Nina Serrano
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Nina Serrano (born 1934<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>) is an American poet, writer, storyteller, and independent media producer who lives in Vallejo, California.<ref name="foundsf">Template:Cite news</ref> She is the author of Heart Songs: The Collected Poems of Nina Serrano (1980) and Pass it on!: How to start your own senior storytelling program in the schools (Stagebridge). Her poems are widely anthologized, including the literary anthology, Under the Fifth Sun: Latino Writers from California (Heyday Books), and three anthologies of peace poems edited by Mary Rudge from Estuary Press. She has also translated two chapbooks from Peruvian poet Adrian Arias. She currently leads storytelling workshops at senior centers and elementary schools through Stagebridge.org. She is the former director of the San Francisco Poetry in the Schools program and the Bay Area's Storytellers in the Schools program. A Latina activist for social justice, women's rights, and the arts.
BiographyEdit
Early lifeEdit
Serrano was born in 1934 in Weehawken, New Jersey<ref name="wisconmum" /> to Ida and Joseph Serrano.<ref name="santacruzjoseph">Template:Cite news</ref> She grew up in Latino and other immigrant communities in New York City.<ref name="wisconmum" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She trained in theater,<ref name="dailynews">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="sfexaminer1963">Template:Cite news</ref> studied anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and traveled with student peace groups to Soviet Russia and revolutionary China in the 1950s.<ref name="wisconmum" /><ref name="wisconjour">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="wisconjour2">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="captimes">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="captimes2">Template:Cite news</ref>
While raising her family and teaching, Nina has worked in theater, radio, and film. She helped make movies about Fidel Castro's Cuba,<ref name="filmfidel">Template:Cite journal</ref> about Salvador Allende's Chile and Sandinista Nicaragua. In Cuba, in 1968, she met Salvadorean exiled poet Roque Dalton and they co-authored a TV drama about the folkloric Dalton Gang and saw it produced on Cuban television.<ref name="roquedalton">Template:Cite news</ref> This instantly made her a writer.<ref name="ninaserrano.com">Template:Cite news</ref>
Returning to San Francisco, journalism, playwriting and poetry filled the early years of her development as an activist writer. She wrote a series of articles on the Los Siete trial and wrote poetry published in the San Francisco Good Times. In 1969, she joined Editorial Pocho Che, an activist publishing group of Latino poets. She wrote her first book of poetry, Heart Songs, during this period, and it was published in 1980.<ref name="ninaserrano.com"/> During the next three decades, she published her next books, Heart's Journey: Selected Poems, 1980-1999 and Heart Strong: Selected Poems 2000-2012, as well as appeared in many poetry anthologies. Through her friendships with Cuban poets, Nina began translating poetry, including her translations of Peruvian poet Adrian Arias. In 1982, she helped translate the Nicaraguan economic program of 1980, available as a bilingual edition from Estuary Press.
In 1972, she joined Communicacion Aztlan, writing and producing radio programs for KPFA. Over the next 20 years, in addition to her on-going radio work, she wrote and produced several stage plays, including The Story of the Chicken Made of Rags,<ref name="musicalforchildren">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="chickenexam">Template:Cite news</ref> The Story of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg<ref name="cajewishnews">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="sfexamrosen">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="berkgazrosen">Template:Cite news</ref> and Weavings.<ref name="weavingsberk">Template:Cite news</ref> She also wrote and produced film scripts, including Que Hacer? (What is to Be Done?),<ref name="quehacersun" /> Después del terremoto (After the Earthquake),<ref name="sfnm2004" /> and Back from Nicaragua.<ref name="pressdemback">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="ninaserrano.com"/>
WorksEdit
PoetryEdit
- The Heart Suite Series
- Stop Monsanto!
- To Die of Joy in the River
- A Poem for You: Learning to See in Darkness
- On New Years Day Unicorns Fly
- A Poem for You: A Sudden Warm Day in Winter
- Love Passed Over Us Like a Cloud
- Traces of Love
- Poems in the Redwoods
- Poems in Balmy Alley
- Welcome Immigrant Children, Bienvenidos
- Tribute to Ralph Maradiaga
- A Winter Solstice Poem for You
- Women I Know
- I am So Visible
FilmsEdit
- Que Hacer: What is to Be Done?<ref name="quehacersun">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="examinercountryjoe">Template:Cite news</ref>
- Después del terremoto<ref name="sfnm2004">Template:Cite news</ref>
- Back from Nicaragua
- La Cantata de Santa Marie de Iquique
Other writingsEdit
- Education for Storytelling
- Assassinations of a Poet: Memories of Roque Dalton
- The Story of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
- The Story of the Chicken Made of Rags
- Program of Economic Reactivation for the Benefit of the People: 1980
- Nicaragua Way
AwardsEdit
Serrano has won several international film awards, including the XXXIII Mostra internazionale D'Arte Cinematografica award for Que Hacer: What is to Be Done?; and the Kraków, Poland International Film Festival award for After the Earthquake: Despues del terremoto.
Nina Serrano was awarded Oakland Magazine's "Best Local Poet" award in 2010.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2024 she received an Adelle Foley Award from PEN Oakland for her work as an author, radio host, and political activist.
Personal lifeEdit
Serrano served as an Alameda County Arts Commissioner, and is a former director of San Francisco's Poetry in the Schools program.<ref name="sfexampoets">Template:Cite news</ref> She was a co-founder<ref name="sfexaminer2007">Template:Cite news</ref> of the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco's Mission District, where she is still actively involved. In addition, she is a long-time producer of radio programs on Pacifica Radio station KPFA (94.1 FM) in Berkeley, California, currently hosting La Raza Chronicles on Tuesdays at 7:00 p.m. PT<ref name=laraza>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Open Book the first and second Wednesday of each month at 3:30 pm PT.<ref name=openbook>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Her programs also air on KZCT in Vallejo.<ref name="VallejoSun">Template:Cite news</ref>
Nina Serrano appears in the video "Frida en El Espejo/Frida in the Mirror" by Adrian Arias and music by Greg Landau<ref>Template:YouTube</ref> which screened at the SF Film Festival in April 2009. She is a great fan of the band Carne Cruda and their song “Oakland's Tight.” She is consultant for Round World Media and Fig Leaf Technologies.
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
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