MEXICAN AMERICAN SPOKEN WORD ARTIST
Looking for a poet to be a featured performer for your slam or open mic with a performance of around 30 minutes?
Romero can also perform solo for a period up to 2 hours, entertaining your student body with his poems, stories, and slideshow featuring personal photographs as well as images from history and current events.
Looking for workshops to engage students to write about the issues that matter and the issues that matter to them?
Romero leads workshops that teach writing techniques and performance skills, promote critical thinking around social issues, encourage attendees to open themselves up emotionally, and learn how to set goals and how to achieve them.
Looking for a unique speaker who will present social justice issues in a way that is both challenging for the expert and immediately engaging for the novice?
For audiences who would like to explore certain issues in greater depth than would be addressed in a performance, and would prefer to forego the interactivity of a workshop, Romero's presentations will educate, entertain, and inspire.
"Undocumented Football" by David A. Romero
"Undocumented Football" by David A. Romero
"My Name Is Romero" by David A. Romero
"Make Me More Mexican" by David A. Romero
"Cheese Enchiladas" by David A. Romero
Poet David A. Romero, Author of My Name Is Romero
"Basketball with Edgar Allan Poe" by David A. Romero
"Diamond Bars" by David A. Romero
"Open Letter to Edward James Olmos" by David A. Romero
David A. Romero is a Mexican-American spoken word artist from Diamond Bar, CA. He is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of El Martillo Press. Romero is the author of My Name Is Romero (FlowerSong Press, 2020) and Diamond Bars 2 (Moon Tide Press, 2024). Romero has received honorariums from nearly a hundred colleges and universities in thirty-four different states in the USA and has also performed live in Mexico, Italy, and France. Romero's work has been published in literary magazines in the United States, Mexico, England, Scotland, Canada, and Hungary. Romero has opened for Latin Grammy winning bands Ozomatli and La Santa Cecilia. Romero's work has been published in anthologies alongside poets laureate Joy Harjo, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Luis J. Rodriguez, Jack Hirschman, and Tongo Eisen-Martin. Romero has won the Uptown Slam at the historic Green Mill in Chicago; the birthplace of slam poetry. Romero's poetry deals with family, identity, social justice issues, and Latine culture.
Romero offers a scholarship for high school seniors interested in spoken word and social justice: “The Romero Scholarship for Excellence in Spoken Word.” More here: https://www.davidaromero.com/scholarship
Romero has been published in literary magazines: DURA :: Dundee University Review of the Arts, Literary Cultures, The/temz/Review, NōD Magazine, Black Bear Review, North American Review, Ocean State Review, SOMOS EN ESCRITO, Pine Hills Review, Grist – A Journal of The Literary Arts, and Angels Flight • literary west •; in anthologies: Ellos son nosotros. antología de poesía chicana (CCH Naucalpan, 2022), Reimagine America - an anthology for the future (VAGABOND, 2022), Good Cop / Bad Cop (FlowerSong Press, 2021), RISE: an Anthology of Power and Unity (VAGABOND, 2017), The Border Crossed Us: an Anthology to End Apartheid (VAGABOND, 2015), Revolutionary Poets Brigade: Los Angeles (VAGABOND, 2014), and Heartfire: Revolutionary Poets Brigade Anthology (Kallatumba Press, 2013); on websites: CounterPunch, Latino Rebels, Pocho.com, La Bloga, Label Me Latina/o, Public Intellectuals, Cultural Daily, and Life in Quarantine: Witnessing Global Pandemic (Stanford University); in newspapers: People's Tribune and Brooklyn & Boyle and have been featured on radio programs on KPFK 90.7 FM (The Pocho Hour of Power, Beautiful Struggle, and Poet's Café), KPFT 90.1 FM Houston (Nuestra Palabra), and KTEP 88.5 FM El Paso (Words on a Wire).
David A. Romero has received honorariums from: Arizona State University, The University of Utah, University of Missouri, Washington State University, The University of Memphis, Loyola University Chicago, University of Central Florida, University of New Hampshire, University of Massachusetts Boston, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Hamilton College, Drexel University, USC, UCLA, and more!
Romero is a graduate of the University of Southern California, a double major in Film and Philosophy. Romero is the former host of Between the Bars Open Mic at the dba256 Gallery Wine Bar in Pomona, CA. Visit his website, http://www.davidaromero.com/ for more.
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My Name Is Romero is available now from FlowerSong Press
My Name Is Romero is the third full-length collection of poetry by Mexican-American poet and spoken word artist David A. Romero. In a world mispronouncing his name, or trying to define it for him, Romero digs through his family history, his childhood memories, and stories of working people, to create his own meaning for his family's name. In the process, Romero challenges his own prejudices as well as those of outsiders, as to what it means to be Mexican-American and Latinx. My Name Is Romero ranges from the political to the personal, with a scope both intimate and epic. My Name Is Romero also includes a discussion guide for conversations around its themes of belonging and exclusion, racism and solidarity.
My Name Is Romero features original cover art by Sonia Romero ("Hecho a Mano," Mariachi Plaza Metro Station) with advance reviews by Gustavo Arellano (¡Ask a Mexican! and Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America), Curtis Marez (University Babylon and Farm Worker Futurism: Speculative Technologies of Resistance), Ulises Bella (multi-instrumentalist, founding member of Ozomatli), Yolanda Nieves (associate professor at Wilbur Wright College, founder of Vida Bella Ensemble), Mike "The Poet" Sonksen (author of Letters to My City and I Am Alive in Los Angeles), and Ana Maria Alvarez (founding artistic director of CONTRA-TIEMPO urban Latin dance theater company).
Advance Reviews:
"Say his name: Romero. A vibrant Southern California voice whose evocative lines on the East L.A. Classic, burritos, immigration, love, and life sparkle as much as 4th of July fireworks in the 'hood."
- Gustavo Arellano, ¡Ask a Mexican!
"At turns lyrical and epic; bitingly funny and achingly melancholic, this shining collection of poems beautifully expresses how so many of us live now--wrestling with language and identity, history and politics. Welcome to the new Latinx poetics."
- Curtis Marez, University Babylon: Film and Race Politics on Campus
"Ni de aquí, ni de allá (not from here, not from there) is a saying and a dynamic that many of us Latinx/Chicano/Hispanic people struggle with. David tackles this theme and the complexities of how this mindset effects not only the personal, but also our role, or perceived roles, in modern America."
- Ulises Bella, Ozomatli
"It's an informed, intrepid, and at times, painful revelation of thoughts and dialogue that lie unspoken in our brains and amongst many Latin@/xs, and in Latin@/x communities."
- Yolanda Nieves, Vida Bella Ensemble
"My Name Is Romero is David A. Romero's open letter to the world, excavating his personal history while explicating his identity."
- Mike Sonksen, Letters to My City
"My Name Is Romero is so rich and layered! Romero has so many ideas flowing!"
- Ana Maria Alvarez, CONTRA-TIEMPO
Review Excerpts:
"Romero’s distinct talent lies in his staccato cadence and his singular ability to balance humor and pathos, alongside devastating political critique."
- Charles Kell, Ocean State Review
"The inaugural, titular poem, slams home the tone, while the tempo pairs with the heart rate in short, sharp beats, tightening the tension as we feel the sting of microaggression."
- Wanda McGregor, DURA :: Dundee University Review of the Arts
"With a direct speaking style that either implicates the reader in each poem or draws them in to witness his experience, [Romero] dishes out a full course meal on identity formation."
- Maggie Rue Hess, Grist – A Journal of The Literary Arts
"Romero is dedicated to exploring the complexity of family membership by looking at it culturally and socially, looking at family duty, and understanding that while he claims that which is powerfully good about his history, he also must own the failings of his lineage."
- John Brantingham, Cultural Daily
"Romero places his heart on his sleeve and himself on display to great effect. The rhythm infused between the lines also helps add a punch – a force – that is easy to appreciate and difficult to replicate."
- Callum Clarke, Literary Cultures
"Charting family history through poetry is an attempt to understand the inner meaning of being a Mexican in America; that is, of living in a country that undermines people of colour and minorities to the point of overt discrimination."
- Carla Scarano D'Antonio, The/temz/Review
"If not for the ink on the page, a reader could forget they are reading poetry and not listening to a friend speak of their experiences as a Mexican-American."
- Yolanda Nieves, North American Review
My Name Is Romero is carried in-store at independent retailers and establishments:
The Elliott Bay Book Company (Seattle, WA), Word Up Community Bookstore (New York, NY), Barbara's Bookstores (Chicago, IL), Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center (San Antonio, TX), Literarity Bookshop (El Paso, TX), Out West Books (Grand Junction, CO), Grand Valley Books (Grand Junction, CO), Lithic Books (Fruita, CO), Moe's Books, Book Soup, Chevalier's Books, Stories Books & Café, Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural, Village Well Books & Coffee, The Book Jewel, Re/Arte, La Tiendita at Centro Cultural de la Raza, Libélula Books & Co., Medicine for Nightmares, Page Against the Machine, Midnight Books, Café Con Libros, SideShow Books, Book Alley, Small World Books, Century Books, Bank of Books, The Sims Library of Poetry, and MoBar Café.
My Name Is Romero is sold at Barnes & Noble locations:
Aliso Viejo, Burbank, Calabasas, Carmel Mountain, Chino Hills, Dublin, Encinitas, Escondido, Fullerton, Glendale, Glendora, Grossmont Center, The Grove, Hazard Center, Long Beach, Manhattan Beach, Marina del Rey, Mira Mesa, Montclair, Oceanside, Orange, Palmdale, Point Loma, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, Santee, Studio City, Temecula, Thousand Oaks, Torrance, Tustin, Valencia, and Ventura.
Yo soy Romero (tranlated into Spanish by Gabriel González Núñez, published by El Martillo Press) is sold at independent retailers and establishments:
Café con Libros
Yo soy Romero (tranlated into Spanish by Gabriel González Núñez, published by El Martillo Press) is sold at Barnes & Noble locations:
Fullerton, The Grove, Bookstrar Studio City, Valenica, and Eastlake
Mi chiamo Romero (Italian translation, limited edition chapbook) is carried at:
Abbey Bookstore (Paris, France)