Master ceramicist Verónica Castillo and her biographer sociologist and author Josie Méndez-Negrete will speak and host a book launch party on campus on Monday, Oct. 2.
For Castillo, the first ceramicist to be awarded the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship, art is a family legacy. A member of the honored Castillo lineage of Izúcar de Matamoros in Puebla, Mexico, renowned for its clay tree of life candelabras, she recently unveiled a Smithsonian-commissioned tree of life for the Washington D.C. Latino Art and Heritage Museum. Castillo has taught hundreds of women at MujerArtes, Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, to shape clay — and she will visit SUNY Oswego's Living Writers Series on Monday, Oct. 2, along with Méndez-Negrete.
"Waves" is the theme of this fall’s Living Writers Series, which features authors who stir the waters with their words, and Méndez-Negrete is no exception. Beyond capturing Castillo’s life and work in a new book written as a plática, Méndez-Negrete has won the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Scholar Award.
She has written tenacious nonfiction, including the memoirs "Las Hijas de Juan: Daughters Betrayed" and "A Life on Hold: Living with Schizophrenia," as well as a book of Chicano history. Méndez-Negrete also serves as publisher of Conocimientos Press, which she founded to put forth internationally award-winning books illuminating BIPOC women’s experiences and centering historically marginalized communities. Among these books is Claudia D Hernández’s "Women, Mujeres, Ixoq’: Revolutionary Visions," which received the Gold Medal from the International Latino Book Awards.
Castillo and Méndez-Negrete will chat with students and the public on Monday, Oct. 2, in a virtual reading and conversation that are open and free of charge.
“Their Living Writers Series chat will be virtual, expanding accessibility for our far-flung audience,” explained Soma Mei Sheng Frazier, the English and creative writing professor who collaborated with the Oswego Reading Initiative, the History Department and ARTSwego to organize the series. “However, this celebrated author and master ceramicist will be on campus all day for a series of events, including an in-person book signing.”
The book launch, signing and reception event, titled “Sculpting Life,” will run from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., in the Park Hall Atrium. This event, which welcomes the greater community as well, unfolds in partnership with the independent River’s End Bookstore in Oswego.
The pair also will give a talk on “Voces Past and Present: Rooted in Clay & Latina Feminist Visions,” via Zoom at 10:20 a.m. that day.
Their appearance is part of Latin American Heritage Month activities from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.
For more information on Living Writers Series events, visit the SUNY Oswego events calendar and search for "Living Writers Series."
-- Submitted by the Living Writers Series