Events
The Making of a Democracy: The Importance of Activism & Civic Engagement
When: October 29, 2024
Time: 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM ET
Where: CUNY LaGuardia College (Room E-500) or join us virtually via Zoom
Afro-Diasporic Ocean Festival
Join us on September 1, 2024, at the NYC Parks Far Rockaways Amphitheater for the first Afro-Diasporic Ocean Festival! Celebrate Afro-Diasporic music and culture with captivating performances by Tambacum, a cupe brooklyn and a captivating dialogue hosted by us, Afrolatinoforum.
Come see the stage designs by local arts organization buena onda collective who use recycled materials from beach clean ups in their art and work with local community surf education organization laru beya surfing. We will also be having a special workshop with Laru Beya youth joined by Tambacum and @Reoceancom.
Join us for our special after party hosted by Rockaway’s the surf lot pharm.nyc and phase_surf with Special Guest DJ madame vacile . Book your ticket for the after party as spots are limited!
RSVP to our free event and enter to WIN artist merch. We’re excited to celebrate with you on the beach this Labor Day Weekend!
The Dimensionality of Being Afro-Latine
Join us for the exciting finale of the first phase of our "Absolutamente Negro" series! We'll explore the diverse landscape of AfroLatinx identities, celebrating the vibrant spectrum of our community. "AfroLatinx" is not a one-size-fits-all label. We encompass AfroLatinidades, a rich tapestry woven from varied experiences, perspectives, and struggles. This closing event delves into the multi-dimensional reality of being AfroLatinx, exploring how varied issues like education, law enforcement, economic representation, and reproductive justice shape the unique fabric and future of our communities.
This event will feature prominent figures, including academic scholars, community leaders, and cultural activists, who will engage in a stimulating conversation to address the complexities of Afro-Latinidad. The conversation will be moderated by Natasha S. Alford, award-winning journalist, digital host, and millennial media executive and author of American Negra; among the panelists are Mariel Acosta Matos, PhD student at the CUNY Graduate Center; Beatriz Beckford, artist, organizer, and strategist; Rosa Alicia Clemente, award-winning organizer, speaker, political commentator, producer, independent journalist, scholar-activist, and former vice-presidential candidate; Led Black, Dominican-American writer, blogger, filmmaker and entrepreneur; Mellissa Valle, assistant professor of Sociology and Africana Studies, Rutgers University-Newark. Hosted by Joy L. Bivins, Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; remarks by Guesnerth Josue Perea & Marta Moreno Vega; and a poetry reading by Stephanie Pacheco who is the newly named National Youth Poet Laureate of the United States.
Afro-Latinxs Now: Dialogues on Law, Education, and Diaspora
Our vibrant community of Afro-Latinxs faces unique challenges in navigating education, legal systems, and expressing their identities. This timely event dives into the recent nullification of affirmative action and its implications for access to equal opportunities. We'll also discuss the concerning rise of book bans and their impact on representation, diverse narratives and how this affects education equity. Join us for a crucial conversation with experts exploring the intersections of law, education, and the African diaspora.
The Intentionality Of Building And Sustaining Afro-latino/a/e/x And Latinx Institutions
Despite their vital role in anti-racism and community building, AfroLatinx organizations struggle with chronic underfunding. Limited resources hinder initiatives slowing the movement's progress. Despite that, many AfroLatinx organizations and institutions have continued to educate, empower and enlighten the Latinx community. Join us for a crucial discussion on empowering AfroLatinx and Latinx institutions and why we need to support the building and sustainability of these institutions. Learn why intentional investment is essential and gain actionable strategies to break down funding barriers.
Sharing Black Latine Stories
Black Latine stories are often overlooked due to the the misunderstanding of just how many people of African descent could also be identified as Latine. Join us for a conversation with Boston AfroLatine leaders who will share their experiences, and we'll celebrate the release of "The Afro-Latino Memoir" by Trent Masiki.
RSVP For Sharing Black Latine Stories
Reframing Environmental Justice
At the Intersection of Environmental Gentrification, Urban Displacement, Race, Class, and Migrations. (Cumbre Afro - Universidad de Puerto Rico , RP)
This profound conversation will delve into the complex web where environmental gentrification, urban displacement, race, class, and migration converge, exposing how the current climate crisis amplifies existing social injustices and how our Afro-Latinx communities can work to rectify these injustices.
Rekindling And Strengthening Our Ancestral Ties
Reconnecting the Severed Links between People of African Descent in the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Afro-Latin Diaspora (Cumbre Afro - Universidad de Puerto Rico , RP)
Join us for a critical conversation exploring the historical threads of connection and solidarity among Afro-Latinx communities across the Caribbean, Latin America, and the broader diaspora. We'll delve into the forces that have severed these links and brainstorm actionable steps towards reclaiming unity, amplifying our voices, and continuing the fight for Black liberation.
Revolutionary Blackness: AfroLatinidad & Radical Movements
In a critical moment for Black liberation, "Revolutionary Blackness: AfroLatinidad & Radical Movements" brings together a conversation exploring the vital contributions of AfroLatines to Black activism and liberation struggles. Scholar and activist Dr. Johanna Fernandez, renowned poet and activist Felipe Luciano, scholar and author Jamal Joseph, and others will engage in a dynamic dialogue that examines the past, present, and future of AfroLatine involvement in revolutionary movements.
Racism and Colorism in Latinidad
Join us for a critical discussion on how racism and anti-Blackness continue to permeate our society, particularly within the complexities of Latinidad. Through the lens of Afro-Latine experiences in Los Angeles, we'll explore how these forces manifest in realms like media representation, economic opportunity, and education. Expert panelists and community voices will offer insights and perspectives on navigating these challenges and fostering pathways towards racial justice within Latinidad.
Ni de aquí, Ni de allá
Embracing multifaceted identities as Afro-Latinos/as/xs, woven from African and colonial European legacies, we must confront the reality that some within our cultural community, often due to the miseducation ingrained in Eurocentric systems, reinforce anti-Black practices like colorism and discrimination. Studies estimate Afro-descendants in Latin America to number approximately 250 million, highlighting the vastness and importance of this struggle. This event delves into these nuanced experiences, exploring how Afro-Latino/a/xs navigate these intersecting identities to forge a complete sense of self and center Blackness within our lived realities and how we combat these biases through education, representation, and dismantling Eurocentric power structure.
AfroLatinas' Realities
Join us for an illuminating conversation that delves into the multifaceted experiences, the challenges and realities of Afro-Latinas across the Americas. As we gather to explore the themes of racism, healthcare, economics, and education, we will uncover the layers of complexity, challenges and inequities that Afro-Latina women navigate daily
Tune In:
Contextualizing Absolutamente Negro/a/x - A conversation
Contextualizing Absolutamente Negro/a/x: A conversation
Wednesday, October 18th @ 6:30pm
The Creative Justice Initiative, in collaboration with the afrolatin@ forum, will launch a conversation series titled "The Practice of Freedom Conversation Series: Absolutamente Negro/a/x - Absolutely Black" in November 2023. This series will explore specific topics on race, representation, and power in the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and how they affect Afro-Latins, and African descendents in Latin America and the Caribbean. Each conversation will highlight Afro-Latin and Afro-descendent thinkers and cultural workers, and will take place in institutional spaces that have supported Afro-descendent people.
The event "Contextualizing Absolutamente Negro/a/x" will serve as an introduction to the series and will explore why the conversation series is important now, why we still need to address the Blackness of Afro-Latin and Afro-descendents in Latin America and the Caribbean, and how we can continue to support anti-racist struggles throughout the region and beyond. Hosted by Janel Martinez, with Dr. Marta Moreno Vega, Rafaela Uribe, Josue Perea and others.
This conversation series will provide a space for Afro-Latinx and Afro-descendants from the Americas and the Caribbean to share their experiences and perspectives on race, representation, and power. It will also help to raise awareness of the challenges faced by Afro-descendants in the United States, Latin American and the Caribbean, and promote anti-racist dialogue and action.
Boat People: A Conversation
Join us and The Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center, Small Axe, Cafe con Libros, Proyecto de Diversificación Académica en Estudios de Afrodescendencia y Racialización, UPR, Cumbre Afro, and La Casa de Las Américas, LGCC for a conversation with Mayra Santos-Febres, author, and Vanessa Pérez-Rosario, translator, of the award-winning poetry collection Boat People (Cardboard House Press, 2021). They will discuss the inspiration for the book and the themes of immigration and belonging that are explored in the book. Join us!
Mayra Santos-Febres was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico 1966. She studied
literature at the University of Puerto Rico and a Ph. D. at Cornell University.
She has been a visiting scholar at Rutgers (1992), Cornell (1994) and Harvard University
(2004) as well as Complutense University in Spain (2013), Autonomous University of
México, at Yucatán campus (2008) and Leipzing University in Holland (2005). She co-
created the Creative Writing Program for the University of Puerto Rico, and founded
and directed
The Word/ Festival de la Palabra, the most internationally recognized Literary
Festival in Puerto Rico (2010-2009) . Content Coordinator of Interdisciplinary and
Multicultural Institute at the UPR, Mayra Santos-Febres in currently the Principal
Investigator for the development of University of Puerto Rico’s Afro Diasporic and Race
Studies Program, which has been recently awarded with a Mellon Foundation grant
for academic
diversification.
Vanessa Pérez-Rosario is a translator and professor of English at Queens College and professor of Latin
American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures at the Graduate Center, CUNY. She is the author of Becoming
Julia de Burgos: The Making of a Puerto Rican Icon (2014) published in Spanish as Julia de Burgos: la
c reación de un ícono puertorriqueño (2022) is a finalist for the International Latino Book Award 2023.
She is editor of Hispanic Caribbean Literature of Migration: Narratives of Displacement (Palgrave 2010)
and translator of Boat People (2021) by Mayra Santos-Febres, which received honorable mention for the
International Latino Book Award 2023. She is currently working on a bilingual critical edition titled “I Am
My Own Path: The Writings of Julia de Burgos” (University of Texas Press, 2024). She is managing editor
of Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism.
Enshrining Blackness: Afro-Latinidad & the K-12 Curriculum
Afrodescendants make up more than a quarter of the Latin American population and its diasporas. And yet, the representation of Latinidad is overwhelmingly Mestizo. Can K12 classrooms be used to expand understandings of the African Diaspora and to combat anti-Blackness through lesson plans and curricula that center AfroLatines? What is the difference between “representation” and infusion (and why does it matter)? And, how do you get started? Join us for a panel discussion with educators, consultants, and public humanities scholars who are tackling these difficult questions, creating resources, curating communities, and enshrining Blackness across subjects and grade levels.
Speakers
Ïxkári Estelle (they/them) is a South-Central Los Angeles born and raised Black queer diasporeñe. They are an educator, writer, researcher, and community care worker. They hold a B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an M.A in English from the University of California, Riverside. Ïxkári’s academic and curatorial work is on hemispheric kinships of Black queer performance art practices across live and digital mediums; they have a particular focus on Black American and Black Latinx transfem artists. They have 7 years of experience proofreading and copyediting diverse materials; collaboratively developing and presenting classroom content; designing social justice-oriented community experiences; and otherwise working with learners. Ïxkári is especially passionate about increasing the accessibility, cultural relevance, and baselines of care that make up every space they are in, from their curated events to their home spice cabinet. Ïxkári facilitates a cohort of teachers working to infuse K12 curriculum with Afrolatinidad through Cal State San Bernardino’s Afrolatinizamos initiative, supported by the Department of Ethnic Studies and the campus Anthropology Museum’s Afróntalo exhibition.
Dr. William Garcia-Medina
is currently a Charles Phelps Taft Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of
Cincinnati. His research focuses on Black diasporic public humanities, AfroLatinx education,
cultural studies, and museum studies. García-Medina has provided educational consulting,
training, and workshops for numerous organizations, universities, school districts, and museums.
He has taught courses in Latino Studies, American Studies, and Black Studies and has published in
these fields in academic journals, blogs, and podcasts. García-Medina has contributed to Latino
Rebels since 2015 and has been a guest on national broadcast radio such as Latino USA and
NPR. He tweets from @afrolatinoed.
Jenniffer Whyte is a native from the Dominican Republic who currently resides in Anniston, Alabama. She is a Spanish teacher, a mother of five, Podcaster (Afro-Latina Teacher in the Rural South), Blogger, and Zumba instructor. She is a national presenter to teachers all over the United States. She's on the board of directors for the American Council for Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP). She was the 2021 Alabama AWLA Teacher of the Year, the 2021 SCOLT Southern Region Teacher of the Year, and a finalist for the 2022 National Teacher of the Year. Jenniffer loves to travel with students and has attended several trips in the United States, Europe, the Caribbean, and Central America.
Yahusef Medina serves as the director of Community Initiatives at Virginia Humanities, the
state’s humanities council headquartered at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va. In
his role, Mr. Medina provides leadership and expertise in broadening and strengthening
community partnerships statewide. Mr. Medina leads the Virginia HBCU Scholars fellowship, the
Virginia African American Cultural Resources Task Force, and works across the organization to
co-design and develop educational content. Prior to his current role, Mr. Medina worked with
youth and families in the K-12 public school system as well as the juvenile justice system as an
education and re-entry program specialist in Harlem, N.Y. In addition to his work at Virginia
Humanities, Mr. Medina serves on the board of directors for Canary Academy Online, the
AfroLatin@ Forum, as chair of the Education and Career Training committee for the Virginia
Latino Advisory Board, and is also a visiting scholar at the Center for Minority Serving
Institutions in the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University.
Manuel Mendez is a University of Maryland Ph.D. student (College of Information Studies) whose scholarship focuses on Afro-Latino history in the D.C. metropolitan region. A documentary producer and archival activist, Manuel is a frequent invited panelist and speaker on Latino identity, Black cultural memory and heritage, and anti-Black racial oppression among Spanish-Speaking and/or white supremacist communities. Manuel's scholarship draws from his extensive experience with youth organizing, bilingual public library service, and grassroots oral history work. His work has been recognized and utilized by Politics & Prose, Hola Cultura, Univision, the Office of the D.C. Mayor, and various universities across the U.S.
Book Release: "Plantains and Our Becoming"
Book Release: "Plantains and Our Becoming" by Melania Luisa Marte and Cleyvis Natera.
Join us in celebrating this new, imaginative, blistering, beautifully written poetry collection about identity and history on the island of the Dominican Republic and Haiti to celebrate and center the Black Diasporic experience.
About “Plantains and Our Becoming”
A powerful poetry collection in the vein of BLACK GIRL CALL HOME and IF THEY COME FOR US, about identity, culture, home and belonging. PLANTAINS AND OUR BECOMING is an imaginative, blistering, beautifully written poetry collection about identity and history on the island of the Dominican Republic and Haiti to celebrate and center the Black Diasporic experience.
Through the exploration of the themes of self-love, nationalism, displacement, generational traumas, and ancestral knowledge, this collection uproots Black stereotypes while creating a new joyous vision for Black identity and personhood, one that is deeply grounded in the heirlooms and teachings of Black celebration as well as preservation.
The collection is structured in the following sections: Part I: Daughter of Diaspora, exploring immigration and identity within the U.S. Part II: A History of Plantains, exploring the aftermath of colonialism, displacement and gentrification for Afro-descendants.
About the Author:
Melania Luisa Marte is a writer, poet, and speaker from New York living in the Dominican Republic. Marte's poetry explores many subjects including her Caribbean roots, intersectionality, and self-love. Her most viral poem “Afro-Latina” was featured by Instagram on their IG TV for National Poetry Month and has garnered over 9 million views. Her work has also been featured by Ain’t I Latina, Mitu, The Root, Teen Vogue, Facebook, Telemundo, Remezcla, Pop Sugar, and People En Español. PLANTAINS AND OUR BECOMING is her debut poetry collection.
About our Conversation Partner:
Cleyvis Natera is an essayist, short fiction writer, critic and novelist. Her debut novel Neruda on the Park was an anticipated book of 2022 by TIME, the Today Show, Good Morning America’s Zibby Owens, ELLE, Ms Magazine, Bustle, Goodreads, Book Riot, Entertainment Weekly, The Millions, Electric Literature, Lit Hub and The Rumpus. Upon publication, Neruda on the Park was selected as a May 2022 New York Times Editor’s Choice and as the June 2022 pick for Nobel Laurate Malala Yousafzai’s Fearless Literati Book Club. Natera was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New York City. She’s received honors from PEN America, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Hermitage Artist Retreat, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation (VONA). Her fiction, essays and criticism have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, URSA Fiction, Alien Nation: 36 True Tales of Immigration, The Brooklyn Rail, TIME, The Rumpus, Gagosian Quarterly, The Washington Post, The Kenyon Review, Aster(ix) and Kweli Journal, among other publications. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Skidmore College and a Master of Fine Arts from New York University. Cleyvis worked a corporate job in insurance for two decades ascending to the executive level before pivoting her career to become a full-time writer. She lives with her husband and two young children in Montclair, New Jersey.
La Apropiación de la Cultura AfroColombiana
En los últimos años hemos visto más y más apropiación de la cultura afrocolombiana en los ámbitos de música, gastronomía y la cultura en general. Esta conversación, hecha en homenaje a el día de la AfroColombianidad y con honor a los 30 años de la Ley 70, tocara como es que las personas AfroColombianas en los Estados Unidos tratan con la apropiación cultural y que debemos hacer para honrar a la negritud de forma apropiada.
In recent years we have seen more and more the appropriation of Afro-Colombian culture in the fields of music, gastronomy and other aspects of the culture in general. This conversation, held in homage to AfroColombian Day and in honor of the 30th anniversary of Law #70, will touch on how AfroColombians in the United States deal with cultural appropriation and what we must do to honor Blackness in a proper way.
Race and Puerto Ricans: A Conversation
A conversation moderated by Dr. Zaire Dinzey-Flores with Dr. Marta Moreno Vega, founder of Creative Justice Initiative and co-founder of Corredor Afro, Dr. Mayra Santos-Febres, Investigadora Principal del Proyecto de Diversificación Académica en Afrodescendencia y Racialización de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, and Nasheli Ortiz González, Executive Director of Taller Puertorriqueño, on race and the Puerto Rican identity.
As the Afro-Latino Coalition embarked on the recent "LatinoIsNotaRace" campaign, there were many conversations on how different populations identified their race and ethnicity on the census. This conversation seeks to focus that discussion on Puerto Ricans, who are affected by any changes on the way that Race and Ethnicity would be captured on the US Census. The conversation seeks to discuss experiences from Puerto Ricans, who have lived on the Island and/or the US, and what their learnings tell us about how Puerto Ricans discuss/identify with/understand Race and what that tells us, if anything, about other Latinidades and their understandings of Race.
AfroLatin@s Now Conversaciones: Migrations & Black Erasure
Online
Join us for a celebration of three recently released books that all talk about AfroLatinidad and Migrations. We will have a conversation with Dr. Kaysha Corinealdi author or "Panama in Black,” Dr. Milagros Denis-Rosario author of "Drops of Inclusivity" and Dr. Marisel Moreno author of "Crossing Waters,” hosted by Manuel Mendez, President of the DC AfroLatino Caucus. Join us in this conversation about movement, migrations and AfroLatinidad.
Día Internacional de la Mujer AfroLatinx, AfroCaribeñx y de la Diáspora
Online
In an effort to continue the fight for Black Feminist Liberation, several AfroLatinx groups in the U.S. have partnered to bring together a discussion on the International Day of Black, Afro Latinx, and Afro-Caribbean women on July 25, 2022. The effort is led by IamNegrx, International Alianza de Mujeres Negrx, and co-hosted by the International Society of Black Latinos, located in Los Angeles, the DC AfroLatino Caucus, Located in Washington, DC, AfroResistance, an international organization with headquarters in NYC and the afrolatin@ forum, from NYC. This event is joined by NBCUniversal Telemundo’s El Poder En Ti initiative to elevate awareness of the need for equity in the Latinx community.
AfroLatin@s Now Conversaciones: Mestilegio
Online
AfroLatin@s Now Conversaciones: Mestilegio is a conversation on how AfroLatinidad is moving beyond visibility and disrupting the myth of mestizaje and will center on how AfroLatiné communities are centering Blackness.
Book Celebration: Finding La Negrita
Online
This program is presented by the
Center on Race, Law and Justice in conjunction with the AfroLatin@ Forum; Fordham University's Office of Multicultural Affairs and Fordham University's Office of the Chief Diversity Officer.
Book Celebration:Racial Innocence
Online
This program is presented by the
Center on Race, Law and Justice in conjunction with the AfroLatin@ Forum; Fordham University's Office of Multicultural Affairs and Fordham University's Office of the Chief Diversity Officer.
Book Celebration:The Dominican Republic's Border Campaign Against Haiti, 1930-1961 by Edward Paulino
Online
This program is presented by the
Center on Race, Law and Justice in conjunction with the AfroLatin@ Forum; Fordham University's Office of Multicultural Affairs and Fordham University's Office of the Chief Diversity Officer.