CUBAN AMERICAN AUTHOR VISITS STUDENTS AND COMMUNITY

Tim Vaughan-Ogunlusi, Marisa Lewis, Margarita Engle, Patrick Carvalho, Ariel Ozbeki

On October 13, Cuban American poet and novelist, Margarita Engle, honored New Hope-Solebury with two presentations; one for students during the school day, and another in the evening for the community. The author’s visit was part of the NH-S Read the World program and was provided through a grant from the NH-S Education Fund. This year’s Read the World program focuses on Latin American countries, featuring two of Engle’s works, The Poet Slave: Juan Francisco Manzano and The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom.

Ms. Engle spoke to NH-S high school Spanish and English classes about her Cuban background and about her inspiration for her young adult books. The Spanish students have been reading The Poet Slave and have been learning about Cuba in their classes and the English students have been reading The Surrender Tree. Both books explore Cuba’s history through a collection of poetic verses, and both have won numerous literary awards. Ms. Engle spoke again in the evening, allowing the community an opportunity to learn about Cuban culture and history and to hear about Ms. Engle’s writing process.

The Read the World program is a collaboration of the New Hope-Solebury High School, the Free Library of New Hope and Solebury and the New Hope-Solebury Education Fund. The goup’s mission is “one community exploring cultural diversity one book at a time.” Two additional presentations have been scheduled which celebrate the cultural diversity of other Latin American countries. On October 25th at 7:00 pm, photographer, Bob Krist, will present his professional photographs of various Latin American countries such as Mexico, Costa Rica, the Galapagos Islands, Peru, Buenos Aires and Easter Island.The presentation will be held in the Stephen J Buck Auditorium at New Hope-Solebury High School. On October 28th at 7:00 pm, there will be a Mexican Fiesta Dancing demonstration via a live video feed. A professional dancer will be demonstrating Day of the Dead dances in the New Hope-Solebury High School Cafeteria.

Further information can be found at http://www.nhs-read-the-world.com/ or by contacting Mary Schwander, NH-S High School librarian, at mschwander@nhsd.org or 215-862-2028.Donation information for the NH-S Education Fund can be found at http://www.nhsedfund.org/.