HISPANIC SOCIETY MUSEUM & LIBRARY ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF THE HISPANIC SOCIETY POETRY CENTER
Ezequiel Zaidenwerg will serve as the inaugural Head of the Poetry Center.
NEW YORK CITY (April 2026) – The Hispanic Society Museum & Library (HSM&L) is pleased to announce the launch of The Hispanic Society Poetry Center, a new initiative that will deepen the Hispanic Society's dedication to preserving the literature and culture of the Hispanic and Lusophone worlds through public programming, innovative digital projects, and advanced research. The Poetry Center is supported by a grant from the Corda Foundation and will house the archive of Chilean poet David Rosenmann-Taub (1927-2023). Poet and scholar Ezequiel Zaidenwerg has been appointed as Head of the Poetry Center, the first endowed position at the Hispanic Society.
A core element of the Poetry Center’s mission will be to provide a home for the archive of the Chilean poet David Rosenmann-Taub. Widely regarded in his native Chile as a singular literary figure, Rosenmann-Taub was described by Premio Nacional de Literatura laureate Armando Uribe as "the most important and profound living poet of the entire Spanish language." Over the course of his life, he published twenty books, with a comparable body of unpublished work remaining. He was also an accomplished composer, pianist and draftsman, leaving behind over one hundred hours of recorded compositions and nearly a thousand drawings.
Launched in 2000, the Corda Foundation was established by a group of writers and artists to preserve and promote Rosenmann-Taub’s legacy across disciplines. The Foundation has overseen publications, translations, recordings, and a wide-ranging digital archive, and continues to support scholarship through its international advisory board of experts in Latin American poetry, as well as its grants program.
"We at Corda have long envisioned a Poetry Center that would serve a broad local and international community and are thrilled to have found an ideal partner in the Hispanic Society Museum & Library," said Virginia Odessky, Director of the Corda Foundation. "We feel sure that David Rosenmann-Taub would be honored to know that his archive will reside in a treasured institution that cherishes tradition while enriching the culture of today and tomorrow."
A poet, translator and cultural organizer, Ezequiel Zaidenwerg brings an international and interdisciplinary perspective to his new position as the inaugural Head of the Hispanic Society Poetry Center. He co-founded Como un lugar, a multilingual poetry, music and performance collective that has presented programming across New York, Buenos Aires and Bogotá, and created El poema de hoy, a widely read bilingual poetry translation platform. His work bridges languages, geographies and artistic disciplines, aligning closely with the Hispanic Society’s mission.
In addition to his curatorial and editorial work, Zaidenwerg is an accomplished author and translator, with multiple published poetry collections and translations of leading contemporary writers including Anne Carson, Jericho Brown, and Mark Strand. "I am honored to join the Hispanic Society at such a pivotal moment," said Zaidenwerg. "The Poetry Center offers an extraordinary opportunity to connect the institution's historic collections with the living, evolving practice of poetry today across languages, borders and communities." The Center’s programming is supported by the Amigos of the Library, the Hispanic Society’s dedicated membership and patron community that supports the care of its collections and the expansion of public programs. The Hispanic Society Poetry Center carries on the legacy of the museum’s founder Archer M. Huntington, who was a devoted book collector, translator, and author of original poetry. The new Center will serve as a platform for readings, performances, publications and cross-disciplinary collaborations, drawing from the Hispanic Society’s renowned library and archives while engaging contemporary voices. If interested in learning more about the HSM&L, please visit Hispanic Society Museum & Library and follow the institution on Instagram and Facebook.