Latin Heritage Month at Medgar Evers College
Sep 20
The Latine Tapestry: Inter-weaving Ancestral Strands (a CUNY-wide interdisnary symposium)
Join us on September 20 throughout campus to celebrate the culture and customs of our Latinx brothers and sisters at Medgar Evers College — and across the City University of New York.
We are excited to announce some of our participants, with many more on the way!
Call for Papers
The CUNY-wide Latina/o/x Heritage Month Planning Committee is calling for scholarly papers, individual/group research projects, panel presentations & creative cultural expressions. Download the complete guide to submit your paper here.
The Lineup
Opening Poet: Emanuel Xavier
Emanuel Xavier is an American poet, spoken word artist, author, editor and LGBTQ activist born and raised in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn. His new book, LOVE(LY) CHILD, was just released from Rebel Satori Press. Each poem is a journey into the complexities of the human experience navigating sensitive topics with honesty and vulnerability. Emanuel helped open the doors for queer poets of color to take center stage and speak their truths. He became an LGBTQ+ Icon, as proclaimed by The Equality Forum. Long before diversity, equity, and inclusion were buzz words, he gave voice to his unique experiences and tackled politics, sexuality, and religion with poetry. Learn more about this amazing poet at https://www.emanuelxavier.org/.
Quilting Workshop: A Tapestry of Cultural Identity and Social Justice with Sylvia Hernandez
Sylvia Hernández is a celebrated and self-taught master quilter, and she creates timeless, handcrafted works that address community and human rights issues. Each of Sylvia’s quilts tell a story from Postcards of our Ancestors to #HowManyMore? about gun violence in schools to Flint Water crisis to Injustice quote from Malcolm X. In this workshop, Sylvia will teach the basics of quilting and start her audience on their own story quilt. Born on the Lower East Side and raised in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Sylvia’s love affair with art dates back to high school, when she discovered her talent for drawing and painting. Her works have been featured in national and international exhibitions, including the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza and Journey of Hope in America: Quilts Inspired by Barack Obama, which traveled to Japan. Hernández is currently the president of the Quilters of Color Network of NYC, co-president of the Brooklyn Quilters Guild, and she is a member of the WCQN. She teaches at El Puente Academy of Peace and Justice, MS 50 and has worked with AgitArte, a social justice group that has led community educational and art programs in marginalized communities in Puerto Rico and locally. Visit her at https://brooklynquiltgirl.com/
Bomba Performance
Born on December 3rd, 1958, at New York City’s St. Vincent Hospital to Puerto Rican parents both from Caguas, Puerto Rico, Dr. Drum is known as one of the Top National Afro Rican Bomba Artists. Bronx native Jose Ortiz, aka: Dr. Drum, is a nationally highly acclaimed professional on-stage performer, educator in Pan-African, Caribbean and Latin culture and is a self-taught percussionist of AfroCaribbean rhythms. For these past twenty years, he has been an adamant advocate for the cultural arts as well as an adamant activist, organizer and educator of Afro Puerto Rican Bomba, a traditional African derived music and art form, which was brought to the Americas from the African slaves. Dr. Drum’s unbelievable artistic talent has led him to perform and record with world renown Grammy nominated Afro Rican Jazz artist, WilliamCepeda. Dr. Drum has more over recorded with internationally known entertainer and Broadway actor Corbin Bleu and has as well performed with both on stage! Dr. Drum has furthermore been invited to perform at internationally known venues where the greatest world entertainers have performed such as: The Madison Square Garden, The Lincoln Center, The United Nations, The Broadway Theatre, The MInskoff Theatre, ‘El Barrio Museum”, The T.D.Bank Five Borough Bike Tour and many other important similar venues. Dr. Drum has as well taught at numerous after-school programs throughout NYC since 1999, where has developed original curricula for teaching percussion to the youth.
The Business of Writing: Everything Authors Need To Know to Pitch & Sell their Book (BONUS! Pitch Session)
You’ve finished your book, now comes the hard part—Pitching and Selling. You need to learn to pitch your story and catch the attention of agents and editors alike to make the sale. This panel of editors, agents and industry professionals will show you how. Plus! We’ll have a Bonus Pitch Session. Authors are invited to pitch their stories for honest onsite critique.
Confirmed panelists:
• Vanessa Aguirre, Assistant Editor, St. Martin Press, where she acquires young adult, new adult, and adult fiction. She firmly believes joy is a form of resistance and has a soft spot for speculative fiction and characters who you’d follow anywhere.
• Linda Camacho, Literary Agent, Gallt & Zacker Literary Agency. This native New Yorker, Cornell grad, enjoys being an agent and representing award-winning, bestselling writers and illustrators. She is seeking YA, graphic novels, romance, women’s fiction and horror across all genres.
• Michelle Herrera Milligan, Vice President and Associate Publisher of Primero Sueño Press/Atria Books. She is acquiring books for this new line. Michelle is also an author (BORDER-LINE PERSONALITIES) and former magazine editor (Cosmopolitan for Latinas). In 2020, she was named one of the top 100 most influential Latinas in the U.S. by Latino Leaders magazine.
• Marcela Landres, Freelance Developmental Editor. Formerly an editor at Simon & Schuster, Marcela helps writers become well-published authors by editing their manuscripts and educating them about the book business.
• Moderator: Maria Ferrer, Executive Director, Las Comadres Para Las Americas & Board Member, Latinx in Publishing. Maria wears many hats as an events director and meeting planner and looks good in all of them.
Learn Salsa!
Our partners at Salsa Salsa Dance Studio will be on campus to teach you all the steps!
