Questions for a Taco Shop Poet

This week I’m interviewing Adrián Arancibia, a poet and literature teacher who was one of the founding members of an significant spoken word poetry group called the Taco Shop Poets that formed in the mid-1990s. Taco Shop Poets is credited as a huge force in both San Diego’s spoken word scene and a force inspiring other Chicano spoken word groups around the country.

I’d love your help: What questions should I ask him?

Arancibia is organizing this event next weekend with the Taco Shop Poets and Los Illegals, a Chicano punk band prominent in the 1980s Los Angeles punk scene.

Arancibia, who was born in Chile, got his doctorate in literature from UCSD and teaches at Miramar Community College. I’m planning to ask him about what it’s like to study poetry movements after you’ve been part of one yourself, and how the audience for an event like the one he’s throwing is different than audiences 15 years ago. What themes show up in Chicano spoken word and music now that weren’t there in the early days of Taco Shop Poets?

What would you like to know?

I’m the arts editor for VOSD. You can reach me directly at kelly.bennett@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.325.0531 and follow me on Twitter: @kellyrbennett.