Activism in our Community with Erika Guadalupe, Juntos Executive Director, Evelyne Laurent -Perrault, Assistant Professor at UCS and Obed Arango, Founder and Executive Director of CCATE

Wednesday, September 30, 2020 - 6:00pm

Online event

 

The last few months of up heaval and reckoning have demonstrated the power and importance of community·based activism.

Come hear from Erika Guadalupe, activist and Juntos Executive Director, Dr. Evelyne Laurent-Perrault, Assistant Professor at UCS, Obed Arango,  Founder and Executive Director of the Centro de Cultura, Arte,Trabajo y Educacion(CCATE) 

Moderator:

Shantee Rosado is an Assistant Professor of Afro-Latinx Studies in the Africana Studies and Latino and Caribbean Studies departments at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. She received her PhD in Sociology with a certificate in Latin American and Latinx Studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 2019. Her work examines racial inequalities and identities among Latinxs in the U.S. and Latin America, as well as Afro-Latinxs in popular culture. Professor Rosado's current book project, “Latinxs and the Emotional Politics of Race and Blackness in the U.S.,” examines how collective emotions shape the racial and political ideologies of second-generation Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. In addition to this book project, she is currently co-authoring a manuscript entitled “The Sociology of Cardi B: A Black/Trap Feminist Approach.” Professor Rosado is a proud member of the Black Latinas Know Collective. 

Panelist Bios:

Erika Guadalupe Nunez is a queer immigrant, artist, and community organizer for immigrant rights in Philadelphia. After emigrating from Mexico at a young age, Erika remained undocumented until receiving her green card in 2013. As a result, Erika’s visual art pays homage to her culture and upbringing while simultaneously serving as a tool for social change. As a community organizer, she has spearheaded and facilitated local and national campaigns to demand rights for the immigrant community. Erika Guadalupe started her new job as executive director of Juntos in mid-March, just days before Philadelphia’s stay-at-home order went into effect. Bryn Mawr College brought her to the Philadelphia area, but it was through Juntos that the visual artist and cultural organizer found a sanctuary six years ago. Since then, Guadalupe, 29, has served in various roles for the group. Juntos, based in South Philly, has traditionally focused on activism, but has had to shift priorities during the pandemic to providing direct services.

Obed Arango Hisijara is a Mexican photographer, visual artist, communicator, journalist, university professor, and media producer. He holds an MA in Cultural Anthropology and a BA in Communications. His area of expertise is Latin America. Before founding CCATE (Centro de Cultura, Arte, Trabajo, y Educacion) and Bandera Media & Creative Conzepts LLC, Obed was National Coordinator of Marketing Research for TV Azteca in Mexico, Anchor and Producer for Radio ABC (Mexico City), Media Producer for American Baptist Churches (Valley Forge, PA), and Associate Professor of Communication at UNAM, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Mexico City).  Obed is currently Lecturer at the School of Social Policy and Practice (SP2) at the University of Pennsylvania where he teaches policy and qualitative research methods classes. In 2019, Obed joined SP2’s Advisory Committee on Race and Social Justice. Since 2019, Obed has also been a member of the Planning Commission of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. In August of 2020, he joined Congresswoman Madeleine Dean’s Racial Equality Advisory Committee.

Dr. Evelyne Laurent Perrault is a historian of the African Diaspora in Colonial Latin America and the Caribbean. Her research looks into the subjectivity and intellectual creativity of enslaved and free women of African descent who lived in Caracas-Venezuela, during the eighteenth century. It also explores the ways in which these subjects conceptualized ideas of rights, freedom(s), and membership in their communities. Dr. Laurent Perrault is a Venezuelan of Haitian descent, who has been shaped by larger worlds: Prior to moving to California, she lived years in the Northeast of the United States, including Philadelphia, and, before that, spent two years in Socialist Eastern Europe and West Africa respectively. In Philadelphia, she created the Annual Arturo Schomburg Symposium (going to its 23rd consecutive year), at Taller Puertorriqueño. This event brings together scholars, professionals, activists, and artists who gather the last Saturday of February to share, with a wide audience, their expertise about the African presence in Latina/o and Latin American history and cultures. This experience brought her into transnational Afro-Latin American activism. 

LALS Co-sponsor

 Please join by Zoom here!