(JERSEY CITY, NJ) -- Join us April 12 - 13th, 2023 for the 6th Annual LATI Colloquium at New Jersey City University. The 6th Annual LATI Colloquium will feature art exhibitions, performances, music, thesis, panels, and amazing presentations from both students and academic faculty.  This event is Free and Open to the Public. The event will be held at New Jersey City University, 2039 John F. Kennedy Boulevard, Jersey City, NJ.

Event Schedule:

April 12 from 4:00pm-6:00pm LATI Center, Karnoutsos Hall Room 102 

April 13 from 10:00am-6:00pm, GSUB Room 129.

This event is Free and open to the public, for more information visit LATI Center's Instagram: @lati_at_njcu RSVP via LATI Linktree

The Center for Latin, American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies is hosting its annual LATI Colloquium at NJCU. Each year, the colloquium highlights scholarly and creative work related to Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latinx communities in the US by faculty, staff, students, and alumni from NJCU and other colleges and universities.

“Estrella del Caribe: Stories of Puerto Rico” brings attention to the diversity of literary, and performing arts through history, traditions and modern practices that add to the richness of our culture while addressing social justice issues that impact Puerto Ricans on the island and the mainland. It’s an honor to share my experiences as a New Jersey Puerto Rican and empower audience members to connect.”

The Downtown Urban Arts Festival (DUAF) is an annual multi-disciplinary arts event held during the spring at renowned venues in New York City. DUAF presents the best of new groundbreaking performance and visual art from storytellers from America’s burgeoning multicultural landscape and from around the world who share their stories that interpret our history and our times.

On June 14th, 2023, RescuePoetix ™’s first play "By the Light of the Ghetto Moon '' premieres at the 2023 Downtown Urban Arts Festival. The performance will take place at Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 416 W. 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036. Audiences can order tickets for the festival and discover all of the plays in the festival and the playwrights via: https://www.duafnyc.com/schedule-tickets 

“By the Light of the Ghetto Moon is a story that has been experienced by many of us growing up disconnected from our heritage in some ways and steeped deep within it in others. Finding the balance of family and culture is never easy. Thank you to DUAF for seeing the merit of telling this story.”

The play  is an exploration of self as Jane comes to terms with her past traumas growing up in a patriarchal strict Puerto Rican household. Her perspectives are shared with the most consistent presence through her childhood, the Moon.

Susan Justiniano | RescuePoetix (her/ella) is a self-taught bilingual poet, with a deep love for knowledge, music, coffee, food, dogs, and the color red (not always in that order). She is twice honored Poet Laureate: The first Puerto Rican woman Poet Laureate of Jersey City, NJ (2020-2022) and State of New Jersey Beat Poet Laureate (2022-2024). Words are embedded in her life. Her passion for them started at age 9 with a dictionary, notebook, and the latest paperback she could get her hands on.