Film and discussion events funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities begin Sept. 12
The first in a series of events focused on Latino-American history, sponsored by the University of Missouri-Kansas City, will include a screening of the documentary film “Empire of Dreams.”
The event is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Saturday September 12 at Mattie Rhodes Art Gallery, 915 W. 17th St., Kansas City, Missouri. The discussion will be led by Miguel Carranza, Ph.D., director of Latina/Latino Studies at UMKC, with guest scholar Gene Chavez, Ph.D., an expert in the history of Latinos in Kansas City. The film and discussion are free and open to the public.
The event is the first of four film-and-discussion events to be hosted by University Libraries in collaboration with faculty in the UMKC Latina/Latino Studies program. It follows a similar format to an NEH-funded series on the Civil Rights era hosted by the library in 2014. The 2015-16 series, Latino Americans: 500 Years of History, produced by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association (ALA), is part of an NEH initiative, The Common Good: Humanities in the Public Square.
Four discussion forums are scheduled for September 2015 through April 2016, with three of the sessions including a showing of a chapter from the six-part Latino Americans: 500 Years of History film series. The full series is available online at http://www.pbs.org/latino-americans/en/watch-videos/#2365075996.
The fourth session will include a presentation on the Samora Legacy Archive, part of the UMKC Miller Nichols Library’s LaBudde Special Collections. The Samora Legacy Archive contains the papers of Dr. Julian Samora, who is considered one of the founding fathers of Latino studies in the United States.
“Latina/Latino Studies is especially pleased to work with University Libraries to provide an opportunity to reach out to the Latino community and the general public through this NEH grant,” said Miguel Carranza, Ph.D., director of Latina/Latino Studies at UMKC. “This initiative will allow us to reveal more about Latino culture and history through the film series, and the unveiling of the Samora Legacy Archive will highlight a unique richness residing on our own campus.”
“We are delighted to be able to continue our partnership with the NEH to bring important historical perspectives to our community, and provide opportunities for a rich and enlightening discussion,” said Bonnie Postlethwaite, dean of libraries at UMKC. “We are especially pleased to include an opportunity for the public to learn about the Samora Legacy Archive. These archives provide valuable insight into the Latino experience; and its goal is to ensure that the Latino heritage is known and understood by both scholars and future generations of the Latino community.”
UMKC is one of only two institutions in Missouri, and 203 nationwide, to be included in the Latino Americans project by the NEH.
The next event in the series is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. November 14 at the National World War I Museum, 100 W 26th St., Kansas City, Mo. The discussion will be led by Norma Cantú, Ph.D., UMKC professor of Latina/Latino Studies and English. The series episode “War and Peace” will be screened, followed by a panel discussing the experience of Latinas/Latinos in various American wars. The program will also incorporate oral histories done by Latina/Latino Studies students from UMKC.
| John Martellaro, Division of Strategic Marketing and Communications