Luis Rodriguez
Luis Rodriguez is a poet, who is known as one of the leading Latino writers in the country with ten published books. He is best known for his internationally acclaimed memoir of gang life, Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.
The El Paso, Texas-born author, whose works include the memoir "Always Running: La Vida Loca" and poetry books "Poems Across the Pavement" and "The Concrete River," is the founder of Youth Struggling for Survival and is a founding member of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America and Rock a Mole, which produces hip-hop, jazz and rap artists, and urban youth arts festivals in Los Angeles.[1]
Speakers for a New America
Circa 2014 Luis Rodriguez was part of Speakers for a New America, the speakers bureau for League of Revolutionaries for a New America.
Chicano movement
The 40th Anniversary Commemoration Committee of the Chicano Moratoriums was formed in the summer 2009 by the Chair of the National Chicano Moratorium Committee of August 29, 1970 along with two independent Chicano Movement historians whom although not of the baby boomer generation, have become inspired by the Movimiento. The organization posted a list of significant “Chicano movement” activists on its website which included Luis Rodriguez.[2]
Vietnam conference
Vietnam - The Power of Protest - Telling the Truth - Learning the Lessons was held Friday and Saturday, May 1-2, in Washington, D.C.
The conference "has a star-studded program of progressive leaders of the past half century": Dolores Huerta, Danny Glover, Daniel Ellsberg, Phil Donahue, former Congresspersons Patricia Schroeder, Ron Dellums and current Reps. Barbara Lee and John Conyers, singer Holly Near, and more.
In addition to Dolores Huerta, three other Mexican-American/Chicanos are in the program: Luis J. Rodriguez, Poet Laureate of Los Angeles, who marched in the National Chicano Moratorium against the war as a teenager on August 29, 1970; Dr. Jorge Mariscal, Vietnam veteran, professor and writer about the Chicano movement and the Vietnam War; and Rosalio Munoz, who chaired the National Chicano Moratorium. The latter three helped form a new group, the Chicana Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee, to support the conference and to "educate our communities on the truth and lessons of the war".[3]
Kopkind Colony
The Kopkind Colony Program Advisory Committee, as of 2015;[4] The Kopkind Colony Honorary Board, as of 2015;[5] Angela Ards, Fred Azcarate, Jennifer Berkshire, Pamela Bridgewater, Francis Calpotura, Margaret Cerullo, Tim Costello, Kim Diehl, Heidi Dorow, Scott Douglas, Theo Emery, Laura Flanders, Ku‘umeaaloha Gomes, Joe Grabarz, Jennifer Gordon, Pronita Gupta, Muna Hamzeh, Amber Hollibaugh, Mary Howell, Janine Jackson, Si Kahn, Robin D. G. Kelley, KipuKai Kuali‘i, Brad Lander, Eric Mann, Nikki Morse, Scot Nakagawa, Debbie Nathan, Amy Newell, Rev. James Orange, Robert Pollin, Verandah Porche, Luis Rodriguez, Deb Schwartz, Barbara Smith, Makani Themba-Nixon, Jerry Tucker
League of Revolutionaries for a New America
Luis Rodriguez, author of "Gang Days in L.A.," his memoir of coming of age in East Los Angeles that won a Carl Sandburg Literary Award and a Chicago Sun-Times Book Award. The El Paso, Texas-born author, whose works include the memoir "Always Running: La Vida Loca" and poetry books "Poems Across the Pavement" and "The Concrete River," is the founder of Youth Struggling for Survival and is a founding member of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America and Rock a Mole, which produces hip-hop, jazz and rap artists, and urban youth arts festivals in Los Angeles.[6]
Founding conference/Leadership
By Allen Harris CHICAGO– With tremendous enthusiasm, fighting spirit and unity, the League of Revolutionaries for a New America was established during a convention held in Chicago on April 29 and 1995.
Attending were 73 delegates and 67 observers, as well as representatives of 30 areas and the national office. They came from 22 states, the District of Columbia and the Lakota Nation.
The meeting was the second national convention of the organization founded in Chicago in April, 1993 and originally called the National Organizing Committee.
Ranging in age from 17 to 80, the participants were Native American, white, black, Latino, Asian and Arab. They were urban, suburban and rural. They were secular and Christian, Muslim, Jewish and people of other faiths.
On the National Committee are Theresa Allison, Michelle Tingling-Clemmons, Leona Smith, Willie Baptist, Ted Quant, Jerome Scott, Gloria Sandoval, Ronald Casanova, John Slaughter, Timothy Sandoval, Richard Monje, Jackie Gage, Alma Ornelas, Maria Martinez, Larry Regan, Rose Sanders, Nitza Vera and Luis Rodriguez.
CLP
In 1980 Jack Hirschman joined the Communist Labor Party. He worked, among other activities, as a cultural activist with poets Luis Rodriguez, Michael Warr, Kimiko Hahn, Sarah Menefee, Bruno Gulli, Carol Tarlen, David Josef, among others.[7]