SUNY New Paltz Literature Professor Adolfo Béjar Lara presented “Demystifying Poetry” at Mount Saint Mary College on Tuesday, March 25. The event was part of the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read, which encourages readers to gain a deeper understanding of the world around them.
Adolfo Béjar Lara, a professor of Literature at SUNY New Paltz, recently discussed the current Big Read pick, Hustle by David Tomas Martinez, at a free, public event held at Mount Saint Mary College.
An initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in partnership with Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read aims to broaden understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the power of a shared reading experience. Newburgh is one of 62 communities nationwide participating in the 2024-2025 NEA Big Read by celebrating Hustle with a full calendar of events including book discussions, poetry and creative writing workshops, and more.
His talk, “Demystifying Poetry,” was sponsored by the Mount’s Division of Humanities, as well as its School of Arts, Sciences, and Education.
Hustle is a book of poems by Martinez, describing his rocky upbringing in San Diego. The poems delve into his search for identity, his time as a gang member, his attempted suicide, and more.
Béjar Lara holds a Ph.D. in Spanish from the University of Arizona, and earned his master’s at the University of Kansas. His areas of research include Latin American and Latinx literary and cultural studies, border and migration studies and postcolonial and critical theory. Béjar Lara migrated with his family from Mexico to the United States when he was 15.