29th Annual Arturo Schomburg Symposium:
The Legacy of Arturo Schomburg: Rooting Ourselves in Pan-Africanism
February 21, 2025 at 6pm and
February 22, 2025 from 9:00am to 4pm
This year’s Arturo Schomburg Symposium honors and celebrates the life of this outstanding Puerto Rican Bibliophile, Community builder, and Scholar. The Symposium follows in his footsteps, as it seeks to share and disseminate the contributions of Africa and the African Diaspora to the world. Each year, scholars, activists, artists, professionals, and general audiences gather the last Saturday of Black History Month, around a theme, to discuss, learn, share, reflect, grow, and heal from the afterlives of slavery, racism, colorism, and all forms of discrimination and exclusion. This year, in conversation with the 4th International Cumbre Afrodescendiente, which takes place at the University of Puerto Rico (Rio Piedras), we are celebrating Schomburg’s vision, his relentless research commitment, and activism, and the ways his work has impacted Pan-Africanism, Black, African Diaspora, and Africana Studies.
Since 1997, The Annual Arturo A. Schomburg Symposium has taken on a different yearly theme exploring various aspects of the intricate and complex relationship of the African Diaspora influences within Latin American culture abroad and in the US. Through formal presentations and Q&A’s, audience members engage in dialogues that promote increased understanding of our shared traditions and influences.
Program of Presentations
FRI. 2.21 Opening Event Schedule:
This event is FREE
6:00PM Flores Para Gloria: Film Series & Conversations with Filmmaker Gloria Rolando & special guest Gabriela Castillo
The symposium will open on Friday evening, offering a unique opportunity to explore the history of the African diaspora through the lens of Cuban filmmaker and screenwriter Gloria Rolando. With more than 35 years of experience, Rolando’s works, such as Oggun: An Eternal Presence (1991) and Eyes of the Rainbow (1997), have documented the history and culture of African diasporic communities in the Caribbean, often focusing on themes of spiritual heritage and resistance. Rolando will be joined by Gabriela Castillo, the Second Secretary of the Embassy of Cuba, for an insightful conversation following the screening of Rolando’s works, including a recent piece about the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first Black Catholic religious order in the United States. This event is organized by Kolectivo Sin Nombre.
SAT. 2.22 Symposium Schedule
This event is TICKETED
9:00am - 9:10am: Light Breakfast and Coffee
Enjoy some bread, pastries, coffee, and tea.
9:15am: 9:15am: Introductions & Welcome
by Evelyne Laurent Perrault & Erikka Goslin
9:30 am – 10:30 am: Manuel Julio Duran Méndez
PhD Candidate and Chair of the DC AfroLatino Caucus, will discuss how his work aims to unite “black and brown” communities in the Washington metropolitan area through positive youth development and advocacy. Mendez is dedicated to the intersection of identity and solidarity in the African diaspora.
10:30am – 11:30am: Laura Quiñones Navarro
An art historian at the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, will focus on the role of Puerto Rican art in cultural heritage and history, especially as it relates to Afro-Latinx identities. Navarro is also an advocate for the inclusion of individuals with functional diversity in Puerto Rico’s cultural experiences.
11:30am – 12:30pm: Tukufu Zuberi
Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, will explore how Pan-Africanism has shaped the academic study of African Diaspora populations. A renowned expert on race relations and African independence, Dr. Zuberi’s interdisciplinary research spans sociology, film, and public speaking to address human rights and global justice.
12:30pm – 1:00pm: Q&A Session with Morning Presenters
1:00pm - 2:00pm: Lunch break
Attendants will be able to take a break to eat free lunch.
2:00pm – 2:30pm: Sound Healing & Wellness Session with Malaika Hart Gilpin
A Certified Yoga and Meditation Instructor and Certified Sound Healer, will lead a sound healing session designed to offer participants a holistic experience that deepens their connection to self, spirit, and community.
2:30PM - 4pm Panel Discussion
A Panel Discussion featuring Allan Edmunds, founder of Brandywine Workshop and Archives, Omar Eaton-Martinez, Senior Vice President for Historic Sites at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Amalia Daché, Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, will address the importance of cultural preservation, racial equity in the arts, and the ongoing fight for social justice. This panel will discuss the ways in which the African diaspora’s heritage is represented and protected in museum spaces and public art initiatives.
Opening Event: Flores Para Gloria Film Series & Conversations
Opening Event | Friday, February 21 at 6pm
Conversation with
Gloria Rolando
Cuban filmmaker and screenwriter
Gloria Victoria Rolando Casamayor,] is a Cuban filmmaker and screenwriter. Her career as a director spans more than 35 years at the Cuban national film institute ICAIC, and she also heads Imágenes del Caribe, an independent film-making group. Her films, such as Reshipment (2014), characteristically document the history of people of the African diaspora.
Her documentaries take as their subject matter the history of the African diaspora in the Caribbean, using filmmaking as a way to preserve culture and spiritual values. Her first documentary, Oggun: An Eternal Presence (1991), which paid homage to those who have preserved the African Yoruba religion in Cuba, won the Premio de la Popularidad at the Festival de Video Mujer e Imagen in Ecuador in 1994, and Rolando went on to make more than a dozen other documentaries, winning several other awards.
Among her best known works are Cuba, My Footsteps in Baraguá (1996), a history of the West Indian community in eastern Cuba, Eyes of The Rainbow (1997), a film about Assata Shakur, and a three-part series on the 1912 massacre of members of the Partido Independiente de Color (Independent Party of Color), entitled Breaking the Silence (2010). Rolando's most recent documentary, Dialog with My Grandmother (2016), is based on a 1993 conversation she had with her grandmother, Inocencia Leonarda Armas y Abre.
Rolando heads an independent film-making group, Imágenes del Caribe, based in Havana.[6] They are currently producing a documentary on the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first Black Catholic religious order in the United States.
Gabriela Castillo
Second Secretary of the Embassy of Cuba
Meet our Presenters and Panelists
Symposium | Saturday, February 22 from 9:00am to 4pm
Presentations by:
Manuel Julio Duran Méndez
PhD Candidate, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center, Chair of the DC AfroLatino Caucus
Mr. Mendez’s passion for supporting positive youth development and the issues that plague the people of the African Diaspora are ever apparent themes in his pursuit for affecting progressive change in his community. Currently as the chair of the DC AfroLatino Caucus, Mr. Mendez’s goal is to unite “black and brown” people of the Washington metropolitan area.
Tukufu Zuberi
Professor of Sociology , The Lasry Family Professor of Race Relations, University of Pennsylvania Dr. Tukufu Zuberi is the Africana Studies Interim Department Chair, Lasry Family Professor of Race Relations, and Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He is dedicated to bringing a fresh view of culture and society to the public through various platforms such as guest lecturing at universities, television programs, and interactive social media. Currently, he works on human rights initiatives by participating in public speaking engagements, international collaborations with transnational organizations, and individuals dedicated to human equality. Dr. Zuberi’s research focuses on Race, African and African Diaspora populations. He has been a visiting professor at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda and the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. He currently serves as the Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. He has also served as the Chair of the Graduate Group in Demography, the Director of the African Studies Program, and the Director of the Afro-American Studies Program. In 2002, he became the founding Director of the Center for Africana Studies, and he has also served as the Faculty Associate Director of the Center for Africana Studies. Dr. Zuberi is the writer and producer for African Independence, an award-winning feature length documentary film that highlights the birth, realization, and problems confronted by the movement to win independence in Africa. The story is told by channeling the voices of freedom fighters and leaders who achieved independence, liberty and justice for African people. With this and other documentary film projects, Dr. Zuberi is dedicated to bringing a critical, creative vision not typically seen or heard on the big and small screen. Born Antonio McDaniel to Willie and Annie McDaniel, and raised in the housing projects of Oakland, California in the 1970s, he embraced the name Tukufu Zuberi - Swahili for "beyond praise" and "strength." He “took the name because of a desire to make and have a connection with an important period where people were challenging what it means to be a human being."
Art Historian, Collections Unit / Fine Arts Program Collections Registrar, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña
Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania
Allan Edmunds
Founder of Brandywine Workshop and Archives Allan Edmunds is the founder of Brandywine Workshop and Archives and interim executive director of the virtual Institute for Inclusion, Diversity and Equity in Education and the Arts (IIDEEA), a collaborative venture of professionals in the visual arts, art education and museums. He is also the current project director of IIDEEA’s main project, Artura.org. Edmunds is an award winning visual artist and art educator. He has a Masters in Fine Art from Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University. His prints and collages are in major museum collections where he has exhibited. Edmunds is a retired educator (high school and college) and is nationally recognized for his work in public art, community arts, as a lecturer, essayist and contributor to numerous catalogs and other art publications. Over 48 years of professional activity as an organizational consultant, peer review panelist on the city, state and federal levels, he has advocated for support for artists from diverse communities.
Senior Vice President, Historic Sites National Trust for Historic Preservation
Omar Eaton-Martínez is the senior vice president for historic sites, where he leads the preservation, interpretation, and overall stewardship of 28 National Trust Historic Sites across the country to tell the full American story. He has had leading roles in racial equity organizations like Museums and Race: Transformation and Justice and Museum Hue as well as a part of the Museum as Site for Social Action project. Omar participated as an American Alliance of Museums Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion (DEAI) Senior Fellow, which is dedicated to diversifying museum boards. He is a gubernatorial appointee to the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the first commission of its kind in the country. Omar is the current president of the board of directors for the Association of African American Museums and a member of the executive council for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.
Assistant Professor at University of California in Santa Barbara
Currently an Assistant Professor at University of California in Santa Barbara, Evelyne is well-known to this symposium as a founder, and an Afro-Latina activist and scholar, born and raised in Venezuela from Haitian and Venezuelan parents. She has studied, lived, and traveled through Europe, Africa, Latin America, North America, and the Caribbean. She has a Licenciatura (Licentiate) Degree in Biology from the Central de Venezuela, her PhD from the History Department, New York University’s (NYU) African Diaspora program in Latin America and the Caribbean. She has presented at various universities and conferences in the United States and abroad, and has been the recipient of several fellowships. While on staff at Taller Puertorriqueño, Evelyne conceived the Annual Arturo Schomburg Symposium. Currently she is an Executive Board Member of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD).
$10 Student Ticket
If you are a student reserve your ticket here at low-cost.
$20 General Admission Ticket
Group fees and financial assistance is available please get in touch with Erikka Goslin via email at egoslin@tallerpr.org or via phone at 215-426-3311 x1003 to discuss rates.
Taller Members at the $125 level and above receive a free ticket.
Interested in sponsoring our event? Contact Erikka Goslin at egoslin@tallerpr.org for more information.
