Join us on Saturday, August 15 at 7 PM for a special reading with local poets Fabu Carter, Araceli Esparza, and Angie Trudell Vasquez.
Don't miss a word! We have assistive hearing devices available. If you'd like to reserve one, you can reach out to us in advance at liz@artlitlab.org. Then simply arrive at least 10 minutues early.
Fabu Phillis Carter, known as Poet Fabu, writes to encourage, inspire and remind. Her work focuses on the South, Kenya and the Midwest. In 2025 she performed her original poetry on Mary Lou Williams at the Kennedy Center.
Araceli Esparza is a published, award-winning bilingual Chicana poeta. Her work has appeared in multiple anthologies and journals, and her voice can be heard in the Wisconsin Life archives. She is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a graduate of the MFA program at Hamline University.
Born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin, Araceli is the daughter of migrant farmworkers from Guanajuato, Mexico. A lineage that continues to ground her work in resilience, labor, and story.
Today, she is planting seeds as a social justice speaker, survivor, and founder of Midwest Mujeres, a Latina mentoring and storytelling collective where women transform their lived experiences into voice, healing, and power.
In her words: “To me, being a Chicana poeta means to catch fire—to bring forth something from labor and sweat, to have enough when there’s not a lot.”
Angela (Angie) Trudell Vasquez was the Madison Poet Laureate from 2020 to 2024, and the first Latina to hold the position. She received her MFA in poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts in 2017. In Light, Always Light, her third collection of poetry came out in 2019, and her fourth, My People Redux, was published in 2022 both from Finishing Line Press. She started the first Youth Poet Laureate in Wisconsin during her poet laureate term. Angie is also a Macondo Fellow, was a Ruth Lilly Fellow as an undergrad, and the former Chair of the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission. She is actively seeking a home for her fifth collection of poetry, The Farewell Tour, and in the ninth year of rewilding her yard back to prairie. Her working theory is the land remembers.
Arts + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston Street #100, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703.
Our galleries are normally open Tuesday through Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday noon to 5pm, and other programs take place throughout the week. Please check the events calendar and education section for details.