The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is a classic tragedy of destruction following errors in judgment.  Naomi Zack presents social and political aspects of this disaster as it unfolded in public health through federal and local government structures, society, culture, and the economy.

Federalism combined with politics in facing and denying the SARS-CoV2 pandemic has revealed both weaknesses and strengths.

Naomi Zack is Professor of Philosophy at Lehman College.

RSVP by September 29^th:  https://libcal.lehman.edu/event/8111923?hs=a

*This is an online event - URL will be sent via registration e-mail*

*Registration is required*

Information:  Michelle.Ehrenpreis@lehman.cuny.edu

Meeting ID: 880 3155 5814
Passcode: 8761

Feria Internacional del Libro NYC | New York City International Book Fair

First launched in 2019, this initiative of the CUNY Mexican Studies Institute aims to disseminate academic and literary work published in Spanish—whether in Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, or the United States—and, at the same time, promote better reading habits within Hispanic communities in New York.

This year’s virtual panels and events—which take place Oct. 1 to Oct. 3—will be streamed on Facebook Live through the @FILNYCaccount. Last year, FIL Ciudad de Nueva York brought together scholars and authors from more than a dozen countries, with over 48,000 people attending the virtual conferences, panels, and workshops.

The schedule includes the following event highlights, with many more to be added. Check back daily for updates.

Conversation with Cristina Rivera-Garza
Friday, Oct. 1
1:15 p.m. (EST)

Marco Ramírez Rojas, an assistant Spanish professor at Lehman, will moderate a talk with Rivera-Garza, a prolific and award-winning Mexican writer. Rivera-Garza is the author of six novels, three short story collections, five poetry collections, and three non-fiction books. Originally penned in Spanish, her work has been translated into several languages, including English, Portuguese, and Korean.

How The New York Times Reports to Diverse Audiences
Saturday, Oct. 2
10:00 a.m. (EST)

The New York Times is the third most read newspaper in the United States. In this panel, four Spanish speaking journalists —Elda Cantú, Annie Correal, Andrés R. Martínez and José Enrique Arrioja— discuss the challenges faced and the strategies followed by NYT to reach out to an increasingly diverse audience, both in the United States and abroad.

Racism and Marginalization
Saturday, Oct. 2
12:00 p.m. (EST)

Araceli Tinajero teaches at the Graduate Center (Hispanic Literatures) and is the co-founder of the Mexico Study Group at the Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies where she has been a fellow for more than a decade. In this panel, voices from Argentina, Mexico, Peru and Spain will dialogue on the role that racism, identity, representation and marginalization play in contemporary literature, and how literature can contribute to address them.

Describing the Border, Writing on the Border
Saturday, Oct. 2
1:00 p.m. (EST)

Daniel R. Fernández is Associate Professor at Lehman College and Chair of the Department of Languages and Literature. He will be joined by Sonia Robles, Norma Iglesias Prieto and Daniel Salinas Basave to analyze the meaning and scope of the border between Mexico and the United States as an environment of struggles and challenges as well as creative and audacious proposals in a continuous battle to defend human dignity.

Will We Surpass the Time Barrier in the USA?
Saturday, Oct. 2
2:00 p.m. (EST)

Adriana Pacheco is a Mexican Affiliated Researcher at LLILAS Benson and member of the International Board of Advisors at the University of Texas at Austin. She will guide the conversation with Fernando Olszanski (Argentina), Pedro Medina (Peru) and María Angélica García (Venezuela) regarding the boom of Hispanic literature in the world, as well as new strategies to sell books and get to know the reader.

América Fantástica
Saturday, Oct. 2
3:00 p.m. (EST)

Mariano Villareal, administrator of “Literatura Fantástica” a website specialized on novelties about fantasy literature and Sci-Fi in Spain and renowned anthologist, will guide a panel about the relevance, trends and interests around fantasy and Sci-Fi literature in Latin American. Mariano is joined by a great constellation of authors, namely Edmundo Paz Soldán (Bolivia), Daína Chaviano (Cuba), Martín Felipe Castagnet (Argentina) and Teresa López-Pellisa (Spain).

Between the Breath and the Abyss
Saturday, Oct. 2
4:00 p.m. (EST)

Between the Breath and the Abyss: Poetics on Beauty (Entre el aliento y el precipicio: poéticas sobre la belleza) is a bilingual anthology that collects the ideas of a select group of authors about the presence of beauty in poetry and life. For this panel, Nuria Morgado, an Associate Professor of contemporary Spanish literature at the College of Staten Island and The Graduate Center, will direct the quartet of tallented voices conformed by Raquel Abend (Venezuela), Odette Alonso (Cuba), Keila Vall de la Valle (Venezuela) and Silvia Guerra (Uruguay).

Documentary Screening: Change the Subject
Saturday, Oct. 2
5 p.m. (EST)

Change the Subject presents the story of a group of university students committed to advancing and promoting the rights and dignity of undocumented people from their first days at Dartmouth College. Sparked by an instance of anti-immigrant sentiment in their library catalog, these students carried their advocacy from Dartmouth Library to the halls of Congress. The film shows how an instance of campus activism entered the national spotlight and how a cataloging term became a flashpoint in the immigration debate on Capitol Hill. Melissa Castillo Planas, an assistant professor in Lehman’s Department of English, served as a film producer.

Conversation with Liliana Colanzi
Sunday, Oct. 3
1 p.m. (EST)

Antonio Córdoba Cornejo, an associate professor at Manhattan College who specializes in Spanish-language science fiction, moderates a conversation with Colanzi, a Bolivian writer, editor, and journalist whose research focuses on genres such as science fiction, horror, and the fantastic in modern and contemporary Latin American literature.

Feria Internacional del Libro NYC | New York City International Book Fair

First launched in 2019, this initiative of the CUNY Mexican Studies Institute aims to disseminate academic and literary work published in Spanish—whether in Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, or the United States—and, at the same time, promote better reading habits within Hispanic communities in New York.

This year’s virtual panels and events—which take place Oct. 1 to Oct. 3—will be streamed on Facebook Live through the @FILNYCaccount. Last year, FIL Ciudad de Nueva York brought together scholars and authors from more than a dozen countries, with over 48,000 people attending the virtual conferences, panels, and workshops.

The schedule includes the following event highlights, with many more to be added. Check back daily for updates.

Conversation with Cristina Rivera-Garza
Friday, Oct. 1
1:15 p.m. (EST)

Marco Ramírez Rojas, an assistant Spanish professor at Lehman, will moderate a talk with Rivera-Garza, a prolific and award-winning Mexican writer. Rivera-Garza is the author of six novels, three short story collections, five poetry collections, and three non-fiction books. Originally penned in Spanish, her work has been translated into several languages, including English, Portuguese, and Korean.

How The New York Times Reports to Diverse Audiences
Saturday, Oct. 2
10:00 a.m. (EST)

The New York Times is the third most read newspaper in the United States. In this panel, four Spanish speaking journalists —Elda Cantú, Annie Correal, Andrés R. Martínez and José Enrique Arrioja— discuss the challenges faced and the strategies followed by NYT to reach out to an increasingly diverse audience, both in the United States and abroad.

Racism and Marginalization
Saturday, Oct. 2
12:00 p.m. (EST)

Araceli Tinajero teaches at the Graduate Center (Hispanic Literatures) and is the co-founder of the Mexico Study Group at the Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies where she has been a fellow for more than a decade. In this panel, voices from Argentina, Mexico, Peru and Spain will dialogue on the role that racism, identity, representation and marginalization play in contemporary literature, and how literature can contribute to address them.

Describing the Border, Writing on the Border
Saturday, Oct. 2
1:00 p.m. (EST)

Daniel R. Fernández is Associate Professor at Lehman College and Chair of the Department of Languages and Literature. He will be joined by Sonia Robles, Norma Iglesias Prieto and Daniel Salinas Basave to analyze the meaning and scope of the border between Mexico and the United States as an environment of struggles and challenges as well as creative and audacious proposals in a continuous battle to defend human dignity.

Will We Surpass the Time Barrier in the USA?
Saturday, Oct. 2
2:00 p.m. (EST)

Adriana Pacheco is a Mexican Affiliated Researcher at LLILAS Benson and member of the International Board of Advisors at the University of Texas at Austin. She will guide the conversation with Fernando Olszanski (Argentina), Pedro Medina (Peru) and María Angélica García (Venezuela) regarding the boom of Hispanic literature in the world, as well as new strategies to sell books and get to know the reader.

América Fantástica
Saturday, Oct. 2
3:00 p.m. (EST)

Mariano Villareal, administrator of “Literatura Fantástica” a website specialized on novelties about fantasy literature and Sci-Fi in Spain and renowned anthologist, will guide a panel about the relevance, trends and interests around fantasy and Sci-Fi literature in Latin American. Mariano is joined by a great constellation of authors, namely Edmundo Paz Soldán (Bolivia), Daína Chaviano (Cuba), Martín Felipe Castagnet (Argentina) and Teresa López-Pellisa (Spain).

Between the Breath and the Abyss
Saturday, Oct. 2
4:00 p.m. (EST)

Between the Breath and the Abyss: Poetics on Beauty (Entre el aliento y el precipicio: poéticas sobre la belleza) is a bilingual anthology that collects the ideas of a select group of authors about the presence of beauty in poetry and life. For this panel, Nuria Morgado, an Associate Professor of contemporary Spanish literature at the College of Staten Island and The Graduate Center, will direct the quartet of tallented voices conformed by Raquel Abend (Venezuela), Odette Alonso (Cuba), Keila Vall de la Valle (Venezuela) and Silvia Guerra (Uruguay).

Documentary Screening: Change the Subject
Saturday, Oct. 2
5 p.m. (EST)

Change the Subject presents the story of a group of university students committed to advancing and promoting the rights and dignity of undocumented people from their first days at Dartmouth College. Sparked by an instance of anti-immigrant sentiment in their library catalog, these students carried their advocacy from Dartmouth Library to the halls of Congress. The film shows how an instance of campus activism entered the national spotlight and how a cataloging term became a flashpoint in the immigration debate on Capitol Hill. Melissa Castillo Planas, an assistant professor in Lehman’s Department of English, served as a film producer.

Conversation with Liliana Colanzi
Sunday, Oct. 3
1 p.m. (EST)

Antonio Córdoba Cornejo, an associate professor at Manhattan College who specializes in Spanish-language science fiction, moderates a conversation with Colanzi, a Bolivian writer, editor, and journalist whose research focuses on genres such as science fiction, horror, and the fantastic in modern and contemporary Latin American literature.

Feria Internacional del Libro NYC | New York City International Book Fair

First launched in 2019, this initiative of the CUNY Mexican Studies Institute aims to disseminate academic and literary work published in Spanish—whether in Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, or the United States—and, at the same time, promote better reading habits within Hispanic communities in New York.

This year’s virtual panels and events—which take place Oct. 1 to Oct. 3—will be streamed on Facebook Live through the @FILNYCaccount. Last year, FIL Ciudad de Nueva York brought together scholars and authors from more than a dozen countries, with over 48,000 people attending the virtual conferences, panels, and workshops.

The schedule includes the following event highlights, with many more to be added. Check back daily for updates.

Conversation with Cristina Rivera-Garza
Friday, Oct. 1
1:15 p.m. (EST)

Marco Ramírez Rojas, an assistant Spanish professor at Lehman, will moderate a talk with Rivera-Garza, a prolific and award-winning Mexican writer. Rivera-Garza is the author of six novels, three short story collections, five poetry collections, and three non-fiction books. Originally penned in Spanish, her work has been translated into several languages, including English, Portuguese, and Korean.

How The New York Times Reports to Diverse Audiences
Saturday, Oct. 2
10:00 a.m. (EST)

The New York Times is the third most read newspaper in the United States. In this panel, four Spanish speaking journalists —Elda Cantú, Annie Correal, Andrés R. Martínez and José Enrique Arrioja— discuss the challenges faced and the strategies followed by NYT to reach out to an increasingly diverse audience, both in the United States and abroad.

Racism and Marginalization
Saturday, Oct. 2
12:00 p.m. (EST)

Araceli Tinajero teaches at the Graduate Center (Hispanic Literatures) and is the co-founder of the Mexico Study Group at the Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies where she has been a fellow for more than a decade. In this panel, voices from Argentina, Mexico, Peru and Spain will dialogue on the role that racism, identity, representation and marginalization play in contemporary literature, and how literature can contribute to address them.

Describing the Border, Writing on the Border
Saturday, Oct. 2
1:00 p.m. (EST)

Daniel R. Fernández is Associate Professor at Lehman College and Chair of the Department of Languages and Literature. He will be joined by Sonia Robles, Norma Iglesias Prieto and Daniel Salinas Basave to analyze the meaning and scope of the border between Mexico and the United States as an environment of struggles and challenges as well as creative and audacious proposals in a continuous battle to defend human dignity.

Will We Surpass the Time Barrier in the USA?
Saturday, Oct. 2
2:00 p.m. (EST)

Adriana Pacheco is a Mexican Affiliated Researcher at LLILAS Benson and member of the International Board of Advisors at the University of Texas at Austin. She will guide the conversation with Fernando Olszanski (Argentina), Pedro Medina (Peru) and María Angélica García (Venezuela) regarding the boom of Hispanic literature in the world, as well as new strategies to sell books and get to know the reader.

América Fantástica
Saturday, Oct. 2
3:00 p.m. (EST)

Mariano Villareal, administrator of “Literatura Fantástica” a website specialized on novelties about fantasy literature and Sci-Fi in Spain and renowned anthologist, will guide a panel about the relevance, trends and interests around fantasy and Sci-Fi literature in Latin American. Mariano is joined by a great constellation of authors, namely Edmundo Paz Soldán (Bolivia), Daína Chaviano (Cuba), Martín Felipe Castagnet (Argentina) and Teresa López-Pellisa (Spain).

Between the Breath and the Abyss
Saturday, Oct. 2
4:00 p.m. (EST)

Between the Breath and the Abyss: Poetics on Beauty (Entre el aliento y el precipicio: poéticas sobre la belleza) is a bilingual anthology that collects the ideas of a select group of authors about the presence of beauty in poetry and life. For this panel, Nuria Morgado, an Associate Professor of contemporary Spanish literature at the College of Staten Island and The Graduate Center, will direct the quartet of tallented voices conformed by Raquel Abend (Venezuela), Odette Alonso (Cuba), Keila Vall de la Valle (Venezuela) and Silvia Guerra (Uruguay).

Documentary Screening: Change the Subject
Saturday, Oct. 2
5 p.m. (EST)

Change the Subject presents the story of a group of university students committed to advancing and promoting the rights and dignity of undocumented people from their first days at Dartmouth College. Sparked by an instance of anti-immigrant sentiment in their library catalog, these students carried their advocacy from Dartmouth Library to the halls of Congress. The film shows how an instance of campus activism entered the national spotlight and how a cataloging term became a flashpoint in the immigration debate on Capitol Hill. Melissa Castillo Planas, an assistant professor in Lehman’s Department of English, served as a film producer.

Conversation with Liliana Colanzi
Sunday, Oct. 3
1 p.m. (EST)

Antonio Córdoba Cornejo, an associate professor at Manhattan College who specializes in Spanish-language science fiction, moderates a conversation with Colanzi, a Bolivian writer, editor, and journalist whose research focuses on genres such as science fiction, horror, and the fantastic in modern and contemporary Latin American literature.

Subverting Genre

It is often the writer who dwells on the future that shows us the darkness of our own age. In this seminar we will be surveying multiple facets of genre fiction to discover what is possible outside the confines of “traditional” literature. Our goal will be to observe both the strengths and the weaknesses of each novel we explore to better understand what can be learned, borrowed, or adapted to our own work. Special care will be given to the prejudices or problematic aspects that may or may not exist within each novel with an aim of learning to subvert such tropes. While it is beyond the bounds of this course to be all-encompassing, the booklist has been designed to give solid introductions to Afro-futurism, historical speculative fiction, Lovecraftian cosmic horror, and 1960’s American science fiction.

Participants must access their own copies of the following texts:

October 9: Clay’s Ark, Octavia Butler

November 6: Ledfeather, Stephen Graham Jones

December 4: The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor LaValle

January 8: VALIS, Philip K. Dick

When: On Zoom, Saturdays, 10a-12p
10/9, 11/6, 12/4, 1/8
Cost: $125
Register by Oct 8: https://bit.ly/3jT8aKC

Subverting Genre

It is often the writer who dwells on the future that shows us the darkness of our own age. In this seminar we will be surveying multiple facets of genre fiction to discover what is possible outside the confines of “traditional” literature. Our goal will be to observe both the strengths and the weaknesses of each novel we explore to better understand what can be learned, borrowed, or adapted to our own work. Special care will be given to the prejudices or problematic aspects that may or may not exist within each novel with an aim of learning to subvert such tropes. While it is beyond the bounds of this course to be all-encompassing, the booklist has been designed to give solid introductions to Afro-futurism, historical speculative fiction, Lovecraftian cosmic horror, and 1960’s American science fiction.

Participants must access their own copies of the following texts:

October 9: Clay’s Ark, Octavia Butler

November 6: Ledfeather, Stephen Graham Jones

December 4: The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor LaValle

January 8: VALIS, Philip K. Dick

When: On Zoom, Saturdays, 10a-12p
10/9, 11/6, 12/4, 1/8
Cost: $125
Register by Oct 8: https://bit.ly/3jT8aKC

Writers are often told, “write what you know,” but that doesn’t mean memoir is not a deeply imaginative process. In this reading and discussion group, we will examine one text per month and discuss the ways in which experimental writers are bending the boundaries of memory and redefining what “autobiography” constitutes. We will experiment with different forms, modalities and narrative structures as participants repackage their own experiences into unique ways of telling their story. A second semester of this workshop will be offered in the spring with a different book list.

Participants must access their own copies of the following texts:

October 16: In the Dream House, Carmen Maria Machado

November 13: Dictee, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

December 11: Jane: A Murder, Maggie Nelson

January 15: The Yellow House, Sarah M. Broom

When: On Zoom, Saturdays, 10am-12pm
10/16, 11/13, 12/11, 1/15
Cost: $125
Register by Oct 15: https://bit.ly/3jTRbYF

New York City Writing Project (NYCWP) has designed the Writers’ Residency to foster the teacher-as-writer as they engage in an intensive and intimate writing workshop experience. Writers will read, write, workshop, and learn together to improve their writing craft and explore publication options. Writers of all levels are encouraged to apply. Past residency participants may join this residency program.

When: October 7-December 16, 2021, Thursdays (10 sessions), 6pm-9pm

Who: Writers of all levels

Where: Online, Zoom

Cost: $300

Apply by September 27: https://bit.ly/3By6P29  

Contact: Jane K. Higgins, jane.higgins@lehman.cuny.edu

New York City Writing Project (NYCWP) has designed the Writers’ Residency to foster the teacher-as-writer as they engage in an intensive and intimate writing workshop experience. Writers will read, write, workshop, and learn together to improve their writing craft and explore publication options. Writers of all levels are encouraged to apply. Past residency participants may join this residency program.

When: October 7-December 16, 2021, Thursdays (10 sessions), 6pm-9pm

Who: Writers of all levels

Where: Online, Zoom

Cost: $300

Apply by September 27: https://bit.ly/3By6P29  

Contact: Jane K. Higgins, jane.higgins@lehman.cuny.edu

Subverting Genre

It is often the writer who dwells on the future that shows us the darkness of our own age. In this seminar we will be surveying multiple facets of genre fiction to discover what is possible outside the confines of “traditional” literature. Our goal will be to observe both the strengths and the weaknesses of each novel we explore to better understand what can be learned, borrowed, or adapted to our own work. Special care will be given to the prejudices or problematic aspects that may or may not exist within each novel with an aim of learning to subvert such tropes. While it is beyond the bounds of this course to be all-encompassing, the booklist has been designed to give solid introductions to Afro-futurism, historical speculative fiction, Lovecraftian cosmic horror, and 1960’s American science fiction.

Participants must access their own copies of the following texts:

October 9: Clay’s Ark, Octavia Butler

November 6: Ledfeather, Stephen Graham Jones

December 4: The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor LaValle

January 8: VALIS, Philip K. Dick

When: On Zoom, Saturdays, 10a-12p
10/9, 11/6, 12/4, 1/8
Cost: $125
Register by Oct 8: https://bit.ly/3jT8aKC

New York City Writing Project (NYCWP) has designed the Writers’ Residency to foster the teacher-as-writer as they engage in an intensive and intimate writing workshop experience. Writers will read, write, workshop, and learn together to improve their writing craft and explore publication options. Writers of all levels are encouraged to apply. Past residency participants may join this residency program.

When: October 7-December 16, 2021, Thursdays (10 sessions), 6pm-9pm

Who: Writers of all levels

Where: Online, Zoom

Cost: $300

Apply by September 27: https://bit.ly/3By6P29  

Contact: Jane K. Higgins, jane.higgins@lehman.cuny.edu

Writers are often told, “write what you know,” but that doesn’t mean memoir is not a deeply imaginative process. In this reading and discussion group, we will examine one text per month and discuss the ways in which experimental writers are bending the boundaries of memory and redefining what “autobiography” constitutes. We will experiment with different forms, modalities and narrative structures as participants repackage their own experiences into unique ways of telling their story. A second semester of this workshop will be offered in the spring with a different book list.

Participants must access their own copies of the following texts:

October 16: In the Dream House, Carmen Maria Machado

November 13: Dictee, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

December 11: Jane: A Murder, Maggie Nelson

January 15: The Yellow House, Sarah M. Broom

When: On Zoom, Saturdays, 10am-12pm
10/16, 11/13, 12/11, 1/15
Cost: $125
Register by Oct 15: https://bit.ly/3jTRbYF