An evening of British Latinx Poetry

Wasafiri 124: Presencia y Resistencia — British Latinx Writing & Art

Presencia y Resistencia: British Latinx Poetry, Language and Belonging

Launch of Wasafiri’s Presencia y Resistencia Issue

Join us at the Instituto Cervantes London for an unforgettable evening celebrating the launch of Wasafiri’s Presencia y Resistencia issue—a powerful showcase of contemporary British Latinx writing and visual art.

Hosted by poet and Wasafiri editor Leo Boix, this vibrant event brings together three outstanding Latinx voices—Patrizia Longhitano, José Buera and Luisa de la Concha Montes—for an evening of readings that move between languages, geographies and lived experiences. Their work speaks of migration, memory, queerness, resistance, food, love and survival, capturing what it means to create art from the crossings of cultures and tongues.

Following the readings, the poets will come together for a lively Q&A conversation exploring what it means to write—and live—between languages, how Latinx identities are shaping contemporary UK literature, and why presence itself can be an act of resistance.

Audience members will have the opportunity to purchase the magazine, meet the poets, and continue the conversation after the event.

An evening of poetry, dialogue and cultural fire—don’t miss it.

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Bios

Leo Boix is a bilingual Latinx poet, born in Argentina and based in London. His second collection, Southernmost: Sonnets (Chatto & Windus, 2025), was shortlisted for the Forward Prizes and named book of the year by The Guardian and The Week. His debut English collection, Ballad of a Happy Immigrant (2021), was a Poetry Book Society Wild Card Choice. Boix is editor and lead translator of Hemisferio Cuir, introducing English readers to major Latin American voices.

Luisa De la Concha Montes is a writer and photographer from Mexico City who now resides in London. Her work attempts to bring shapeless states such as grief, diaspora, identity, and memory into physical form through visual poetry, documentary photography and digital curation. Her writing has been showcased at the National Poetry Library, and published in the collective zine Lenguas Enredadas, Shado Magazine, The Big Ship, amongst many other publications.

José Buera is a Caribbean/Latinx writer from the Dominican Republic. An alumni of the London Library’s Emerging Writers Programme (24/25), his poetry appears in Magma, Propel, Southword, Wasafiri and elsewhere. José is the founder and curator of Empanada Poetry Salon, a bimonthly gathering of diaspora poets amidst their foods.

Patrizia Longhitano Patrizia Longhitano is a pansexual immigrant poet who spent her childhood between Brazil and Italy.

She is currently the manager of Poetry Pharmacy bookshop, a board member of Magma and the host of Venn Diagrams. Some of her work is found in Wet Grain, Rialto and Un Nuevo Sol anthology.

Event in English and Spanglish