Welcoming Long Island, an initiative of Long Island Wins, is proud to announce two upcoming bilingual reading circles, in Port Jefferson and Brentwood, aimed at helping Long Island residents, community by community, deepen our understanding of our new neighbors from around the world.
In conjunction with the Herstory Writers Workshop, we have organized what we call Welcoming Circles. Here we read stories of immigrant realities, childhood, mothering, love, and illness written by the women you see when you pass them, but might never get to know. People of all ages come together to talk about the experiences and desires that connect us and, little by little, barriers begin to dissolve.
This month we will be featuring playwright and community activist Margarita Espada, whom many of you know as our former Welcoming Long Island organizer. Margarita will be reading “La voz de mi hija/ My Daughter’s Voice,” a piece from the Herstory bilingual anthology Latinas Write/Escriben. In the story, we find Margarita as a mother torn between wanting to protect her daughter, who is involved in a student protest in Puerto Rico, and experiencing pride that her daughter is following in her footsteps as a brave, caring activist. The welcoming circle will discuss the way our innate wishes to protect our children intersect with our equally strong wishes to see them do something meaningful, even dangerous, to uphold what is most dear.
We invite you to join us in this reading, which promises to offer an enlightening and empathic look into the lives of our immigrant neighbors, and to help us discover the common bonds that connect us all.
Please forward this to your friends and invite them to join us for a rich evening of bilingual discussion and reading.
Port Jefferson
When: Tuesday, July 17, 6:30-8:30pm
Where: Port Jefferson Free Library, 100 Thompson Street, Port Jefferson
For the event flier in English and Spanish, click here.
Brentwood
When: Tuesday, July 24, 6:30-8:30pm
Where: Brentwood Public Library, 34 Second Avenue, Brentwood, Room 1
For the event flier in English and Spanish, click here.
Feature image courtesy of Ben Harding. via Flickr.
