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Black in Latin America: Haiti & the Dominican Republic
September 14, 2017 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
FREE! Donations Welcome! Donations of any size benefit the Haiti Action Committee & La Peña Cultural Center.
Doors open at 7pm, Screening starts at 7:30pm
As we see how white supremacy is increasingly coming out of the shadows in this country, it is important we confront racism in our native Latin American and Caribbean countries.
Black in Latin America is an award-winning documentary series where Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. travels to 6 different nations in Latin America and the Caribbean to explore how each nation’s history with colonialism and slavery directly impacts the ways black people in those countries experience discrimination and institutional racism today.
Join us at La Peña Cultural Center on Thursday, Sept. 14 as we screen Episode 1 in the Black in Latin America series “Haiti & the Dominican Republic: An Island Divided”, followed by a community discussion with special guest Pierre Labossiere, founding member of the Haiti Action Committee.
In the Dominican Republic, Professor Gates explores how race has been socially constructed in a society whose people reflect centuries of inter-marriage, and how the country’s troubled history with Haiti informs notions about racial classification.
In Haiti, Professor Gates tells the story of the birth of the first-ever black republic, and finds out how the slaves’s hard fought liberation over Napoleon Bonaparte’s French Empire became a double-edged sword.
ABOUT OUR SPECIAL GUEST: PIERRE LABOSSIERE & THE HAITI ACTION COMMITTEE
Mr. Labossiere was born in Haiti and has been active in the struggle for justice since his teen years. In addition to his work at the Haiti Action Committee, he is also a Board member of Global Exchange, the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund and Ecumenical Peace Institute.
The Haiti Action Committee, based in the Bay Area, is a network of activists who have supported the Haitian struggle for democracy since 1991. Members foster extensive contacts with the grassroots movement in Haiti and work to promote international solidarity.
ALL BLACK IN LATIN AMERICA SCREENINGS & DISCUSSIONS AT LA PEÑA:
Doors open at 7pm, Screenings starts at 7:30pm
Sept. 14 – Haiti & the Dominican Republic: An Island Divided
Sept. 21 – Cuba: The Next Revolution in Cuba
Sept. 28 – Brazil: A Racial Paradise?
Oct. 5 – Mexico & Peru: The Black Grandma in the Closet