In-Store: THE WATER WE SWIM IN by Christian Aldana

Please join us for an in-person event celebrating THE WATER WE SWIM IN by Christian Aldana! For this event, Chris will be joined by Raych Jackson, Czaerra Galicinao Ucol, and Janice Lobo Sapigao.

Please note: Pre-registration for this event is required. By pre-registering, you are verifying that you are fully vaccinated and will wear a mask throughout the entirety of the event.

Christian Aldana's debut poetry collection, The Water We Swim In, is an ode to radical care. Through community organizing and deeply held love, Aldana follows in the footsteps of Grace Lee Boggs against a carceral state. They champion safety for all who need it while challenging the waters of our time, this state in which protection is needed. Aldana questions the broken system and shows us an alternative future well within our grasp. As she gives to others, she also gives to herself, allowing space for grief, acknowledging the distances between us in the diaspora. Unapologetically queer and neurodivergent, Aldana's writing exudes power and teaches us we will never drown as long as we have each other. Empowering, mobilizing, and unrelenting, The Water We Swim In is a poetic revolution, a manifesto for all who believe in fighting for more.

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Christian Aldana (she/they) is the author of The Water We Swim In (Sampaguita Press, 2023) They are a queer, Filipinx, artist, educator and community organizer based in Chicago. She is the founder and Creative Director of Luya, a poetry organization that centers the voices of people of color.

Rachel “Raych” Jackson is a writer, educator and performer. Her poems have gained over 2 million views on YouTube. She is the 2017 NUPIC Champion and a 2017 Pink Door fellow. Jackson recently voiced 'DJ Raych' in the Jackbox game, Mad Verse City. She voices Tiffany in Battu, an upcoming animation recently picked up by Cartoon Network. Her latest play, “Emotions & Bots”, premiered at the Woerdz Festival in Lucerne, Switzerland. Jackson wrote a room dedicated to her city for 29Rooms' first installment in Chicago, through Refinery 29. She co-created and co-hosts Big Kid Slam, a monthly poetry show in Chicago. Jackson continues to instruct workshops through Poetry Foundation, InsideOut Literary Arts and more. She pushes educators to implement culturally relevant poetry within their curriculum using her five years of experience teaching elementary in Chicago Public Schools. Jackson’s work has been published by many— including Poetry Magazine, The Rumpus, The Shallow Ends, and Washington Square Review. Her debut collection EVEN THE SAINTS AUDITION was recently published through Button Poetry. Her collection won Best New Poetry Collection by a Chicagoan in the Chicago Reader fall of 2019. Jackson currently lives in Chicago.

Czaerra Galicinao Ucol (they/she) is a queer Filipino writer from Chicago. Their debut chapbook Pisces Urges is forthcoming from Sampaguita Press in 2023. Their poems have appeared in The Offing, Just Femme & Dandy, and beestung. They are a Best New Poets 2021 and Best of the Net 2021 nominee, and received their B.A. in Asian/Pacific/American Studies from New York University. You can find them on Twitter and Instagram @czaerra.

Janice Lobo Sapigao (she/her) is a Filipina American writer from the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the author of two books of poetry: microchips for millions (Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc., 2016), and like a solid to a shadow (Nightboat Books, 2022). She was named one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Women to Watch in 2017 by KQED Arts. She was a VONA/Voices Fellow and was awarded a Manuel G. Flores Prize, PAWA Scholarship to the Kundiman Poetry Retreat. She is an Assistant Professor of English at Skyline College, the 2020-2021 Santa Clara County Poet Laureate, a former Poet Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets, and a Visiting Scholar at the Newberry Library focusing on the Philippine manuscript archives.

Accessibility: This event is at the bookstore, which is an accessible space. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis. Email events@womenandchildrenfirst.com with questions or to request accommodations.