Americas Society with Free Readings with Latin American Authors this Spring

This Spring the Americas Society has many free readings and open to the public. Authors as José Triana’s Palabras comunes, Carlos Franz’s The Absent Sea, Aimé Césaire’s Solar Throat Slashed, and two panels: “Identity’s dreams: sueños literarios de la nueva América Latina”, and Cuba Inside and Out: Panel Discussion – New Media in Cuban Literature Today. Cuba Inside and Out: Book Presentation – Oscar Hijuelos’s Thoughts Without Cigarettes

See the whole list below. Americas Society is located at 680 Park Avenue at 68th St., en Manhattan.

José Triana’s Palabras comunes April 11 at Americas Society   About the PROGRAM Co-presented by the Cuban Cultural Center of New York.   This program will consist of a discussion about and a dramatic reading from Cuban playwright José Triana’s Palabras comunes (1979-86), translated by Joanne Pottlitzer as “Common Words.” Widely regarded as Triana’s most important work, “Common Words” is set in Cuba between 1894 and 1914, from the prelude of the Spanish-American War to the eve of World War I. Pottlitzer, a New York-based producer, director and translator who received an NEA fellowship to translate the play, will discuss her English version and the work’s ramifications today. A group of professional actors will read scenes from the play. With the collaboration of InterAmericas®. This program will be conducted in English. Americas Society is part of ¡Sí Cuba! Festival, a New York celebration of Cuban arts & culture. For the complete line-up of ¡Sí Cuba! Festival events around the city, please visit SiCuba.org. Reservations are required. Americas Society Members: Reserve today at membersres@americas-society.org Non-Members: Visit our website and make your reservation online approximately five days before each event. Location and Hours  All our culture programs are free, open to the public, and take place at Americas Society, unless noted. We are located at 680 Park Avenue at 68th Street in New York City. To arrive by public transportation, take the 6 train to 68th Street / Hunter College. Map. For wheelchair access, kindly call in advance. Gallery hours are Wednesdays to Saturdays from 12 pm to 6 pm. For more information, visit www.americas-society.org. If you have questions or comments, please email us at culture@americas-society.org. About Americas Society Americas Society is the premier forum dedicated to education, debate and dialogue in the Americas. Its mission is to foster an understanding of the contemporary political, social and economic issues confronting Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada, and to increase public awareness and appreciation of the diverse cultural heritage of the Americas and the importance of the inter-American relationship. Images: José Triana. Courtesy of the author.

Book Presentation: The Absent Sea by Carlos Franz

Thursday, April 28, 2011
7:00 p.m.

Chilean author Franz (b. 1959) and his translator, Leland H. Chambers, will read bilingually from the author’s latest award-winning novel, published by McPherson & Company. The Absent Sea explores the subject of the disappeared and, particularly, complicity during the Pinochet dictatorship (1973-90). Franz is an exponent of “The New Chilean Narrative” of the 1990s, a movement whose writers have distanced themselves from the tradition of magic realism and whose works employ spare, unadorned prose.

The event is presented as part of the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature. For more information, visit www.pen.org.

Cuba Inside and Out: Book Presentation – Aimé Césaire’s Solar Throat Slashed

Tuesday, May 10, 2011
7:00 p.m.

Clayton Eshleman, the foremost translator of Martinican poet Aimé Césaire (1913—2008), and A. James Arnold, the leading editor of Césaire’s French works, read from their translation of the poet’s Soleil cou coupe (Wesleyan University Press). Arnold will discuss the importance of Cuba and Cubans—including Lydia Cabrera and Wifredo Lam—in launching Césaire´s poetic career during WWII.

Panel: “Identity’s dreams: sueños literarios de la nueva América Latina”

Thursday, May 12, 2011
7:00 p.m.

Four contemporary Spanish American authors—Francisco Font Acevedo (Puerto Rico), Santiago Gamboa (Colombia), Andrés Neuman (Argentina), and Karla Suárez (Cuba)—who together represent a panorama of Latin American literary production, will discuss the new Latin American writing that has been defining itself since the famous “McOndo” anthology (1996) to the “39 de Bogotá” and the Hay Festival (2007).
This program will be conducted in Spanish.

Co-presented by the Festival de la Palabra de Puerto Rico and Instituto Cervantes New York.

Cuba Inside and Out: Panel Discussion – New Media in Cuban Literature Today

Thursday, May 19, 2011
7:00 p.m.

A group of Cuba’s most contemporary writers, including several who reside on the island and others who reside in Europe—collectively, Abilio Estévez, Ernesto Hernández Busto, Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, and Amir Valle—, and Rachel Price (moderator)(Princeton University), a contemporary scholar of new media in literature, will discuss the use of the Internet, e-mail, blogging, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media as a means of creative expression as well as of distributing contemporary writing on and off the island. All of the participants are featured in Review 82 (Cuba Inside and Out, Spring 2011). In collaboration with the Cuban Cultural Center of New York and InterAmericas®.

This program will be conducted in Spanish with simultaneous translation into English.

Cuba Inside and Out: Launch of Review 82

Friday, May 20, 2011
7:00 p.m.

This launch of a special Cuban issue of the Society’s acclaimed journal will feature comments by Editor Daniel Shapiro (Americas Society), Guest Creative Editor José Manuel Prieto (author, Nocturnal Butterflies of the Russian Empire, Rex), and Guest Academic Editor Anke Birkenmaier (Indiana University; author, Alejo Carpentier y la cultura del surrealismo en América Latina); and readings of poetry and prose by Cuban writers Juan Carlos Flores, Reina María Rodríguez, and Rolando Sánchez Mejías—some of whom live on the island, others in Europe—and translations by Kristin Dykstra (University of Illinois). All of the participants have contributed texts to Review 82.

This program will be conducted in English and Spanish with simultaneous translation.

Cuba Inside and Out: Book Presentation – Oscar Hijuelos’s Thoughts Without Cigarettes

Wednesday, May 25, 2011
7:00 p.m.

Oscar Hijuelos, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning novelist (The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love), will discuss and read from his latest publication, a page-turning memoir that traces his life from his childhood in 1950s New York to his development into an acclaimed author. In collaboration with Gotham Books, Cuban Cultural Center of New York, and InterAmericas®.

This program will be conducted in English.