Ernesto Quiñonez, the nationally acclaimed American novelist, and Suzanne Oboler, author and professor of Latin American and Latina/o Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, on April 25 will deliver keynote addresses at the CUNY Latin@ Cultural Studies Conference hosted by LaGuardia Community College with
sponsorship by the CUNY Latino Faculty Initiative.
The one-day conference, which will also feature panel discussions that
cover a full range of topics, will spotlight the work of faculty,
students and community members who study Latino/a fields such as border
poetics, exile, the politics of race, sexuality and gender as well as
literature, media-making, visual arts and film.
This conference aims to ignite an interdisciplinary conversation among
members of CUNY and the community about the role of Latino/a literature,
art, film, performance and media in local and global processes of
change.
The conference, which begins at 9:00 a.m., will be held in
LaGuardia’s E-building at 31-10 Thomson Avenue, Long Island City.
For more information, please call or visit the website at .
Dr. Oboler is the founding editor of “Latino Studies,” (2002-12)
and author of numerous books, chapters and articles. She has
edited “,” (2006); and co-edited “(2009). She is
co-editor-in-chief of “and “The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and
Latinas in Contemporary Politics, Law and Social Movements.”
Mr. Quiñonez is a graduate of City College and an associate professor
of creative writing at Cornell University. His first novel, “Bodega
Dreams,” has become a landmark in contemporary literature. The New
York Times declared the book “a new immigrant classic,” and it
received a Best Book designation by the Times and the Los Angeles Times.
It was also chosen as a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers title
as well as a Borders Bookstore Original New Voice selection.
His second novel, “Chango’s Fire,” also received critical
acclaim. Kirkus Reviews hailed the author’s “ingeniously detailed
revelations of how people cheat and improvise to survive in an
impoverished and dangerous racist environment. This is an author who
knows his material.”
Also scheduled is a dramatic reading of work by Carlos Serrano, a 1993
graduate of Brooklyn College’s BFA Creative Writing Program and a
member of the People’s Theatre Project’s resident playwrights unit
and its literary manager. While at Brooklyn College, Mr. Serrano
received the college’s Irwin Shaw Award in playwriting and the
Grabanier Drama Award.
Mr. Serrano’s play, “No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy,” (“No
Hay Mejor Amigo, Ni Peor Enemigo”) was recently in production at
Repertorio Español. His other playwriting credits include: “Hold: A
Requiem For A Bride,” “24 Hours at Tiempo,” “A Day a Mariachi
Band followed Charlie Home,” “Charlie Needs a Shrink,” “Not Just
Another Puerto Rican Love Story,” “The Blues of Daisy Peñ” and
“Alter Ego.”
The panel discussions examine a panoply of timely topics:
● “Recent Reconsiderations on Puerto Rican Identity at the Center
of Puerto Rican Studies”
● “The Cultural Politics of Latina/o Multimedia and Theatre”
● “Global Circuits of Latina/o and Latin American Cultures”
● “Radio Ambulante and Emerging Latina/o Poetry”
● “Latina/o Diasporic Subjects”
● “Arts and Politics: Uneasy Partners”
● “Teaching Latin@ Cultural Studies at CUNY”
● “Media, Politics and Borders”
● “Building a Movement Through Culture”
● “Negotiating the Self in Latina/o Narrative”