Latinx Artivists Panel
Panel discussion to conclude Latinx Heritage Month celebration
Holyoke Community College will conclude its celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month with “Our Stories, Our Voices, Our Lens,” a conversation with local Latinx “artivists,” talking about how art contributes to the preservation and celebration of history and culture.
The panel discussion will run on Tuesday, Oct. 14, from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. on the second floor of the HCC Campus Center.
The discussion, moderated by Naoimi Robles, an HCC alum and student success counselor for El Centro, a bilingual HCC student support program, will include three panelists:
Maria Salgado-Cartagena, director of community engagement at Mount Holyoke College. Known as the “People’s Historian of Holyoke,” she is working to ensure the visibility of Puerto Ricans in the city’s vibrant past and present. A former resident of Holyoke, she has been involved in community organizing since high school and has worked in the nonprofit sector of Holyoke for more than 25 years.
Michelle Falcón Fontánez, an award-winning storyteller working in photography, film, theater and installation art. She is currently working on a three-part mini-series that unpacks the psychological and environmental impacts on Puerto Ricans in South Holyoke during a series of fires in the 1970s.
Eartha Mejia, a Latiné transfem, organizer, cultural worker, healer, writer, and artivist from Pawtucket/Pentucket lands (a.k.a. Lawrence, Mass.) Currently a student at Mount Holyoke College, Mejia hopes one day to become a clinical social worker to serve the queer BIPOC community. They seek to create spaces where collective healing and liberation meet by hosting healing circles, writing workshops, resistance book clubs and more.
Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated nationally each year from September 15 through October 15 to recognize the cultural and historical influences of Hispanic Americans. On the HCC campus, it is called Latinx Heritage Month.
PHOTO: Naoimi Robles, HCC alum and El Centro student success counselor, will moderate an Oct. 14 panel discussion for Latinx Heritage Month.
