Texas Poet Laureate | A Celebration
May 11, 2023
You’re invited to join in celebrating the 2022–2023 Texas Poet Laureate, Lupe Mendez. This event marks the final reading of his term.
Writer Ayokunle Falomo hosts the performance, which also features Texas poets Malcolm Friend, Miriam Damaris Maldonado, Jennifer Maritza McCauley, Jasminne Mendez, Joy Priest, Icess Fernandez Rojas, Chris Wise, and the 2023–2025 Houston Poet Laureate, Aris Kian Brown.
Plan Your Visit
Admission is free. This program takes place in Brown Auditiorium Theater in the Caroline Wiess Law Building. On Thursdays, the Museum is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. with free general admission.
About the Speaker
Galveston native Lupe Mendez is a writer, educator, and activist. His book Why I Am Like Tequila won the 2019 John A. Robertson Award from the Texas Institute of Letters. He earned his MFA from the University of Texas at El Paso and is the founder of Tintero Projects, which works with Latinx writers and other writers of color in the Texas Gulf Coast region. His work has been featured in outlets including the Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast Journal, L.A. Review of Books, Poem-a-Day from the Academy of American Poets, Poetry Magazine, Split This Rock, and Texas Review.
General admission to the MFAH is free on Thursdays, courtesy of Shell Oil Company.
All Learning and Interpretation programs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, receive generous support from Macey and Harry Reasoner; the Claire and Theodore Morse Foundation; and the Texas Commission on the Arts. Endowment funds are provided by the Louise Jarrett Moran Bequest; Caroline Wiess Law; Windgate Foundation; the William Randolph Hearst Foundation; Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Fondren Foundation; BMC Software, Inc.; the Wallace Foundation; the Neal Myers and Ken Black Children’s Art Fund; Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Ballard; Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Tate; the Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation; Virginia and Ira Jackson; the Favrot Fund; CFP Foundation; Neiman Marcus Youth Arts Education; gifts in memory of John Wynne; gifts in memory of Peter Lotz; and gifts in honor of Beth Schneider.