Whether you’re looking for children’s books, YA literature, poetry, or non-fiction, Word Up has it all.

Schedule of Events: 

2pm-6pm: Spanish Language Book Fair with Word Up Community Bookshop

3:15pm-4pm: Bilingual Drag Storytime with Drag Artists for Expression NYC

4:15pm-4:35pm: Performance from The People’s Theater Academy Students

5:00pm-5:45pm: Poetry Readings with Fátima Vélez, Ghazal Ghazi, and Paloma Reaño

Note: All programming will take place indoors in our Sorolla Gallery. 

Click here to RSVP.

Learn more about our partners and featured artists: 

Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria is a multilingual, collectively operated bookshop and arts space in Washington Heights, committed to co-creating a place where residents support each other to live informed and expressive lives. Embracing cooperative practices, we champion books and storytelling in all forms to build and sustain a more just world where people can live with dignity and autonomy. We strive to make our neighborhood a resource-rich site for all to grow, learn, and celebrate our heritages. 

Drag Artists for Expression NYC produces storytelling and creative arts programs for children and teens, presented by local drag artists, in libraries, schools, and other community spaces in all five boroughs of New York City, both in person and virtually. Through fun and fabulous educational experiences, our programs celebrate gender diversity and all forms of difference to build empathy and give kids the confidence to express themselves however they feel comfortable. 

The People’s Theater is the first immigrant cultural center and largest Latino theatre in the state of New York. Through ensemble-based, multilingual, and multigenerational programming, our unique brand of theatre is a powerful artistic platform for immigrants and members of the Latino, Black, and Queer communities. Rooted in Washington Heights and Inwood, The People’s Theatre is the place where theatre, education and advocacy come to life with and for immigrant communities to build a more just and equitable world. 

Fátima Vélez Giraldo Born on volcanic land in the mountains of Colombia. Poet, storyteller, teacher, cultural organizer, and lifelong student. She’s published the poetry collections Casa Paterna, Del Porno y las babosas, Diseño de Interiores, No se come carne de aquello que sonríe, and Los Bruxismos, along with the novels Galápagos and Jardín en Tierra Fría. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from both the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and New York University, and a PhD in Hispanic Cultural Studies from the Graduate Center (CUNY). She teaches Spanish and advises poetry projects in the Creative Writing master’s programs at the Instituto Caro y Cuervo and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. She lives in New York, where she got lucky enough to find a little haven: a small house with a tiny garden where she grows rosemary, basil, and lemongrass, and shares the space with a rue plant that somehow survives the winters. 

Ghazal Ghazi (Tehran, Iran, 1990) is a writer, visual artist, and archivist. She is the author of two books of poetry in Spanish: El ancestro del poema es la herida (Chile: Ginecosofía, 2024) and La frontera desemboca en ti (Guatemala: Cafeína Editores, 2019). Her poetry and essays have been published in journals in Latin America, the U.S., and the Middle East. She was a semifinalist in the National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the Smithsonian Institution, as well as a Junior Fellow at the Library of Congress, where she worked on a digital project on Persian art and literature. She was awarded artist residencies at BRIC Arts Media, Hambidge Center, and Salina Arts Center. She received her B.A. in Gender and Women’s Studies from the University of Arizona and a Masters in Library and Information Studies from the University of Oklahoma. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. 

Paloma Reaño (Lima, 1984) is an editor, writer, and bookseller. She studied Literature at the PUCP, where she also earned a master’s degree in Cultural Studies. In 2014, she co-founded the independent publishing house Pesopluma in Peru. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish at New York University. She works on publishing and literary projects across Lima, Madrid, and New York.