Art, Identity, and the Poet’s Journey
For Brenda Cárdenas, poetry is the connective tissue that binds the visual arts to ancestral memory and a lifetime of activism. As a celebrated poet, Professor Emerita, and current Wisconsin State Poet Laureate, her work maps the intricate ways art, heritage, and a commitment to justice shape a creative life. In a recent interview for the Letras Latinas Oral History Project at the University of Notre Dame, Cárdenas offered a guide to her artistic journey, revealing how the creative impulses fostered in childhood blossomed into a sophisticated poetic practice. Her story begins not in a gallery, but in the rich, creative ecosystem of her own family.
The Roots of Creativity: From Family Legacy to Ekphrasis
To understand a poet’s voice, one must first explore its origins. For Cárdenas, a profound relationship with the visual arts was cultivated long before she stepped into formal institutions. She vividly recalls a childhood surrounded by creativity: an uncle who painted with realist detail, a father who could draw a perfect likeness from an album cover, and cousins who practiced the fine crafts of leather tooling and furniture making. Critically, these were not people who sought external validation for their talents. As Cárdenas notes, “none of them did this as a living, none of them would have walked out into the world and said… ‘I’m an artist’.” This environment instilled in her a deep love for visual expression as an inherent part of life, not something confined to museums.
This foundational appreciation later evolved into an active poetic practice known as ekphrasis—writing in conversation with art. The transformation was catalyzed by her time living in Chicago’s vibrant Pilsen neighborhood and working at the National Museum of Mexican Art. Cárdenas frames ekphrasis not as a “crutch,” but as a “transformative interpretive process.” For her, the goal isn’t merely to describe a piece but to enter into a dialogue with it, adding layers of cultural, historical, and personal context. She is particularly drawn to ephemeral art, which connects directly to her interest in transformation, migration, and the “liminal spaces” inhabited by Mexican-Americans—a hybrid identity “so rich with potential.” It’s a philosophy she embodies so deeply that she wishes for a green burial, to “become mushrooms” and continue the cycle of transformation.
A Tapestry of Influences: Place, Language, and Activism
Brenda Cárdenas’s poetic voice is a confluence of literary heroes, a profound connection to place, and an unwavering commitment to social justice. Her literary journey began with early inspirations like Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes. Later, discovering Chicana/o poets like Lorna Dee Cervantes and Alurista was a revelation, giving her “permission to write about my own culture.” This path culminated in a deep admiration for Juan Felipe Herrera, whose impact is best captured not by an adjective but by an image: a memory of a little girl in the audience who was so moved by his reading that she “was dancing to his poetry.”
Place functions as a central character in her work. Having lived her entire life in the Midwest, the imagery of Lake Michigan and snow appears frequently. Yet, Mexico is equally present, a landscape built from the stories of her migrant grandparents, who made the place so “vivid that then I had to travel there,” creating a poetics that weaves together inherited memory and lived experience. This connection to heritage is intertwined with her activism. A self-described Libra, Cárdenas is driven by a powerful concern for justice. She firmly believes that in an era of censorship, for a person of color, “simply to write at all… is an act of resistance.” She lives this conviction with a nuanced but firm resolve. When the head of the Poet Laureate commission advised her to “not advertise” political readings, she replied, “then you hired the wrong person.” She later recounted reading political poems to a large audience and declaring, “I’m not the poet laureate to shut up about this.” The response was immediate: “They all cheered.”
Conclusion: Poetry as Dialogue and Transformation
In the world of Brenda Cárdenas, poetry is never a solitary act. It is a vital, ongoing dialogue—with a painting, with ancestors, with community, and with the natural world. The titles of her collections, Boomerang and Trace, serve as powerful metaphors for her vision. Boomerang evokes not only the cycles of departure and return but also a sassy, defiant gesture of resistance: “right back at you.” Trace speaks to the indelible marks that art, people, and migration leave upon the world. For Cárdenas, poetry is the act of tracing those marks, and in doing so, creating a new trace for others to follow—a force for connection, interpretation, and change.
