THE CENTER FOR "RACE," CULTURE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

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W , 2 019
R I L 3
AP

DISTINGUISHED AFRICAN SCHOLARS AND WRITERS SERIES PROGRAM

12:45-2:15- Writing workshop (in Spanish)

Roosevelt 203

2:30-4- Meet & greet with the author

Roosevelt 203

4:30-6- Public lecture (in Spanish/English)

Roosevelt 201

African writer, blogger and activist from Equatorial Guinea, Juan Tomás Ávila
Laurel, will visit Hofstra University during his US tour in April. Author of more
than 20 books (novels, essays, poetry, plays), he embarked on an unexpected
hunger strike in February 2011, to protest human rights abuses and repression
under his country's dictatorship, and he now resides in exile in Barcelona. One
of his latest novels, By Night the Mountain Burns (2014), translated into English
and several other languages, narrates his childhood in the small Atlantic island
of Annobón, while The Gurugu Pledge (2017) tells the story of African migrants
trying to reach the shores of Europe, and provides a reflection on
decolonization and dictatorships in the continent today.

Co-sponsored by the Center for “Race,” Culture and Social Justice, the Hofstra College of Liberal Arts
and Sciences Dean’s office, the African Studies Program, the Department of Romance Languages
and Literatures, and the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program