Edges & Currents: Poetry Workshops

Inspired by MCA Denver’s current exhibitions, Roni Horn: Water, Water, On the wall, You’re the Fairest of Them All, and Deborah Jack: the haunting estuaries…an (after)math of confluence, Sacred Voices poets, Franklin Cruz (January 10) and Ciprano Ortega (January 24) will lead workshops inviting participants to create poetry shaped by both the artwork and their own experiences with water. Through prompts, conversation, and poetic play, you’ll explore water as a metaphor, a memory, a force, and a lifeline. Whether you’re a seasoned writer or new to poetry, join us to craft work that flows with personal insight, resilience, and the currents of your own imagination.

Franklin Cruz will lead the workshop on January 10.

Cipriano Ortegao will lead the workshop on January 24.

Registration is required. Space is limited.

Photo Credit: Blake Jackson

About the Poets

Franklin Cruz is a queer Latin poet born in Idaho, raised in Texas, and polished in Denver. Born from an immigrant family, they work at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and are also an emcee and a dancer. A TEDx Mile High performer, they have taught and performed across the Southwest, Peru, and Puerto Rico, for universities, environmental leadership camps, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and the Denver Art Museum. Their work encompasses self-love, immigration, culture, nature, and more. Franklin always aims to address intersectional liberation—confronting our complicity in privilege and oppression, and emphasizing the critical lesson of specificity over simplicity.

Cipriano Ortega is a musician, poet, artist, actor and educator with deep roots in Denver’s Northside community. Their work has been recognized and shown nationally and internationally.  Cipriano strives to create works of art that probes the mind and makes people question what they perceive as the normative. As a sociological artist, Cipriano deconstructs the worlds around them and observes them from a nihilistic perspective. As an indigenous POC, they also have no choice but to deal with colonialism head-on by making it a daily practice to see the divisions we as a society create and continue to make the ‘normative.’

About Sacred Voices
Sacred Voices, formerly known as "Cafe Cultura," was founded in 2004. After the passing of respected elder and veteran poet Abelardo "Lalo" Delgado, the organization accepted the responsibility to continue using Indigenous oral and written traditions to provide opportunities for creative expression often not offered elsewhere. For over 14 years, our organization has primarily served Indigenous youth and their families through youth poetry workshops and open mic events. With a renewed focus on serving the diverse communities we work with, our organization has transformed in the past three years, including the termination of our former executive director. Under the guidance of a new Board of Directors, our mission was reevaluated and updated to better reflect the multiracial and multicultural populations we serve.