JOSEPH G. ASTMAN CULTURAL EVENTS The Joseph G. Astman Cultural Events are presented in loving memory of Dr. Joseph G. Astman, founder of the Hofstra Cultural Center. Dr. Astman was a humanist, a cultural comparatist and an international scholar.
LATIN AMERICAN and CARIBBEAN STUDIES PROGRAM (LACS) and AFRICAN STUDIES PROGRAM Tuesday, February 28, 12:45-2:10 p.m. Gendering Migration in the Hispanic World
Spain is one of the entry points to “Fortress Europe” and a focus for migratory movements across the European continent and the Mediterranean. Recent migration to Spain has been largely female, a fact that raises questions for our notions of traditional family dynamics, legislation around migration, and gendered representations of the migrant experience in popular culture. Our speaker, H. Rosi Song, is associate professor of Spanish at Bryn Mawr College and the author of Lost in Transition: Constructing Memory in Contemporary Spain. She is also the co-editor of Towards a Cultural Archive of la Movida: Back to the Future and Traces of Contamination: Unearthing Francoist Legacy in Contemporary Spanish Discourse. She has published extensively on contemporary Spanish culture and literature, on Iberian and Latin American detective fiction, and on migration. Lowenfeld Conference and Exhibition Hall Axinn Library, 10th Floor
Wednesday, March 1, 4:30-5:55 p.m. Dark Islands: Race, Migration, and Confinement and Film Screening: Ellis
Willowbrook State School on Staten Island was an institution for mentally ill children and those with developmental disabilities in operation between 1947 and 1987. It is nationally recognized as a tragic symbol of the inhumane and unethical treatment of people with disabilities. A disproportionate number of its residents were of Puerto Rican and African-American descent, comprising the largest minority population of any such institution in New York state at the time. This presentation focuses on how and why this fact was neglected in the historical narrative. Jorge Matos Valldejuli, assistant professor and reference librarian at Hostos Community College-CUNY, is working on a project on the history of race at the Willowbrook State School and its aftermath. Following the lecture there will be screening of Ellis, the short documentary written by Eric Roth, directed by artist JR and narrated by Robert De Niro. The short film takes us back to the early years of Ellis Island through the experience of one immigrant. It is set in the abandoned Ellis Island Hospital complex, and uses JR’s art installations to narrate the forgotten story of immigrants arriving in New York City.
Tuesday, March 14, 12:50-2:10 p.m. Film Screening and Discussion: Open Pit
Directed by Gianni Converso and produced by our speaker Daniel Santana, Open Pit is a tour de force of investigative journalism and guerrilla filmmaking that reveals the vicious face of dirty gold mining in Peru. Faced with devastating mercury pollution, heavy metals and acid mine drainage, the people of Cajamarca (northern Peru) fight a desperate battle to defend their water resources, their families, and their way of life. Location: To be announced.
Wednesday, March 29 Central American Child Migrants in Nassau County Roundtable, 11:15 a.m.-12:40 p.m.; Discussion Sessions, 1-2 p.m.; Workshop, 2:55-4:20 p.m. More than 110,000 children from Central America crossed the U.S. border in 2014-2015 and were apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Once processed, the children were transferred to the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and were resettled in Nassau County. This three-part event aims to help the Hofstra community understand the forces that produced this humanitarian crisis, as well as its legal and social consequences. Speakers: • Benjamin Bratter is a private immigration attorney with offices on Long Island and in Manhattan, whose practice has been handling Central American immigration cases for over 10 years. He will talk about the landmark 2015 agreement between New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and the Hempstead Union Free School District, to ensure equal educational opportunities for students regardless of immigration status. • Rahsmia Zatar, executive director of the NGO STRONG Youth, an anti-gang organization based in Uniondale, and a Hofstra alumna, presents on the numerous challenges related to youth and gang violence prevention and intervention in Long Island. • Anjela Jenkins, attorney for The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, provides an overview of the Office of Refugee Resettlement system and the role of the child advocate. Co-sponsored by the Hofstra Cultural Center. Student Center Theater, Mack Student Center
Thursday, April 27, 2:20-3:45 p.m. Emilio Coco, Roundtable and Poetry Reading
Emilio Coco is the author of the first anthology of Latin American poetry translated into Italian, Il fiore della poesia latinoamericana d’oggi [The flowering of Latin American poetry today], with Raffaelli Editore. He will read some of his own poems in Italian, Spanish, and English, and premieres his three-volume anthology. The roundtable discussion includes Peter Caravetta, Stony Brook, University, and Gregory Pell and Stanislao Pugliese, Hofstra University. Parlor, Hofstra Hall, South Campus
Tuesday, May 2, 12:45-2:10 p.m. The DREAMers Project Workshop
Poet José Emilio Pacheco used to say that written fiction has survived because it is, still, the best technology we have to incorporate the other’s experience in ours: the more we read, the more memories we have to inhabit us. How vulnerable would you feel if the country in which you grew up –– the only one you know — denied you the peace of a legal status? During this session, undocumented college students from PEN America’s DREAMers Project Workshop discuss the exercise of literary writing as a tool for resistance, and as a small scale/high impact form of activism. The DREAMers Project Workshop is supported by PEN America and the City University of New York, and is part of the PEN World Voices Festival. Guthart Cultural Center Theater, Axinn Library For more information, please visit hofstra.edu/lacs.
Guthart Cultural Center Theater, Axinn Library
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Events are subject to change. For an up-to-date listing of events, times and locations, please refer to the Hofstra events calendar at events.hofstra.edu.
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