(BRANCHBURG, NJ) -- Raritan Valley Community College will present a live performance of Javier Ávila’s one-man show, The Trouble with My Name, April 14 at 4:00pm. The program will be held in-person in the Nash Theatre at the College’s Branchburg campus and also will run as a virtual webinar. The high-octane, poignant, and hilarious one-man show consolidates Ávila’s talents as a poet and professor.

The tour-de-force highlights the autobiographical journey of a man who moves between cultures to provide a fascinating perspective of American Latinos who struggle to dispel misconceptions about their identity and place in the world. Examining the issues of language, race, and social justice, Ávila engages the audience as he shares his story and reads poetry that illustrates what it means to be the American of the future. Ávila’s show embraces the diversity of a nation whose history is rich and colorful. The message transcends boundaries of race, ethnicity, and geography.

Javier Ávila’s distinguished and inspiring career began in the Caribbean, where he taught English at the University of Puerto Rico for eight years. He then moved to Pennsylvania to teach at Northampton Community College. His extraordinary work with students earned him the 2015 Pennsylvania Professor of the Year Award, sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.

Ávila is also a renowned poet and novelist whose bestselling novel, Different, became an award-winning motion picture (Miente), which was screened in over a dozen countries. His poetry books The Symmetry of Time and The Dead Man’s Position earned him prestigious awards by the Pen Club and The Puerto Rico Institute of Culture, respectively. Other books—Broken Glass on the Carpet, The Professor in Ruins, and The Oldest Profession—cemented his reputation as a celebrated writer. Ávila’s books have been part of university curricula for years. He frequently visits colleges to discuss his work, encouraging students to become better readers and writers.

Registration is required. To register for the program, visit https://bit.ly/3tvJxIS.  

The production is sponsored by RVCC’s Humanities, Social Science, Social Work, and Education Department in partnership with the English Department, the Office of Student Life, the Student Government Association, the Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and the Dean of Liberal and Fine Arts, Business and Public Service, the event is free of charge and open to the public.

Raritan Valley Community College (RVCC) is located at 118 Lamington Road in Branchburg, New Jersey.