Central Washington University English lecturer Xavier Cavazos will travel to the University of Notre Dame next week for a poetry residency and special event titled Ritual Y Sanción (“Ritual and Sanction”), according to an April 8 announcement.
The event, scheduled for Tuesday, April 14, is organized by Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies and the Creative Writing Program. It aims to bring together poetry, performance, and healing. Cavazos will join his former student Karla Maravilla for the evening program. Maravilla graduated from Central Washington University in 2023 and is now pursuing her PhD at Notre Dame, where she serves as Graduate Student Assistant Director for the University Writing Program.
Cavazos will present a reading from his collection The Devil’s Workshop during his weeklong residency in South Bend, Indiana. This collection received the 2024 Eric Hoffer Medal Provocateur Award, which recognizes works that are “the best on the frontier of poetry, the experimental, the innovative, the daring and stunning, the impromptu in technique and voice.” During Ritual Y Sanción, Cavazos and Maravilla will engage in a semi-formal call-and-response poetic exchange exploring themes such as grief, trauma, assault, and addiction. The reading is intended as an act of folk ritual rooted in brujeria traditions like curanderismo and santeria.
In addition to Tuesday’s event, Cavazos will visit a class called Latinx Poetry Now!, conduct an oral history interview with Maravilla, and participate in a joint artist residency at Notre Dame’s Raclin Murphy Museum of Art as part of “Poets and Art.” This partnership between Letras Latinas at the Institute for Latino Studies and Raclin Museum seeks to inspire new literary art based on works from the museum’s permanent collection.
Cavazos previously earned recognition as a Nuyorican Grand Slam Champion in 1995. He has authored three award-winning collections: Barbarian at the Gate (Poetry Society of America), Diamond Grove Slave Tree (Ice Cube Press), and The Devil’s Workshop (Cleveland State University Poetry Center). Maravilla was named a Joseph Gaia Distinguished Fellow in Latino Studies last year. Her research focuses on how Latinx literature intersects with health, religion, education, sustainability—and how latinidad shapes contemporary narratives about labor,
wellness,
spirituality,
and ecojustice.