Meet the Peace Agents: FBI and TBI present Gang Awareness
Belcourt Theater
11 a.m.
Tuesday, September 20
"A Crisis of Representation: Violence, Mexico, and Performance."
Lecturer Kirsten F. Nigro, professor of Spanish at UTEP, is a noted scholar whose research has focused on Latin American theater, popular culture, and border issues. Her visit to Vanderbilt is sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the Center for Latin American Studies, and the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities.
123 Wilson Hall, Vanderbilt University
3:10 p.m.
Tuesday, September 20
Sing Your Art Out
In the key of peace, tune into some songs of love and hope and let your “art” speak on hearts you can decorate with your message. Once the evening is over, we’ll place the hearts all over the city where unsuspecting people will receive a secret smile. A silent auction of “heart” work will help support The Peace Dragon’s Peace Master Class, a “living peace” curriculum crated through an international collaboration of teachers, principals and policy makers in a program which aims to establish peace as the default mechanism for conflict. It is a free program and will be offered in the multiple languages.
The Listening Room, 209 10th Ave S # 200, Nashville, TN 37203-4124
7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Tuesday, September 20
The Long Struggle for Freedom in Latin America
Vanderbilt Center for Latin American Studies Teacher Workshop; Vanderbilt Campus. For more information and to register, contact claire.p.gonzalez@vanderbilt.edu
9:00 a.m.
Wednesday, September 21
10 Days of Peace Grand Finale / 30th Anniversary International Day of Peace
Centennial Park Bandshell
Come celebrate world peace together.
7:15 PM – 8:15 PM
Wednesday, September 21
Gypsy Fire flamenco dancing, Great Performances at Vanderbilt
Spain’s flamenco superstar and former dancer with the National Ballet of Spain - a celebrated troupe of dancers, singers, and musicians showcase the art of flamenco. Langford Auditorium, Vanderbilt University. “The public, on their feet, didn’t rip their shirts, but applauded to the point of exhaustion.” —El Pais, Spain
7:30 p.m.
Thursday, Sept. 22
Storytelling on Afro-Latin America
11:30am; Downtown Public Library
Saturday, September 24
2nd Graduation of Plaza Comunitaria
Plaza Comunitaria was developed by the Mexican Government to provide Mexican and Latino adults living abroad the opportunity to continue and improve their education. The organization offers adult literacy programs, ESL Classes and Citizenship classes as well. The Honorable Salvador De Lara, Mexican Consul in Atlanta, will be present. RSVP to Mayra Yu-Morales at plazacomunitaria@email.toast.net
In the gym of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, 3112 Nolensville Road.
5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, September 28
Brown Bag Lunch with Tony Brown "The Social Construction of Race in Brazil: Findings from the 2002 Belo Horizonte Area Study"
12pm; Vanderbilt University; Buttrick 123. Space is limited; please email alma.paz-sanmiguel@vanderbilt.edu to RSVP
Friday, September 30
In 1995 Scarritt-Bennett Center, a Nashville conference, retreat, and education center recognized a need within the rapidly growing and changing Nashville community. The population was becoming more diversified and people were in need of ways to understand and appreciate each other’s differences. The Celebration of Cultures was established to provide an avenue for different cultures to share their traditions through music, dance, activities, food, and crafts. The event, held each summer on the grounds of Scarritt-Bennett Center initially attracted around 2500 people. Over time the popularity of the event grew and outgrew the facilities of SBC. In 2006, a partnership was formed with Scarritt-Bennett Center and Nashville Metro Parks and the festival expanded and moved to its new location at Centennial Park, becoming an annual October event. The festival continued to grow over the next few years and last year saw more than 40,000 people in attendance. And, after 14 years, Scarritt-Bennett Center passed the torch of leadership exclusively over to Nashville Metro Parks. The focus and mission of the festival remains the same, encompassing over 50 cultures that live in Nashville through dance, music, visual arts, a children’s area, a Teens United Area, an educational Global Village, and exotic food samplings.
Free Admission
10 am - 6 pm
Saturday, October 1
José Torres Tama Performance Art, Great Performances at Vanderbilt
Aliens, Immigrants, & Other Evildoers – adult language; 7:30 p.m.; Student Life Center; Not for the faint of heart, the series launches with the radical Latino performance artist and writer who lives by his doctrine – make art that matters. “Torres Tama treads that dangerously vague turf of performance art gracefully … with dexterity and daring” —The Village Voice
Wednesday, Oct. 5
Sister Cities’ Third Annual World of Friendship
A gathering to bring Nashvillians together to celebrate the exciting diversity that marks our community and our world. This year’s silent auction and reception will take place at Nashville’s Farmer’s Market. Local restaurants and caterers will offer regional and international fare, and the amazing silent auction will feature an international theme. The ticket price is $40 for Sister Cities members, $50 for non-members, and $85 for admission to the fundraiser plus a one-year Sister Cities membership.
5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, October 6
Nueva Vida, Nuevo Trabajo (translated as "new life, new work")
Highlights the work of professional and non-professional artists from Nashville’s growing and diverse Hispanic population including Orlando García Camacho, Antonieta Capdevila, Aida Costner, Yuri Cunza, Adolfo Dávila, Gladys Escobar, Gil Veda, Alba Gonzalez-Nylander, John D. Griffin, Megan Kelley, Zolita Mojica, Mario Moreno, Inés Negri, Jairo Prado, Mike Quiñones Gonzalez, Sandra Rivera, Kathryn García Smith, Liliana Vélez and Yenny Walker. Metro Arts Gallery, 800 2nd Avenue South, 4th Floor, Nashville, TN.
Through October 7, 2011
Journeys: An Exhibit by Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons
In collaboration with the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Vanderbilt's Center for Latin American Studies will welcome as Visiting Resource Professor María Magdalena Campos-Pons, whose work symbolically follows the African Diaspora from her family’s origin in Nigeria to Cuba, where they worked in the sugar industry, to present day Boston, where Campos-Pons now lives and teaches art.
Frist Center for the Visual Arts
October 7, 2011-January 9, 2012
Tennessee Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Hispanic Heritage Month Lunch
The Sheraton Downtown Nashville, 623 Union Street, Nashville, TN
For more information: http://www.tnhcc.org/thcc_event11.htm
11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Tuesday, October 11
Austin Peay State University’s Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration Dinner
Presented by APSU Hispanic Alumni Chapter and the National Alumni Association. Morgan University Center (rooms 308-310).
6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Thursday, October 13
Exhibit Opening of Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons: Mama/Reciprocal Energy
Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery. Runs through December 8, 2011
Thursday, October 13
Southern Festival of Books
A number of Latino writers, including the following:
Helena Mesa, born and raised in Pittsburgh to Cuban parents. She holds an M.F.A. from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. from the University of Houston. Her poems have appeared in such journals as Barrow Street, Bat City Review, Indiana Review, Poet Lore, and Third Coast. She is currently co-editing a collection of essays, Mentor & Muse: From Poets to Poets. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan and is an assistant professor of English at Albion College. Lisa D. Chavez, a poet and memoirist who lives in the mountains of New Mexico. She has two books of poetry published, In an Angry Season and Destruction Bay and has had work included in such collections as Mentor and Muse: Essays from Poets to Poets, The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity, and Camino del Sol: Fifteen Years of Latina and Latino Writing. Lorraine López - her short story collection, Soy la Avon Lady and Other Stories won the inaugural Miguel Marmól prize for fiction. Her second book, Call Me Henri, was awarded the Paterson Prize for Young Adult Literature, and her novel, The Gifted Gabaldón Sisters was a Borders/Las Comadres Selection for the month of November in 2008. López's short story collection, Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories was a Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Prize in Fiction in 2010. Her most recent work is a novel, The Realm of Hungry Spirits, published by Grand Central Press in May, and a collection of essays, The Other Latin@, co-edited with Blas Falconer, which will be released fall 2011 from the University of Arizona Press. www.lorrainelopez.net Justin Torres grew up in upstate New York, where this novel is set. His work has appeared in Granta, Tin House, and Glimmer Train. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he is a recipient of the Rolón United States Artist Fellowship in Literature, and is now a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford. He has worked as a farmhand, a dog-walker, a creative writing teacher, and a bookseller. Marisel Vera grew up in the barrio in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood, where she was raised by Puerto Rican emigrant parents. One of six children, she was the first in her family to earn a college degree: a BA in Journalism from Northern Illinois University. She has won the Willow Review literary magazine fiction prize. In 2011, her unpublished coming-of-age novel, the Liberation of Carmela Lopez, was adapted into play form and directed by her daughter at Northwestern University. www.mariselvera.com Sandra Gutierrez grew up in the United States and Guatemala, is a journalist, food writer, culinary instructor, and recipe developer. She lives in Cary, North Carolina with her husband and their daughters. www.sandraskitchenstudio.com Her new book The New Southern-Latino Table merges Southern and Latin cooking.
Nashville's Legislative Plaza
Friday, October 14 - Sunday, October 16
Performance by Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons
Frist Center for the Visual Arts, 6:30 p.m.
Friday, October 14
Alfredo Rodriguez (Daniel Azoulay), Great Performances at Vanderbilt
Alfredo Rodriguez with Trio; 8 p.m., Langford Auditorium. Schooled in the rigorous classical conservatories of Havana, this riveting pianist is informed by Bach and Stravinsky as much as his compatriot Chucho Valdés. “Without a doubt one of the best young pianists I’ve ever seen”
—Quincy Jones
Fall Fiesta at Vol State
Celebration of Hispanic cultureon the Volunteer State Community College campus in Gallatin. The Fiesta runs from 10am-4pm and features food, music and fun. Best of all, it’s a free event and open to everyone. Once again we are hosting the Hispanic Alliance Cook-Off Contest. Cook your favorite Latin American dish or dishes and enter into the contest to win prizes! Diana Kiser is running the food contest again this year. If you are interested in participating e-mail her at: ranadiana739@gmail.com
Saturday, October 22
The Changing Face of Middle Tennessee:
A Regional Conversation about Immigration
Vanderbilt Center for Nashville Studies' 2011 Community Conversation. Panelists, among others, will include Katharine Donato, Professor and Chair of Vanderbilt’s Department of Sociology, Ralph Schulz, President of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, and Nonye Ejiofor, President / Chief Executive Officer of Bastion, Inc. To RSVP or for additional information, please contact
Whitney Weeks (whitney.weeks@vanderbilt.edu) or call the Vanderbilt Center for Nashville Studies at 615-343-7626. www.vanderbilt.edu/vcns
11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Saturday, October 1
José Torres Tama Performance Art, Great Performances at Vanderbilt
Aliens, Immigrants, & Other Evildoers – adult language; 7:30 p.m.; Student Life Center; Not for the faint of heart, the series launches with the radical Latino performance artist and writer who lives by his doctrine – make art that matters. “Torres Tama treads that dangerously vague turf of performance art gracefully … with dexterity and daring” —The Village Voice
Wednesday, Oct. 5
A gathering to bring Nashvillians together to celebrate the exciting diversity that marks our community and our world. This year’s silent auction and reception will take place at Nashville’s Farmer’s Market. Local restaurants and caterers will offer regional and international fare, and the amazing silent auction will feature an international theme. The ticket price is $40 for Sister Cities members, $50 for non-members, and $85 for admission to the fundraiser plus a one-year Sister Cities membership.
5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, October 6
Nueva Vida, Nuevo Trabajo (translated as "new life, new work")
Highlights the work of professional and non-professional artists from Nashville’s growing and diverse Hispanic population including Orlando García Camacho, Antonieta Capdevila, Aida Costner, Yuri Cunza, Adolfo Dávila, Gladys Escobar, Gil Veda, Alba Gonzalez-Nylander, John D. Griffin, Megan Kelley, Zolita Mojica, Mario Moreno, Inés Negri, Jairo Prado, Mike Quiñones Gonzalez, Sandra Rivera, Kathryn García Smith, Liliana Vélez and Yenny Walker. Metro Arts Gallery, 800 2nd Avenue South, 4th Floor, Nashville, TN.
Through October 7, 2011
Journeys: An Exhibit by Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons
In collaboration with the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Vanderbilt's Center for Latin American Studies will welcome as Visiting Resource Professor María Magdalena Campos-Pons, whose work symbolically follows the African Diaspora from her family’s origin in Nigeria to Cuba, where they worked in the sugar industry, to present day Boston, where Campos-Pons now lives and teaches art.
Frist Center for the Visual Arts
October 7, 2011-January 9, 2012
Tennessee Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Hispanic Heritage Month Lunch
The Sheraton Downtown Nashville, 623 Union Street, Nashville, TN
For more information: http://www.tnhcc.org/thcc_event11.htm
11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Tuesday, October 11
Austin Peay State University’s Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration Dinner
Presented by APSU Hispanic Alumni Chapter and the National Alumni Association. Morgan University Center (rooms 308-310).
6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Thursday, October 13
Exhibit Opening of Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons: Mama/Reciprocal Energy
Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery. Runs through December 8, 2011
Thursday, October 13
A number of Latino writers, including the following:
Helena Mesa, born and raised in Pittsburgh to Cuban parents. She holds an M.F.A. from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. from the University of Houston. Her poems have appeared in such journals as Barrow Street, Bat City Review, Indiana Review, Poet Lore, and Third Coast. She is currently co-editing a collection of essays, Mentor & Muse: From Poets to Poets. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan and is an assistant professor of English at Albion College. Lisa D. Chavez, a poet and memoirist who lives in the mountains of New Mexico. She has two books of poetry published, In an Angry Season and Destruction Bay and has had work included in such collections as Mentor and Muse: Essays from Poets to Poets, The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity, and Camino del Sol: Fifteen Years of Latina and Latino Writing. Lorraine López - her short story collection, Soy la Avon Lady and Other Stories won the inaugural Miguel Marmól prize for fiction. Her second book, Call Me Henri, was awarded the Paterson Prize for Young Adult Literature, and her novel, The Gifted Gabaldón Sisters was a Borders/Las Comadres Selection for the month of November in 2008. López's short story collection, Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories was a Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Prize in Fiction in 2010. Her most recent work is a novel, The Realm of Hungry Spirits, published by Grand Central Press in May, and a collection of essays, The Other Latin@, co-edited with Blas Falconer, which will be released fall 2011 from the University of Arizona Press. www.lorrainelopez.net Justin Torres grew up in upstate New York, where this novel is set. His work has appeared in Granta, Tin House, and Glimmer Train. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he is a recipient of the Rolón United States Artist Fellowship in Literature, and is now a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford. He has worked as a farmhand, a dog-walker, a creative writing teacher, and a bookseller. Marisel Vera grew up in the barrio in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood, where she was raised by Puerto Rican emigrant parents. One of six children, she was the first in her family to earn a college degree: a BA in Journalism from Northern Illinois University. She has won the Willow Review literary magazine fiction prize. In 2011, her unpublished coming-of-age novel, the Liberation of Carmela Lopez, was adapted into play form and directed by her daughter at Northwestern University. www.mariselvera.com Sandra Gutierrez grew up in the United States and Guatemala, is a journalist, food writer, culinary instructor, and recipe developer. She lives in Cary, North Carolina with her husband and their daughters. www.sandraskitchenstudio.com Her new book The New Southern-Latino Table merges Southern and Latin cooking.
Nashville's Legislative Plaza
Friday, October 14 - Sunday, October 16
Performance by Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons
Frist Center for the Visual Arts, 6:30 p.m.
Friday, October 14
Alfredo Rodriguez (Daniel Azoulay), Great Performances at Vanderbilt
Alfredo Rodriguez with Trio; 8 p.m., Langford Auditorium. Schooled in the rigorous classical conservatories of Havana, this riveting pianist is informed by Bach and Stravinsky as much as his compatriot Chucho Valdés. “Without a doubt one of the best young pianists I’ve ever seen”
—Quincy Jones
Friday, Oct. 14
Celebration of Hispanic cultureon the Volunteer State Community College campus in Gallatin. The Fiesta runs from 10am-4pm and features food, music and fun. Best of all, it’s a free event and open to everyone. Once again we are hosting the Hispanic Alliance Cook-Off Contest. Cook your favorite Latin American dish or dishes and enter into the contest to win prizes! Diana Kiser is running the food contest again this year. If you are interested in participating e-mail her at: ranadiana739@gmail.com
Saturday, October 22
The Changing Face of Middle Tennessee:
A Regional Conversation about Immigration
Vanderbilt Center for Nashville Studies' 2011 Community Conversation. Panelists, among others, will include Katharine Donato, Professor and Chair of Vanderbilt’s Department of Sociology, Ralph Schulz, President of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, and Nonye Ejiofor, President / Chief Executive Officer of Bastion, Inc. To RSVP or for additional information, please contact
Whitney Weeks (whitney.weeks@vanderbilt.edu) or call the Vanderbilt Center for Nashville Studies at 615-343-7626. www.vanderbilt.edu/vcns
11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
