Rudolfo Anaya turns 80 on October 30, just in time for the eighth annual Rudolfo and Patricia Anaya Lecture on the Literature of the SW on October 26th. The lecture will feature Santa Clara Pueblo poet and sculptor, Nora Naranjo-Morse, author of Mud Woman: Poems from the Clay (1992) which combines her poetry with images of her ceramic pottery in often humorous and always profound arrangements. She has also experimented with recycled materials, like wire and plastic, as well as mixed-media. For more information about the artist, click here. For more information about the lecture series, click here.
The Lecture will occur in Zimmerman Library Grand Hall (West Wing) at 7 pm with a reception to follow. It is free and open to the public.
On the 30th, there will be a celebration for Anaya’s 80th birthday. There has been an effort to honor Anaya’s work and contributions to the educational community. Opera Southwest celebrating Anaya’s birthday by encouraging Albuquerque Public Schools to incorporate his novel, Bless Me, Ultima, into the classroom and urging students to participate in community events that honor his life-long commitment to New Mexico arts and humanities, spurred in part by Héctor Armienta’s highly-anticipated opera rendition of Bless Me, Ultima, produced by Opera Southwest and premiering in February at the National Hispanic Cultural Center.