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No había compartido mi experiencia en El Congreso Internacional de Escritores por la partida de Félix. En realidad fue una experiencia brutal el poder presentar El Trauma Queer en el Caribe Colonial de los 80 y ser parte de un panel con excelente escritores. Durante mi charla había un mar de estudiantes que me pusieron en tres y dos con preguntas y preocupaciones. Luego al firmar libros llegó una clase de teatro con sus dos maestras. El ver maestros y estudiantes hablando con tanta franqueza sobre género es algo que nunca me esperaba. Un estudiante me pregunto sobre el futuro literario de Puerto Rico en una época de censura y otra me comentó que su familia le recriminaba que leyera libros de temática LGBTQ+ . Félix hubiese estado tan orgulloso. Gracias a Helena Sampedro Colon, Ivonne Class, al Municipio de Caguas. Y gracias a esos escritores de afuera y los de aquí que me recibieron con tanto cariño.
En casita, en Caguas con todos sus misterios, estaré en el Congreso Internacional de Escritores en Bellas Artes en dos actividades:
miércoles 10 de abril @ 6 p.m. - Debate: “Yo es otro: enajenación y autoficción” con unos escritores favoritos
jueves 11 de abril @10 a.m. - Conferencia: “El Trauma Queer en el Caribe Colonial de los 80”
Hablemos de iglesias, exorcismos, terapias de conversión, Caguas y sus abismos y sobre todo de las pajitas que la caen a la leche.
CRAFT HONORABLE MENTION - FIRST CHAPTERS FOR THE NOVEL “LEDA” WITH GUEST JUDGE REBECCA MAKKAI
Manuel Ramos Otero “Cuentos Completos” Presentation
We had the honor to present "Manuel Ramos Otero: Cuentos Completos." We each read an excerpt of his work and embodied a side of Manuel through his characters. Being inside the caverns of someone else's words was frighting at first and then freeing. If I learned anything from wandering through Manuel's passages is that we should never be scared of words, our words, the words that we need to say, write and scream, regardless of what the world around us says, writes or screams back. Thanks to all of you. Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé for assembling this with my dear Gerard Cabrera. Larry La Fountain for exploring Manuel's early work through glorious decibels, Consuelo Arias and Giannina Braschi for their melodic and musical renditions sparkling with personal anecdotes of the poet. For Emanuel Xavier's poetic and rhythmic interpretation. And Gerard Cabrera, every time I hear you recite, I remember why writing is a lifeline. In my excerpt from Cuento de la Mujer Del Mar, the "cuentero" narrates, not unlike Sherezade, to fend off the inevitable death that taunts around every corner of Christopher Street. That is why some of us write, to live or to preserve life, to stay alive, because words are homes and their poetry an architecture that lets us enjoy whatever time we have in this world in the most possible beautiful way.
Thanks to El CENTRO and the Gay and Lesbian Center and to Ángel Antonio and Frances Negron-Muntaner and everyone else involved in rescuing Manuel's legacy. What a fucking amazing night. I hope I didn't forget to thank or mentioned anyone.
El poder mnemónico de los pies, El Nacional. 2022
There is a lot to know about Puerto Rico and there is a lot to know about Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Fortunately, Puerto Rican writer and artist Huascar Robles has created a platform that prioritizes both. Catatonia, which premiered on New Year’s Day, is described as “a cultural podcast about Puerto Rico, trauma, and unscrewing ourselves out of post-Hurricane shock.”
That shock began on September 20, the day Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico. Robles recalls watching from afar as the island was devastated by a category 4 storm. Two weeks later, his mother was among the thousands who left Puerto Rico to escape the dire conditions. Much of the first episode is dedicated to her experience, which Robles narrates in a sober yet vulnerable tone as the sounds of Harlem echo in the background.
Haití y Puerto Rico: Detrás de las ruinas en el Centro Cultural Barco de Papel el 25 de enero del 2020. Los escritores y periodistas Huáscar Robles, Ileán Pérez y Carmen Graciela Díaz discutieron la responsabilidad social luego de desastres naturales y el uso del cuerpo como forma de protesta. La mirada a Haití y a Puerto Rico sirvió como ejemplo de ineficiencia y pobre planificación ante las investigaciones recientes, como el hallazgo de suministros en el pueblo de Ponce que nunca fueron distribuidos a los damnificados. También entra en discusión el trabajo de la investigadora Dra. Lucy Jones quien ha estudiado los avances tecnológicos luego de desastres naturales como el método pombalino en Portugal luego del terremoto en Lisboa del 1755 y la reconstrucción del Depto. De Transportation en California luego del terremoto del 1994.
I’d like to invite you to the Haití y Puerto Rico: detrás de las ruínas discussion and book presentation. Journalists Carmen Graciela Díaz (Univisión, El Nuevo Día), Ileán Pérez (El Nuevo Día, Puerto Rico Review) and I, Huáscar Robles (The New York Times, Center for Investigative Journalism), will be at Barco de Papel Cultural Center in Jackson Heights at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 25. This month Haiti observed 10 years of its 2010, 7.0-magnitude earthquake and Puerto Rico is still rattling with tremors that have uprooted its way of life. The reconstruction process, as several natural disaster have shown, may hurt instead of rebuild societies. Our discussion centers on Haiti’s aftermath and Puerto Rico’s recovery. The event will also be a reading from the second edition of the book Puertos príncipes: temblemos todos, about Haiti after the earthquake and published by La Cifra, in México.
Barco de Papel is a community-based cultural center focused on matters of our Latin American societies. Please join me in supporting this venue as well as our speakers.
It Starts with Words on a Page: Chatting with Huáscar Robles
Home / Idea Lab / It Starts with Words on a Page: Chatting with Huáscar Robles
The third installment of the Idea Lab series, free “teach-ins” on current issues about Puerto Rico, the setting of Recent Alien Abductions, is coming up this weekend! Huáscar Robles, Journalist, photographer and documentarian, will be leading The Impact of Hurricane Maria – How the devastation was not a “natural” disaster on Sunday, March 10 at noon. Huáscar spoke with us recently about his recent work and his relationship to Puerto Rico.
Conference | Narratives of Debt
Conference | Narratives of Debt
04/21 Friday | 10am
The Oikos working group at NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge and the Unpayable Debt working group at Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Social Difference present “Narratives of Debt”, a one-day conference on the ways that people and groups have grappled with and against various forms of indebtedness. The morning session will feature speakers working on the ongoing Puerto Rican debt crisis from a number of disciplinary perspectives. The afternoon session will focus on how different kinds of debt are folded into relations of intimacy, kinship, and everyday interactions.
10AM-Noon: The Puerto Rican Debt Crisis
Yarimar Bonilla (Associate Professor of Anthropology, Rutgers)
Puerto Rico’s American Dream: Contemporary Narratives of Debt and Crisis
Huascar Robles (Journalist and Documentary Photographer)
The Echoes of Silence: Development, Debt, and Santurce
Sarah Molinari (Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center)
Contesting “Debt” Relations: Narratives and Activism During Puerto Rico’s Crisis
Miguel Luciano (Independent Artist)
Ride or Die
Moderated by: Frances Negrón-Muntaner (Professor and Co-Director of Unpayable Debt Working Group, Columbia)