events

Another film from this year’s International Film Series is coming up.   On Nov. 5, at 7 pm at the Hoff, free of charge as usual, José Maria Naharro-Calderón will host  Land and Freedom, Ken Loach (1995).

Partially based on George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia, this film about the Spanish Civil War depicts the contradictions and power struggles in the camp of the democratic Spanish Republic, abandoned to its tragic fate by England, France and the United States.land-and-freedom-flyer

This Thursday night at the literary café Busboys and Poets in D.C., the Smithsonian Latino Center will present two of the few DIVEDCO films addressing blackness in Puerto Rico, “El Resplandor” and “Nenén de la Ruta Mora.”

Relatively unknown, “El Resplandor” is one of the island’s most powerful films, telling a story of insurrection on a sugar plantation on the eve of the abolition of slavery.  In a surreal adaptation of the island’s folklore, “Nenén de la Ruta Mora” is a poetic tale of a young boy from Loíza and his imaginary playmate.  Discussion about these films will be led and facilitated by Marvette Pérez, Curator of Latino History from the National Museum of American History.

These films are available only in Spanish; a written, English-language overview will be available for viewers who do not speak Spanish.  Please see the attached flyer for more information about this program, including start time and location.flyer-nenen-and-el-resplandor2

For more information and a full calendar of events for the series “Puerto Rico at the Smithsonian,” be sure to visit www.latino.si.edu.

The Department of Spanish and the Latin American Studies Center (LASC) in collaboration with the Cultural Institute of Mexico cordially invite you to attend a reading by Mexican Poet

Friday, October 10, 2008

1:00 to 2:15 p.m.

Holzapfel Hall

Room 0128-B (LASC)

PURA LOPEZ COLOME was born in Mexico City and now lives in Cuernavaca, Mexico. She spent her early years in Mexico City and Mérida, Yucatán, and completed her undergraduate and graduate studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She was awarded the Alfonso Reyes National Prize for Young Writers (1977) and the Yearly Fellowship granted by the Mexican Center of Writers for critical writing (1982).

She has published nine volumes of poetry including El sueño del cazador (The Hunter’s Dream, 1985) and No Shelter: The Selected Poems of Pura Lopez Colome, translated by Forrest Gander (2002).

Pura Lopez Colome is well-known for her Spanish translations of works by poets such as Samuel Beckett, Bertold Brecht, Seamus Heaney, Rainer Maria Rilke, among others. Her latest poetry collection, Santo y seña

(Password) was published in 2007. With this work, she recently shared the prestigious Premio Xavier Villaurrutia prize with fellow poet Elsa Cross, for Latin American writers publishing in Mexico. As well, her

1994 volume Aurora will also be issued in the US and UK in 2007.

Por aquí se llega a la Exhibición sobre la División de Educación a la Comunidad

Curated by Marvette Pérez & Tonya Jordan
October 4-November 1, 2008

H & F Fine Arts
3311 Rhode Island Avenue
Mount Rainier, MD 20712

OPENING RECEPTION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4 2008,  5-8 PM

Master woodcut artist and painter Marta Pėrez García will exhibit her latest prints, paintings and drawings exploring space, performance, movement and the translocations and transformations of creatures.  In this exhibit the artist plays with the possibilities and limits of different media  as well as the connections between the different works of art.  The eternal transformations in these artworks point to instabilities  and possibilities and are “a war against empty space” as culturl critic Juan Carlos Quintero Herencia has observed. With mastery of the reduction method in woodcutting, Marta Pėrez García’s work raises the bar of the possibilities of woodcuts and the uses of color and space.  Marta Pérez García is Winner of the 2001 Grand Prize Latin American & Caribbean Biennal of Printmaking.  In 2007 she had a solo show at Cloitre des Billetes and exhibited at the Grand Palais, Paris, France. She also had a solo show of small
format paintings at Galeria Botello, San Juan Puerto Rico.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE DOWNLOAD ATTACHMENT

GALLERY HOURS: Thu.-Fri. 11am-7pm, Sat. 10am-5pm, Sun. 11am-3pm
www.hffinearts.com – info contact Marvette Perez  240.535-0278 – marvetteperez@verizon.net

Directions to the gallery:
http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=Mount++Rainier&state=MD&address=3311+Rhode+Island+Av.&zipcode=20712&cat=H+%26+F+Finearts+Gallery#a/search/l::3311+Rhode+Island+Ave:Mount+Rainier:MD:20712-2058:US:38.935859:-76.96186:address:Prince+George’s+County/m::11:38.932542:-76.961917:0::/so:H+&+F+Finearts+Gallery:::d::25:::::/e

Posters from the Division of Community Education of Puerto Rico, 1949-1989 Opens at the Smithsonian WASHINGTON, DC.-

“Posters from the Division of Community Education (DIVEDCO) of Puerto Rico, 1949-1989,” on view Sept. 17 through Jan. 18, 2009, at the S. Dillon Ripley Center’s Concourse, highlights Puerto Rican poster art from the 1940s through 1980s. This exhibition was organized by Marvette Perez, curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, and the Smithsonian Latino Center as part of the 2008 program series “Puerto Rico at the Smithsonian.”

The posters in the exhibition were produced by artists enlisted by a government agency known as DIVEDCO, as part of a broader effort to stimulate artistic production in Puerto Rico while transforming its rural population into a model of modern, democratic citizenry. The posters featured in the exhibition illustrate the connection between art and social policy during one of Puerto Rico’s most culturally defining decades—the 1950s—and into the 1980s. Representing the work of some of Puerto Rico’s best graphic artists, the exhibition will include rich educational programming and a film series of short and feature length films.

“DIVEDCO was a unique and powerfully Puerto Rican adaptation of New Deal-era programs, placing art at the service of solving the everyday problems of people on the island,” said Daniel Sheehy, acting director of the Smithsonian Latino Center. “As an incubator, DIVEDCO yielded an entire generation of graphic artists, filmmakers and writers, many of whom, like Rafael Tufiño, Amílcar Tirado and René Marqués, would bring Puerto Rican art to the attention of the world.”

DIVEDCO was signed into law by the first elected governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Muñoz Marín, in 1949. Under Gov. Muñoz Marín’s leadership, the island underwent dramatic changes with increases in urbanization and industrialization projects. The main concerns of the newly minted government were issues of democracy, health, education and the economy. More than a government agency, DIVEDCO was a social and cultural experiment that aimed to reach the masses, especially in remote areas of the island.

These structural and social changes began during the 1930s with President Roosevelt’s New Deal projects, such as the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, aimed at developing the agricultural sector and improving the living conditions of the urban poor and rural populations. DIVEDCO became a pedagogical enterprise that followed in the steps of the Farm Security Administration and the Works Projects Administration, the largest New Deal agency.

DIVEDCO included film, editorial and graphic arts sections that worked together to create didactic films, booklets and posters. These were vehicles for educating Puerto Ricans about democracy, values, civic duty, hygiene and nutrition. They also became aesthetic and social documents about a rural way of life, which was rapidly disappearing. The Film Division was a training ground for Puerto Rican filmmakers, such as Tirado and Luis Maisonet. The Print Workshop also became important for many established and aspiring artists. Isabel Bernal, José Meléndez Contreras, Eduardo Vera Cortés, Lorenzo Homar, Julio Rosado del Valle and Tufiño, among many others, created great art working cooperatively. They worked closely with the filmmakers and the writers of the DIVEDCO Writer’s Workshop in order to create a strong and deep connection among their graphics, films and storylines. The Writer’s Workshop included many important writers such as Marqués, Pedro Juan Soto and Emilio Díaz Valcárcel. Their short stories, texts for the Libros para el Pueblo (Books for the People) and scripts became the basis for the films and the posters advertising them. The camaraderie among these artists reflected their vision for the future of Puerto Rico.

This exhibition is part of the“Puerto Rico at the Smithsonian” programming series, which includes, among other activities and events, a poetry workshop and reading with Puerto Rican scholars, poets and students; a Puerto Rican concert and music workshop; and a traveling exhibition of famed baseball sports legend Roberto Clemente. “Puerto Rico at the Smithsonian,” produced in collaboration with the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, a Smithsonian affiliate, continues the Center’s tradition of highlighting a different Latin culture each year, with this year’s focus on the cultural richness of Puerto Rico.

Mexico’s most awarded film; 13 awards and 6 nominations.
Genre: Art/Foreign, Drama and Politics/Religion. Plot: The quietly dignified Don Plutarco, his son Genaro and grandson Lucio make a humble living as traveling musicians. They also collect supplies and ammunition for the guerrilla movement that has arisen in response to the tyrannical regime. Upon returning to their hometown after one journey, they find it has been occupied by the army and their fellow villagers have been forced into hiding. Genaro leaves to find a way to salvage the supplies. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to his son, Plutarco attempts to recover the ammunition himself and courageously approaches the squad captain.

BRAZIL MOVES, A Month-Long Celebration of Brazilian Life, Arts, Food and Culture
The Brazilian Embassy in Washington, D.C. announced today the launch of “Brazil Moves”, a month long celebration of Brazilian life, arts, food and culture.  From August 22 to September 27, …

Read more online via the Brazilian Embassy Newsletter.

in cooperation with the Association of American Publishers

and Borders Stores Present the September 2008 Selection:

More Than This

by Margo Candela

Join us for discussion on September 17^th at 6:30 pm

Location: 1801 K Street NW (L Street entrance), Washington, DC

Please RSVP at www.lascomadres.org (Book Club)