The Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art is pleased to present "An Evening of Político y Personal" from 5-7 p.m. Oct. 21. Join Elena Brokaw, professor Erika Abad, Cuban writer Jorge Olivera Castillo, and human rights defender Nancy Alfaya for an evening of conversation and poetry about the misuse of institutional language, the role of art, the impact of state terrorism, and the importance of being able to use one’s own language and voice. Brokaw is the creator of Human Resource Exploitation: A Family Album, a collaboration between herself and her late father, Ramiro García, an activist who was assassinated by the Guatemalan government in 1980. Castillo is the Black Mountain Institute’s current City of Asylum Fellow.

This event will be conducted mostly in Spanish. It will take place virtually on YouTube and Zoom from 5-7 p.m. Oct. 21. RSVP »

"An Evening of Político y Personal" is made possible by the Black Mountain Institute, Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, Nevada Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and by the WESTAF Regional Arts Resilience Fund, a relief grant developed in partnership with The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support arts organizations in the 13-state western region during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further assistance has been provided by the UNLV Jean Nidetch Care Center. 

• Erika Abad is an assistant professor-in-residence for gender and sexuality studies, and interdisciplinary degree programs. She has taught courses across the Latina/o, gender and sexuality, and interdisciplinary studies programs. She has created courses exploring mother and daughter dynamics through a Latina feminist lens, in addition to exploring race, gender, and sexuality in media representation and fandom.  She’s been featured in local news outlets talking about the significance of Latinx, queer of color characters, and the lasting impact of Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art exhibits.
• Elena Brokaw is a creative writing MFA candidate in literary nonfiction at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a Periplus Fellow. She created the museum exhibition Human Resource Exploitation: A Family Album after researching the events that led to the assassination of her father, Ramiro García, in 1980. 
• Jorge Olivera Castillo is a poet, writer, television editor, journalist, and songwriter. For more than 25 years, Olivera Castillo worked as an independent journalist before being fired from The Cuban Institute of Radio and Television, due to his ideas and activities in support of freedom of speech. He became a political prisoner because of his journalistic work and was incarcerated for almost two years, including nine months of solitary confinement. Olivera Castillo has published six books of poetry and two short story collections. His literary works have been translated into several languages, including English, Italian, Czech, and Polish. At present, Olivera Castillo is writing his third collection of short stories, based on his experiences as a soldier in the African jungle during the Angolan Civil War. He has also completed a new collection of poetry and publication is forthcoming.
• Nancy Alfaya has been working for human rights for more than 20 years: repeatedly intimidated, arrested, and detained by the authorities in her native Cuba. After her husband, Jorge Olivera Castillo, was imprisoned as a political dissident in 2003 she co-founded the Ladies in White, a group of mothers, wives, and daughters of political prisoners who marched for peace and justice. She is a cultural promoter for the National Union of Cuban Writers and Artists and the coordinator of the Network of Women for Equality, an organization associated with the Citizen Committee for Racial Integration. Alfaya works to empower socially disadvantaged women with a special focus on Black Cubans.