Amapola Roja

Bienvenido and welcome to Red Poppy, a flower planted during thehour of the garden .A family which hopes to nurture and cultivate progressive, sustainable social change in Latin America andthe world through art. We are rooted in la tierra of Latin America from the silver stones of Macchu Picchu to the high deserts ofMexico, from the soul of Cuba to the blue snow-capped volcanoes and ancient forests of Southern Chile. Our petals glow redwith the vibrance of poetry, film, art, and direct action.
Red Poppy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to furthering Pablo Neruda's commitment to humanitarianism, usingart and literature to enrich, empower, and engage, enabling progressive social change.
“Poetry is like bread,” he wrote. “It should be shared by all, by scholars and peasants, by all our vast, incredible, extraordinary family of Man.”
Pablo Neruda was raised in the cold rain of Chile’s southern frontier just above Patagonia at the beginning of the 20th century. From that green earth, the constant rain, the ancient forests and snow-capped volcanoes, Neruda grew to be a true public poet, a statesman, activist, and Nobel Laureate. He attained mythic stature in his lifetime. An incurable romantic, incorrigible womanizer, and a militant communist who despite his pacifism supported Stalin even after he knew of the crimes, his contradictions found poetic expression in an aching lyricism and potent political verse. He invented a new poetic voice, distinctively Americano, rooted in Latin America’s native cultures and untamed geography. Neruda wrestled poetry down from the rarified atmosphere of the salon and gave it to the people, a communal voice rooted in oral tradition, fired by raw passion and the struggle for justice.
Just as Pablo did, Red Poppy hopes to make a difference in this world, one poem at a time.
Right now we are primarily focused on completing a vivid documentary, Pablo Neruda: The Poet’s Calling . The dynamic film features rare archival footage; incredible shots of hs native land, captivating artistic poetic sequences, often with Neruda’s own voice, and compelling interviews with intimate friends and notable poets like Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
This first ever English-language feature-length documentary will introduce so many to one of Latin America’s most colorful characters, and to the power of Pablo Neruda’s poetry. There will also be a version in Spanish, and we are hoping for global distribution, on screens in theaters, homes, schools, libraries, and cultural centers around the world.
We need your support to help complete this grassroots, not-for-profit film.
Please click here for more information on the documentary.
The film is being directed and produced by Mark Eisner and Carlos Bolado , a rising cineaste of a new generation of Mexican filmmakers. Carlos edited Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate), and was an advising editor on Amores Perros (Love’s a Bitch), starring Gael García Bernal. The first feature he directed himself, Bajo California, won 7 Ariels, Mexico’s highest cinematic award, including Best Picture of 1999. He then directed and edited Promises, a documentary about Israeli and Palestinian children, which was nominated for the Academy Award for best feature documentary of 2002. His latest film Solo Dios Sabe, was shown in Sundance 2006 and many festivals worldwide and will be released in the winter of 2007 by Palm Pictures. His next feature, Solitary Birds, has Alec Baldwin signed for a lead role.
In anticipation of Neruda’s 2004 Centennial, knowing the need for a new collection of more dynamic, artistic, and faithful translations, with a selection of many of Neruda’s most crucial and beautiful poems, Red Poppy’s Executive Director Mark Eisner worked in a wide collaboration with the University of Chile’s Department of Humanities, the Pablo Neruda Foundation, and some of the most outstanding poets, translators, and scholars around the world to create The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems , published appropriately by the legendary Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s City Lights. It is the best selling collection of Neruda in the United States. Through a special deal with City Lights, all proceeds of copies sold through Red Poppy, on redpoppy.net , goes towards finishing the film and all of our other work.
"The call for a more accessible collection of Neruda's important poems is answered with City Lights' The Essential Neruda, a 200-page edition that offers 50 of Neruda's key poems. The editors and translators know how to extract gold from a lifetime of prolific writing. If you want a handy Neruda companion and don't know where to begin, this is it." – The Bloomsbury Review
"What better way to celebrate the hundred years of Neruda's glorious residence on our earth than this selection of crucial works - in both languages! - by one of the greatest poets of all time. A splendid way to begin a love affair with our Pablo or, having already succumbed to his infinite charms, revisit him passionately again and again and yet again." – Ariel Dorfman, Pulitzer-prize winner author of "Death and the Maiden"
It includes translations by former US Poet Laureate Robert Hass; noted poet and head of Brown’s Creative Writing Program, Forrest Gander; Stephen Mitchell, the famous translator of the Tao Te Ching, Rilke, and so many more; the acclaimed poet, editor, and translator Stephen Kessler; Stanford scholar John Felstiner; Neruda’s friend and favorite translator Alastair Reid; and Jack Hirschman, the current Poet Laureate of San Francisco. It is edited by Mark Eisner, whose translations also appear. Lawrence Ferlinghetti provides the introductory note.
Please check out the book, the film, and the rest of our garden. We hope you'll want to dig your hands into its rich soil of our garden, joining us in the cultivation of peace through poetry. We hope you'll become a member, with as little as a $35 contribution, you'll receive a free DVD of the film when it's done!
Come, take a stroll through our jardin de amapolas rojas...
Gracias, paz y amor.