Grantee Partner Spotlight: contratiempo nfp

We connect with our audience, share experiences, and share stories; this, in turn, creates solidarity and visibility for our main programs. Our audience has evolved in different ways over time, but they are established; contratiempo is a multifaceted platform for that reason. 

Also, we have significant collaborations and partnerships across the city of Chicago. For one thing, the radio content of contratiempo is growing, as we partner with Lumpen Radio and Public Media Institute to create more Spanish-language content. 

In addition, this year, we are building collaborative projects with creative minds to publish two books featuring beautiful writers and editors. In fact, one of them is a series of essays from the guests on the Entrelazadas podcast (which, by the way, I prefer to call a radio series).

April is National Poetry Month. Poetry is often mentioned as having a prominent role in contratiempo’s programming. What is the role of poetry in the work that you do?

All our programs are tools for resistance. But also, contratiempo plays a role in providing a sense of identity, community, and understanding each other, through stories and integration.

Poetry is one of those forms of expression, and it serves as a bridge connecting past and present experiences of diaspora, allowing the poets to explore themes of migration, memory, and belonging, because that is what most of our people who share their artwork are exploring.

We at contratiempo have our Spanish literary workshops, poetry workshops, and believe it has helped create a strong community, engagement, and empowerment. We have poetry workshops online and in person. In either, you can see genuine interest in the people and their need for that space. These workshops are not only for Chicagoans, but for people throughout the Midwest and beyond.

Aside from our workshops, we also provide a space for participants to share what they’ve created in the pages of our magazine, contratiempo. When we share a space for them to read or to express themselves, we see how they’ve gained confidence in their voice with an audience, and see how their work can resonate with people and their experiences.

So, poetry has different purposes when we write or self-express. It is also an act of healing, especially in these difficult times, when as an immigrant, you are trying to find your place, and you definitely need a space. Having a way to connect with your community heals you little by little.

contratiempo employs various platforms, including a print magazine, radio shows, podcasts, readings, talks, and workshops. What is your basic philosophy around harnessing different platforms? Also, with such rich digital offerings, how do you view or perhaps justify the role of print?

First of all, I would not like to take credit for all these programs. We are a multifaceted platform that’s been around for 20 years, and many have paved the way for all these programs. 

It has taken the minds, effort, and engagement of all these people to make all of this possible. So, I like to use the word ‘we’ rather than ‘I.’ We work in community and as a collective. 

I would say that contratiempo has changed over the years, because the times demanded it. And there are always challenges with the unknown. We try, and try; sometimes we fail, but continue to grow, and keep trying. contratiempo works as a collective, and each person works differently. Print gets more and more expensive every day. And yet we need that contact with the physical world, we need to unplug from the digital world sometimes. It’s a connection with culture and literature, to have that connection with an artefact. I remember back when I became a contributor to contratiempo, it was tabloid size, and then it became shorter, and was stapled. And then it grew to be multicolored. And now it has the look of a magazine, and has a spine, and you can see the growth. It’s beautiful to see. I still have some of those large issues; they are a treasure. 

In addition, it’s how the community connects with us. When you see the contratiempo magazine in a community center, library, or café, it’s a way to reach out to more people, including those who might not have access to digital platforms or who don’t know us. But with regards to migrant communities, to new arrivals, there is a lack of resources, and they don’t know that we exist or know us as a platform. For those people, printed material can be useful in serving them.

Clearly, you are doing a lot to provide an inclusive space where new talent can thrive and grow – tell us more about this. Where or how do you spot talent, and what do you do to nurture it?

All our programs are tools for resistance. But also, contratiempo plays a role in providing a sense of identity, community, and understanding each other, through stories and integration.

I think a lot of people have become writers thanks to contratiempo. They didn’t know they had that power to share stories and to grow and heal from there. We, most of us, are first-time immigrants. When you migrate, you have that need, that need for a sense of belonging. A space for your own language, which gives you a sense of comfort. It’s a space for you to not feel so lonely. And contratiempo is that place for many of us.

Definitely, we are nurturing new talent in our workshops. That’s where you find people who want to explore their voices. Our community events definitely allow people to approach us. Sometimes someone might be an introvert, and in a community event, they’ll approach us. Besides that, you find voices through our radio show. I’d also say that all of our editorial board and collaborators, who all work in different forms and places, who go to community events and serve as cultural ambassadors, and bring new voices to our pages. Opening the platform for those who are brewing something but don’t have an outlet. So, how we get more voices onto the platform is work we all participate in.

Stephanie Manriquez's Content Suggestions

Books:

Luchas migrantes en tiempos pandémicos y de crisis: una mirada desde las Américas (Migrant Struggles in Times of Pandemic and Crisis: A View from the Americas)
Soledad Alvarez Velazco
Amarela Varela-Huerta y Soledad Álvarez Velasco, “nos sirve para reflexionar nuevamente sobre qué cambió y qué sigue igual en cuanto a las movilidades humanas, la inmovilización y las luchas migrantes en las Américas a raíz de la primera pandemia del siglo XXI, el COVID 19” (This serves to help us reflect anew on what has changed and what continues the same in terms of human mobility, immobilization, and migrant struggles in the Americas in the wake of the first pandemic of the 21st century, COVID-19)

De Monstruos y Cyborgs (Of Monsters and Cyborgs)
Margarita Saona
Un ensayo que explora la transformación del cuerpo humano frente a la ciencia y su impacto en la subjetividad, reflexionando sobre los límites de lo humano y el concepto de cyborg a partir de la experiencia personal del trasplante de corazón de la autora. (An essay that explores the transformation of the human body before science, and its impact on subjectivity, reflecting on the limits of that which is human and the concept of ‘cyborg’ based on the author’s personal experience of a heart transplant.) 

Radio and Podcasts: 

• contratiempo Radio + Entrelazadas
      
• Boletin Migrante (Migrant Bulletin)
    -lumpenradio.com
    -mixcloud.com
     
• Lucha Por Tus Derechos Chicago (Fight for Your Rights Chicago)
    -lumpenradio.com
    -mixcloud.com
     
• Lumpen Radio