate and former Texas Poet Laureate Carmen Tafolla; National Book Award finalist John Phillip Santos; nationally-recognized poetry slam champions Amalia Ortiz and Anthony “The Poet” Flores; National Poetry Month SA organizer Jim LaVilla-Havelin; playwright Gregg Barrios; “taco poet” Eddie Vega; Jazz Poets founder Eduardo Garza; conjunto masters Juan and Armando Tejeda; Rohn Bayes; Jacinto Cardona; Marisol Cortez; Génesis Linares; Jessica Tilton Zertuche; Natalia Treviño; Frances Treviño Santos; and Nathan Zertuche.

As part of our Hidden Histories series, Mega Corazón 2020 will also air a special poetry-themed episode focused on the history of the Young Pegasus youth poetry competition, a San Antonio literary tradition dating back to 1927. Episode will feature interviews with previous judges and readings from past winners, including internationally-beloved author Naomi Shihab Nye; former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros, and visual artist Alice “Pájara” Canestaro-Garcia. This segment will air online from 7pm-7:30pm at https://urban15.org/live-stream

All Mega Corazon segments are free of charge and can be viewed online at https://urban15.org/live-stream. Afterwards, Mega Corazon will be archived online at http://hiddenhistories.tv/archives/

Click HERE for poet bios. Schedule coming soon!

If you are an educator interested in screening Mega Corazon for your students as part of a distance learning curriculum, please contact us at events@urban15.org or 210-736-1500.

Admission Info

All Mega Corazon segments are free of charge and can be viewed online at http://urban15.org/live-stream. Afterwards, Mega Corazon will be archived online at http://hiddenhistories.tv/archives/

Phone: 210-736-1500

Email: events@urban15.org

Dates & Times

2020/04/06 - 2020/04/06

Location Info

URBAN-15 Studios

2500 S. Presa, San Antonio, TX 78205