El Tucsonan EP04 — Eva Sierra

This week I sat down with Eva Sierra — poet, educator, and the person who's quietly kept a Tucson reading series alive for seven years, moving it from barrio courtyards to the south side to a house to Zoom and back. We go all the way back to a Douglas sophomore riding up to the Tucson Youth Poetry Slam once a month, and forward to the U of A Poetry Center, where she runs programs and teaches — without ever finishing the degree everyone around her has.

We talk about how you actually teach poetry (good artists borrow, great artists steal), the kid in juvie who wouldn't hold a pencil until, one day, he wrote a whole poem. We get into her belief that poetry belongs to everyone — "it's just language," it's been called "flower and song," it can even live in a TikTok — and her push to break down the wall between academic and street writing: "it's ours, it's public, let us have this." And we talk about Douglas and the border, the novel she's writing about it, and a childhood spent talking to the ants in the backyard because she was already a poet and didn't know it.

Underneath it is Isaac — the friend who told her "I'm not the one to do this, but I think you are," and helped plant the seeds of the reading series in his last months.

Members have the full uncut conversation. — Gregorio C., El Tucsonan

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
1:41 From Douglas to the Youth Poetry Slam (2013)
3:11 What a slam actually is
6:22 From participant to organizer
8:26 Starting the reading series (Virgo season 2019)
10:22 Isaac: "I think you're the one to do this"
12:52 Why "nomadic" keeps it alive
16:24 Twelve locations (and 42 on Zoom)
19:26 Making every flyer herself
21:14 Still writing: the novel
24:28 The U of A Poetry Center — and no degree
28:04 Poetry, libraries & community ("a dragon school")
32:37 How do you actually teach poetry?
34:19 Teaching poetry in juvie
36:48 The student who wouldn't hold a pencil
39:29 Meeting Ada Limón & Tracy K. Smith
45:06 Why writing still doesn't come easy (The War of Art)
48:09 A quick word from the show
50:11 Should the reading series come to the university?
51:01 Academic vs. street poetry: "It's ours"
54:01 Poetry is just language ("flower and song," even TikTok)
57:17 Always a poet: the trees, the ants, the backyard
58:39 Her mom, Spanish literature & bedtime books
59:28 The novel: Douglas, the border & the space between
67:09 Douglas → Tucson: craving the big city
69:39 The delight of the Cochise County Fair
72:09 Why Tucson is home now
73:10 Redefining success: "I am an educator"
73:31 Three Tucsonans you should meet
76:23 Where to find the reading series
77:49 Outro

🎵 MUSIC
'minhas perras" - DJQ
https://barriosounds.bandcamp.com/

🔗 LINKS
El Tucsonan — eltucsonan.com
Become a supporter (full uncut + early access): eltucsonan.com/supporters/sign_in
Sponsor the show: eltucsonan.com/pages/sponsor
Instagram: @eltucsonan · TikTok: @el.tucsonan
Eva — the reading series on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thereadingseries?igsh=Yzk0ZDRmNDRqZTI5
U of A Poetry Center: poetry.arizona.edu
Episode 1 with Rey: https://youtu.be/D4L5OEVrY4M
Episode 2 with Q — Part 1: https://youtu.be/XZUkSfR43T0
Episode 2 with Q — Part 2: https://youtu.be/Hx3Xx68CQ9E
Episode 3 with KP: https://youtu.be/PHa9r1Uorj8

📚 REFERENCED
- The War of Art — Steven Pressfield
- Ada Limón — U.S. Poet Laureate ("You Are Here"), the Saguaro NP bench
- Ofelia Zepeda — Tohono O'odham poet, the bench poem
- Tracy K. Smith — former U.S. Poet Laureate
- Ana Castillo — border / Mexican-American writing
- Octavio Paz — "poetry in any medium"
- "Flower and song" / in xochitl in cuicatl — the Nahuatl idea of poetry
- Spoken Futures / Tucson Youth Poetry Slam

🎬 NAMES MENTIONED
Isaac — in memoriam. · Mariana Rivera ("Mari") · Paola Valenzuela · Tyler (digital media) · Mark (Borderlands) · Monique (Casa Clyde) · Herman (photographer, Douglas) · Tanya & Jen · Eli & Joe (JoJo's) · Paula & Fatima (Douglas reading).