Left Photo: heidi andrea restrepo rhodes reading on April 10, 2024 in the Reyes Family Board Room at the University of Notre Dame | Center Photo (from left to right): Carmen Gimenez, heidi andrea restrepo rhodes, and Ada Limón during a panel discussion | Right Photo: heidi andrea restrepo rhodes talking to Letras Latinas director Francisco Aragón
For me, there were many memorable moments throughout my time at University of Notre Dame for the April event with Ada and Carmen. Dinner with the two of them and Laura was a delightful foray into our inner writing worlds and struggles, life stories and philosophical ponderings. Sharing time with the class I visited and offering a workshop was a beautiful excursion in conversation with students about their own ancestral inheritances, how we listen for what is most quiet in our bodily archives, and how we write the stories we are most haunted by. And conversations with queer and trans students and community after the reading, specifically conversations about the poem I read in solidarity with transgender life, and about their own experiences of being queer and/or trans in Indiana, or having a queer or trans child, was really moving and felt like a kind of magic of community and worldbuilding.
—heidi andrea restrepo rhodes