Wed 3/18 @ 1-8PM
Certainly, no one can argue that Puerto Ricans are a people of resilience and resistence, resisting efforts to put them down and count them out, of which there has been plenty in the last few years.
So “AmeRícan: Celebrating Puerto Rican Resilience and Resistance” is a fitting name for a day-long conference on Puerto Ricans social movements, the diaspora of the island’s people, and how arts and activism work together to build community power. That conference is hosted by Case Western Reserve University’s Social Justice Institute and takes place at the Linsalata Alumni Center, 11310 Juniper Rd.
Featured speakers include Juan González , a professor of communications and public policy at Rutgers University; author Dr. Raquel M. Ortiz Rodríguez; Marvin Garcia, executive director of the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School; and Erica González Martinez, director of Power 4 Puerto Rico.
The free, open-to-the-public event also includes dinner and a performance by New York-based percussionist Bobby Sanabria, who is well known in northeast Ohio for his work with Cleveland’s Roberto Ocasio Foundation, which honors his late friend and classmate at Berklee College of Music.
There’s even free bus service from Lorain’s El Centro and Esperanza, located in Cleveland’s near west side Puerto Rican neighborhood.