Poets & Art: Ekphrasis at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art

Poets & Art is a multi-year collaboration between Notre Dame’s Letras Latinas and the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art that brings guest poets to study artwork in the museum and respond with ekphrastic poetry, vivid writing that describes or interprets the art.

The third installment brings Emma Trelles, former Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara, California, and Alexandra Lytton Regalado, former winner of the National Poetry Series, for a joint residency in September 2026. The poets return in 2027 with special guest Richard Blanco, inaugural poet for President Barack Obama, for a public reading and artist talk.

Credits

Emma Trelles and Alexandra Lytton Regalado

Emma Trelles is an award-winning poet and an editor, educator, curator, and author of Tropicalia (University of Notre Dame Press, 2011), winner of the Andres Montoya Poetry Prize. Trelles was born and raised in Miami, Florida, and after moving to California, became the 9th Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara in 2021.

Alexandra Lytton Regalado is an award-winning poet, translator, editor, and arts organizer whose work centers on bilingual cultural production and visual-literary collaboration. Her recent works include Relinquenda (Beacon Press, 2022), winner of the National Poetry Series, and Matria (Black Lawrence Press, 2017), winner of the St. Lawrence Prize.

Emma Trelles Alexandra Lytton Regalado

Richard Blanco

Selected by President Obama as the fifth Presidential Inaugural Poet in U.S. history, Richard Blanco was the youngest, the first Latinx, immigrant, and gay person to serve in that role. In 2023, Blanco was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Biden from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Born in Madrid to Cuban exile parents and raised in Miami in a working-class family, Blanco’s personal negotiation of cultural identity and the universal themes of place and belonging characterize his many collections of poetry.

Richard Blanco

Letras Latinas and Raclin Murphy Museum of Art

Letras Latinas is the literary initiative of the Institute for Latino Studies. The initiative strives to enhance the visibility, appreciation, and study of Latinx literature both on and off campus, with an emphasis on supporting emerging voices, fostering a sense of community among writers, and placing literary artists in community spaces.

Through its collections, exhibitions, and programs, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art serves and welcomes all to engage in wonder, spiritual reflection, inquiry, and research. One of the nation’s oldest university art museums, it maintains more than 32,000 artworks including painting, sculpture, decorative arts, works on paper, and textiles.

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Funding & Support

This is a partner program of the 2027 Notre Dame Arts Biennial, supported with funding from the Notre Dame Arts Initiative.

This project is also made possible with funding from Letras Latinas, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, and the James R. Wilson Fund for Excellence.