By Sara Atencio Gonzales — On Wednesday, March 18, poets and community members will gather at the Albuquerque Museum as the kickoff event for the third annual Chicharra Poetry Slam Festival. The Sound of Cicadas: A Poetry Resolana is designed not just as a reading, but as a conversation.
Unlike a traditional poetry reading or a competitive slam, the evening centers dialogue between poets and audience, drawing inspiration from the Southwest tradition of the resolana, a gathering space rooted in storytelling and shared presence.
For festival director Zachary Kluckman, the event reflects a larger vision that has been guiding the festival since its beginning.
“One of the goals for us with Chicharra has been that we want to build a festival, somewhat akin to Dodge Poetry Festival [in Newark. N.J.], or these larger poetry festivals out there, something that becomes a sort of a destination event for poets and creatives across the country, here in Albuquerque,” says Kluckman.
The festival began with slam poetry, which Kluckman describes as “such a dynamic and accessible entry point for a lot of poets.” But as it grew, organizers began thinking about how to expand beyond competition and create space for different kinds of poetry lovers.
“With the resolana, we saw an opportunity to have an event that allowed us to appeal to the storytelling and the oral tradition and our love of conversation as New Mexicans,” says Kluckman.
The format reflects that intention. Each of the four featured poets will read briefly, followed by a guided but open discussion among the poets and with the audience.
“It’s very natural. It’s very organic, and it’s really the poet’s talking about this year,” says Kluckman. “It’s really a conversation, rather than a simple reading.”
This year’s featured poets include Michelle Otero, Albuquerque Poet Laureate Emerita, and Levi Romero, New Mexico State Poet Laureate Emeritus, along with other distinguished poets. Kluckman said the decision to invite poets who have served as laureates was intentional.
“Since our theme in poetry is infrastructure, we really wanted to speak with some poets who had some experience of building community,” says Kluckman.
The idea of poetry as infrastructure means thinking beyond the page. Kluckman hopes the audience leaves considering poetry’s broader civic role.
“My hope is that people will be inspired by the conversation and that they’ll find themselves coming away with new ideas about the role that poetry can really serve in the community,” says Kluckman. “Not just as a form of art and expression, but as a form of really building community and helping us to stand together and be more united as a community.”
For Michelle Otero, the event reflects the collaborative spirit of Albuquerque’s poetry scene.
“The poetry community in Albuquerque is really interesting and vast, but it’s also small,” says Otero. “So, even if we don’t know each other well, we all kind of know of each other and support each other.”
As a former Albuquerque Poet Laureate, Otero sees public gatherings as both creative and civic spaces. “There’s the opportunity to share work, which I think really completes the process,” says Otero.
Otero acknowledges that poetry can sometimes feel intimidating, particularly depending on how it is taught.
“I think that it can seem like there’s already kind of a barrier to entry,” says Otero. That is why accessibility matters. With much of the festival free and open to the public, she sees the approach as an invitation rather than a gatekeeping gesture. “Why would you have a party and then make it so no one could come?”
The resolana concept also resonates with Otero’s understanding of place. In northern New Mexico tradition, Otero explains, a resolana refers to a south-facing wall that gathers warmth on cold mornings, becoming a natural meeting place.
Ultimately, Otero hopes attendees leave less intimidated by poetry and more aware of their own creative potential.
“Don’t be scared. Don’t be afraid of poetry,” says Otero. “The poetry is for everyone, both as readers and as writers.”
Levi Romero, New Mexico State Poet Laureate Emeritus, said what drew him to participate was the opportunity to share space with fellow poets he admires.
“What intrigued me is just the opportunity to participate with other poets whose work I’m familiar with, and I know some of them personally, and I admire them, and I admire their work,” says Romero.
For Romero, the resolana offers a metaphor for collective voice.
“One of the things that I’m hoping for is that the audience and the poets themselves will understand how resolana, the concept of resolana, works to create community, to create unity,” says Romero. “So many different voices, but together, all these different voices, create one voice.”
Romero adds that poetry operates in a similar way.
“There’s not one single poem, or one single poet that single-handed ly, reaches out to everybody,” says Romero. “But collectively together, we create one voice.”
Romero’s own work reflects that sense of place and shared language. “My work is rooted and grounded in what I call a colloquial poetics, a colloquial Nuevo Mexicano poetics. It’s bilingual, and it captures the linguistic and vernacular poetics of spoken language, even off the page” says Romero.
That grounding in language and community echoes the broader aim of The Sound of Cicadas. Kluckman emphasized that the event is not only for seasoned poetry readers.
“The whole festival is not just for poets, it’s for anybody who’s ever had curiosity about what poetry is,” says Kluckman. “This is an excellent opportunity to do that without feeling like an outsider or anything like that.”
When The Sound of Cicadas opens the Chicharra Poetry Slam Festival at the Albuquerque Museum on March 18 at 6 p.m., organizers hope the room feels less like a stage and more like a shared wall warmed by morning sun, where stories are exchanged and voices rise together.
The Sound of Cicadas: A Poetry Resolana
March 18, 6 p.m.
Albuquerque Museum
2000 Mountain Rd. NW
Free Entry