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| The Sandra K. Wasserman Jewish Studies Center at Baruch College, CUNY, invites you to a special evening with writer, poet, translator and journalist Achy Obejas, in conversation with Dr. Rick Rodrig |
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| Start Date: | 3/28/2023 | Start Time: | 6:00 PM |
| End Date: | 3/28/2023 | End Time: | 8:00 PM |
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Event Description:
The Sandra K. Wasserman Jewish Studies Center at Baruch College,
CUNY, invites you to a special evening with writer, poet, translator and
journalist
Achy Obejas, in conversation with Dr. Rick Rodriguez
(Department of English, Baruch College), part of our Discovering
Crypto-Jewish Identities
March 28th at 6:00 pm
Newman Vertical Campus
Engelman Recital Hall, BPAC
55 Lexington Avenue (between 24th and 25th Streets—enter at 25th St.)
REGISTER HERE
Achy
Obejas is the author of Boomerang/Bumerán, an unique and inspiring
bilingual collection of poetry written in a bold, mostly gender-free
English and Spanish that addresses immigration, displacement, love and
activism. She also authored The Tower of the Antilles, which was a
PEN/Faulkner finalist, among other honors. Her novels include Ruins and
Days of Awe, which was a Los Angeles Times Best Books of the Year. Her
poetry chapbook, This is What Happened in Our Other Life, was both a
critical hit and a national best-seller. As a translator, Havana-born
Achy has worked with Wendy Guerra, Rita Indiana, Junot Díaz and Megan
Maxwell, among others. A recipient of a USA Artists fellowship, an NEA
and a Cintas fellowship, among other awards, she lives in the San
Francisco Bay area. She was one of the organizers of the #15novCuba
Poesiá Sin Fin 2021 marathon in support of change in Cuba.
Days
of Awe, Achy Obejas's second novel and third book of fiction, centers on
its Cuban American protagonist's discovery of her family's concealed
Jewishness: On New Year’s Day, 1959, Alejandra San José was born in
Havana, entering the world through the heart of revolution. Fearing the
turmoil brewing in Cuba, her parents took Ale and fled to the shores of
North America–ending up in Chicago amid a close community of Cuban
refugees. As an adult, Ale becomes an interpreter, which takes her back
to her homeland for the first time.
There, she makes her way back
through San José history, uncovering new fragments of truth about the
relatives who struggled with their own identities so long ago. For the
San Josés, ostensibly Catholics, are actually Jews. They are conversos
who converted to Christianity during the Spanish Inquisition. As
Alejandra struggles to confront what it is to be Cuban and American,
Catholic and Jewish, she translates her father’s troubling youthful
experiences into the healing language of her own heart. |
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Schools/Departments:
Baruch Performing Arts Center |
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