Lilian Delgado, Carlos Carrero and Professor José Irizarry are huddled around the desk at the professor’s classroom, going over the final details of Sábanas’ upcoming event. On Thursday, June 15, UPRM’s student-run, literary magazine will unveil its third volume of local poetry and voices, and celebrate its much-awaited first anniversary. Lilian, who goes by Lily, hands me a flyer for the big event. It’s the first time the team sees the flyers printed out, and they’re marveled at the quality of the printing–so much so that they can notice the hair on the arm of one of its models, a fact which concerns Lily. The flyer features a sensual, black and white photograph of two women in an embrace, their heads cropped out of the image. The image is focused on the women’s arms and chests, tangled together in an intimate display. It’s a style that’s similar to promotions of past events, and that is true to Sábanas’ aesthetic, which Carlos describes in three words: sensual, intimate, yet revelatory.
The Sábanas team is all smiles and their unveiling in May 2016. Photo by Lily Delgado.
The Sábanasʼ team has made a few changes to their publication over the last year. Since their first release in March 2016, they’ve expanded their pool of applicants, initially only accepting students from UPRM, then students from all the UPR campuses for their second volume and, for the third volume, they’ve accepted applicants from Puerto Rico’s entire west coast. In order to streamline their larger pool of applicants, they’ve refined their judging process and altered the magazine’s layout (now the poems and short stories will be in two separate categories within the magazine).
However, they have noticed some thematic constants throughout Sábanas’ history, despite the expanded pool. “Perhaps it’s the spirit of the times or an ailment of this generation,” Professor Irizarry observes, “but there are certain motifs–like angst–that are present in submission after submission, volume after volume.”
From left to right: Carolina Santiago, Professor José Irizarry, Carlos Carrero and Paola Rivera.
Such is the case of Tanomí Crespo, one of the poets featured in Sábanas for the first time, whose poem “I’m Fine” addresses the isolation she felt when she first started college a few years ago. She recently revisited the poem and decided to submit it. “[The poem] does represent a certain point in my life,” she explains, “where I was going through a lot of changes.” The poem was inspired by some messages she would write on disposable coffee cups at UPRM’s La Cueva, “I’m fine,” which would help calm herself down in lieu of cigarettes whenever she felt anxious or down. “‘I’m Fine’ is a small journey of what it was like to find myself again as I started to surround myself with new friends that would give me support and accept me -flaws and all.”
Tanomí, who studies Visual Arts at UPRM, approaches writing much more differently from painting or sculpting. “When I paint or sculpt, I do it in the present tense; when I write, I do it in the past tense.”
Another theme that is prevalent in Sábanas’ latest volume, Carlos Carrero adds, is that of relationships. “Plenty of people have submitted works about relationships that are not only romantic, but also have to do with friendship, their political environment, and themselves.”
Gabrielle Armstrong, who has been published in each of Sábanas volumes so far and who wrote a collection of poems titled Partida en dos, explains that the three poems published in this volume of Sábanas aren’t a departure from her earlier work, but rather, an evolution. “Writing gives me so much freedom to express myself,” Gabrielle, who is a professional dancer, explains. “As a dancer, you learn to express emotions and actions without words, and you have to be absolutely present. With words, it’s not the same. After all my years of experience as a dancer, writing has become such an enriching experience for me artistically. But, at the same time, it’s two sides of the same coin–and a portal to a person’s soul.”
Gabrielle Armstrong performs at a presentation of her book Partida en dos. Photo by Jaime Pérez.
However, the inspiration for one of her three poems published in Sábanas’ third volume, titled “Fantasma,” came from an unusual place: Yandel’s 2015 song, “Fantasma Eres Tú.” “The image of being lost in the crowd and suddenly seeing someone from your past and they’re just a shadow in your memory, that really resonated with me,” she explains. That initial motivation was further influenced by her own experiences. Basically, she says, “[‘Fantasma’] is about coping and moving on for one’s sake.”
From left to right: Lily Delgado, Carolina Santiago, Paola Rivera and Carlos Carrero.
Organized by Sabanas’ board, composed of students Carlos Carrero, Paola Rivera, Carolina Santiago, Lily Delgado, and English Professor José Irizarry, Thursday’s event is surely one not to miss. For their first birthday, which they began planning in December 2016, they’ve set out the ambitious task of making their traditional open mic a much more multimodal event. Thursday’s event will include live music (by local bands Labajura, Mal de Ojo and Javo Grant), live art and portraiture by artist Neftalí Cruz, and artisanal displays by Las Malcriás and Angie’s Upcycle Jewelry. “We want it to be big,” says Lily. “It has to be celebrated.”
The event will be held on Thursday, June 15 at La Tertulia. You can find more info about the event here.