Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere

MLK’S LEGACY AND THE AFRO-LATINX EXPERIENCE IN THE AMERICAS: THREE INTRODUCTORY WORKSHOPS
ROBERTO ZURBANO AND TANYA SAUNDERS

JANUARY 21-23 | 7:10 PM – 8:40 PM
MCDA ROOM 2201

Roberto Zurbano- Essayist and cultural critic, past editor and publisher of the Casa de las Américas publishing house, past vice president of UNEAC, editor in chief of Catauro, a Cuban anthropology journal. He has received numerous prizes in Cuba as an essay writer, critic, and poet. He has received many prestigious literary awards including the Cultural Journalism Award. Zurbano is the author of dozens of articles, prefaces, and essays in books and magazines on Cuban and global topics, through Casa de las Americas, the Gazette, The Bearded Cayman, Catauro, Motion, Caliban, Counterpoint and others. He specializes in literary criticism on race, popular culture and alternative music. He is currently working on two book projects: The Invisible Triangle of Twentieth Century Cuba: Literature, Race and Nation and Outside the Club: A Map of the Nation of Hip Hop in Cuba.

Dr. Tanya L. Saunders is interested in the ways in which the African Diaspora, throughout the Americas, use the arts as a central tool for social change. As a 2011-2012 Fulbright scholar to Brazil, they began work on their current project which analyzes how queer Afro-Latinx population use arts-based social movements to redefine citizenship and notions of Blackness in Brazil. This project is a continuation of a larger regional project, which began with their research on Cuban Underground Hip Hop. This larger project centers the Americas in an analysis of the epistemological interventions of Afro-Diasporic, and Indigenous populations, in going beyond the idea that another world is possible to doing the work necessary to manifest it – which begins with the work of first envisioning it. Dr. Saunders holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a Master of International Development Policy from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. Her new book on Cuban Underground Hip Hop can be found here: http://goo.gl/fhqrBt

Sponsors: Center for Latin American Studies, UF LGBTQ Affairs, UF MCDA, UF International Center, UF African American Studies, and Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.