Event Details:
Sat., Nov. 14
10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Library 21c
On Sat., Nov. 14, Library 21c will reverberate with music, dance, theater performances, and activities representing groups from cultures across the Pikes Peak region.
Tables and exhibits will fill the spaces in between, offering information and engaging activities such as games and crafts and inviting patrons to wander, learn, experience, and participate.
“This colorful showcase is Rising Voices, a celebration of the diverse communities and cultures that make up the Pikes Peak region. Rising Voices is an annual signature program that is being expanded this year,” says Melody Alvarez, director of programming for Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD).
Last year’s program featured a panel discussion and a celebration lasting over two days. This year, “we’re doing one big, massive culture fest,” Alvarez says. It takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sat., Nov. 14 at Library 21c.
Rising Voices traces its roots to a remarkable Latina journalist who wrote for the Colorado Springs Gazette from 1995 to 2002. Lucille Gonzales Oller, known as Lou, grew up in Colorado Springs and attended Palmer High School. She put off attending college and pursuing her dream of being a writer, devoting herself to her family until she was 40 years old. In college, she enrolled in a creative writing class taught by the late Alex Blackburn, a distinguished author and professor, who recognized her talent and became her mentor.
"We are going to have as many cultures represented as we can. We are going to really fill up the building.”
In 1994, she joined The Gazette, first as a newsroom clerk and then as a columnist who wrote about the city’s neighborhoods, underreported issues, and underdogs. She became one of the newspaper’s best-read and most-loved voices. But her career was cut short by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a devastating neurodegenerative condition also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, or ALS. She died in 2003 at age 55.
After her passing, Blackburn compiled and edited some of her classwork and more than 700 columns she wrote for The Gazette. Gifts from the Heart: Stories, Memories & Chronicles of Lucille Gonzales Oller, was published in 2010 by The Colorado University Foundation and The Gazette. (It is now out of print).
Her close friend and The Gazette colleague Linda DuVal also wanted to honor Gonzales Oller.
“I had just started attending Mountain of Authors (PPLD’s signature program that showcases local writers) and I was talking to the president of the Friends of the Pikes Peak Library District at that time,” she says. “They were looking for programs that would appeal to diverse and underserved populations of the community.”
DuVal suggested a program called Latina Voices.
Under DuVal’s direction, the Friends put together the program, which featured a TV newscaster and several Latina poets. It was first held in 2011 at East Library.
The event was quite popular, DuVal says, and was moved to Library 21c to accommodate even more participants and attendees. The Friends continued to sponsor the program annually for nearly 13 years.
DuVal joined Friends of the Pikes Peak Library District, becoming a member of the board of directors for 10 years and serving on the programming committee.
Two years ago, the Friends decided they could no longer sponsor Latina Voices, “but the Library loved the program,” DuVal says. “It brought in people who didn’t come to the Library on a regular basis, so they decided to adopt it. We rethought it and changed the name of the program to Rising Voices.
“But it all went back to honoring Lou Gonzales Oller and her idea of bringing in voices that are normally not heard in
the community.”
DuVal has retained her connection with the event, serving on a four-person committee of community members who sought and selected this year’s participants. That included broadening the scope of the call for entries and inviting participants to present their cultures in diverse ways, from performances to food.
“As a public library, we think that it’s important to get this information out, to have patrons understand different cultures,” Alvarez says. “They like it; they like seeing the performances, and it’s a learning opportunity. We are going to have as many cultures represented as we can. We are going to really fill up the building.”
You can learn more about Rising Voices by going to the event details page.
