Latino Americans: 500 Years of History, 100 Years in New Jersey

*READING: Writers at Rutgers presents author Julia Alvarez

Thursday, March 3 at 8 PM

Rutgers Student Center, MPR

126 College Avenue, New Brunswick, New Jersey

In her recent memoir A Wedding in Haiti, acclaimed Dominican novelist and poet Julia Alvarez travels beyond borders and between families to reflect on the joys and burdens of love for her parents, for her husband, and for a young Haitian boy known as Piti. In this intimate true account of a promise kept, Alvarez takes us on a journey into experiences that challenge our way of thinking about history and how it can be reimagined when people from two countries--traditional enemies and strangers become friends.

Julia Alvarez is an award winning  Dominican-American poet, novelist, and essayist whose work includes Homecoming (1984), How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1991), In the Time of the Butterflies (1994), Yo! (1997), Something to Declare (1998), Woman I Kept to Myself (2004), and Saving the World(2006).  

Presented in partnership with the Department of English and the Writers at Rutgers Series. Program is free and open to the public.

*CONVERSATION: Border of Lights Project with author Julia Alvarez

Friday, March 4, 10 AM-1 PM

Trayes Hall, Douglass Student Center

100 George Street, New Brunswick NJ

Join us for a conversation and lunch with Ms. Alvarez about the project, Border of Lights, a human rights collective formed in 2012 that uses art, education and policy making as social justice and conflict resolution tools in the Dominican Republic and the Haiti. For more information about Border of Lights, visit http://www.borderoflights.org/.

Program free and open to the public. Please register at http://clac.rutgers.edu/event/border-of-lights/.

ABOUT THE CLAC

The Center for Latino Arts and Culture's (CLAC) was established in 1992 to research, document, interpret and promote Latin@, Hispanic, Caribbean, and Latin American arts and culture. CLAC seeks to build a student-centered, learning community where students can better integrate experiential, academic and service learning about Latino arts and culture in order to become strong leaders and responsible global citizens. We advocate for the wellbeing of our students and work to create effective access to University services and resources. Through dynamic collaboration with other academic and student affairs units, the Center works to enhance Latino student recruitment, retention and successful graduation at Rutgers University.

For more information about the Latino community at Rutgers University, more upcoming events and opportunities for involvement, please visit us at: clac.rutgers.edu.

This series of events is part of Latino Americans: 500 Years of History, a collaborative project of Rutgers University Libraries, the CLAC, and public libraries in New Jersey, made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association.  See the project guide at: http://libguides.rutgers.edu/latinoamericans500