Cuba

September 12, 2019

Presented by Ruth Behar
7pm : Ludington Public Library

Discover Cuba as Ruth talks about some of her own experiences and reflections on the country she calls home. Born in Havana, Ruth is the author & editor of numerous works that focus on the culture of this island nation & her experiences as a Cuban American. 

ABOUT BEHAR:

Ruth Behar is the Victor Haim Perera Collegiate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan and is known for her humanistic and literary approach to ethnographic writing. Among her honors, she is a MacArthur Fellow*, the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and was recently recognized as a “Great Immigrant” by the Carnegie Corporation. Her books include Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Esperanza’s Story, The Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology That Breaks Your Heart, An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba, and Traveling Heavy: A Memoir in between Journeys. Born in Havana, Cuba, she is the editor of Bridges to Cuba and co-editor of The Portable Island: Cubans at Home in the World. Her co-edited book, Women Writing Culture, has become a canonical work in the history of anthropology. Also a creative writer, she is the author of a coming-of-age novel, Lucky Broken Girl, which won the 2018 Pura Belpré Author Award for Latina/Latino literature, and Everything I Kept/Todo lo que guardé, a bilingual collection of poetry.

October 1, 2019

Presented by: Silvia Pedraza
7pm : Ludington Public Library

This is the story of those who stayed in Cuba. Through beautiful slides, discover how people’s religious expression evolved as they lived through more than 50 years of changing politics.

RELATED READINGS:

Fidel Castro: Was he David or Goliath? – CNN – 2016
Researcher profile: Sylvia Pedraza highlights refugee struggle. – The Michigan Daily – 2016
A Family Divided – USA Today – 1998
A Life-long Learner – The Michigan Daily – 2010

ABOUT PEDRAZA:

Silvia Pedraza is Professor of Sociology and American Culture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She was born and raised in Cuba, from where she immigrated with her family at the age of 12. Her research interests include the sociology of immigration, race, and ethnicity in America, and the sociology of Cuba’s revolution and exodus. Her work seeks to understand the causes and consequences of immigration as a historical process that forms and transforms persons and nations; as well as social revolutions’ rupture with the past and attempt to create a different present.

October 30, 2019

Presented by: Yvon Grenier
12:30 pm : WSCC Center Stage Theater &
7 pm : WSCC Center Stage Theater

Explore the artistic realities in a post-Castro Cuba, and how artistic expression has not lived up to the anticipated renaissance many expected.

ABOUT GRENIER:

Grenier examines the delicate balancing acts carried out in 21 st century, post-Castro Cuba by both artists and the government. To get at what’s going on in today’s Cuba regarding artists’ experience of creativity, freedom of expression, recognition, and who controls cultural life, Grenier explores questions such as the following: What 2 kinds of lives do artists in Cuba today lead? How is it like and different from the decades under Castro? What does today’s government want from artists? Is there more or less freedom of expression today? What might be next for artists? For the Cuban government? For ordinary people creating culture?

November 7, 2019

Presented by: Elisa Shoenberger
7pm : WSCC Center Stage Theater

Elisa will share how she obtained these posters through special permits from the Cuban government. She’ll discuss the rich visual language of graphic design reflected in posters and the production challenges that designers in Cuba face.

ABOUT SHOENBERGER:

Elisa Shoenberger is a freelance writer, researcher and historian. She has a BS in Latin American history from the University of Chicago, a MA in Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an MBA with specialization of marketing and operations management from Loyola University. She focused on Chilean socialist comic books for her undergraduate thesis and Cuban poster propaganda for her MA thesis. She traveled to Cuba as a translator in 2011. She has worked in nonprofits since 2008 and worked in the fundraising sector as a fundraising researcher since 2012. She writes about art, books, the law, philanthropy, animals and nature, for a variety of publications. She has written for the Boston Globe, Deadspin, Syfy, Hyperallergic, Book Riot and many others.​