Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month
Author Gabby Rivera believes it’s vital to encourage people of all backgrounds to create, daydream, and tell their own stories—and in so doing, open a radical space for creativity. As a queer, Latinx, millennial woman, she strives to be a thoughtful ally for others, she confronts privilege and power, and she asks difficult questions: What if this country made everyone—people of all colors, cultures, orientations, abilities, and genders—feel at home? What if the traumas experienced by marginalized peoples could be reconciled and incorporated into a broader, richer definition of America? What if our non-white ancestors weren’t erased, but represented in pop culture, in our textbooks and classrooms? And what if we could privilege difference as a site of wonder, laughter, and celebration, and not as something to fear? Rivera’s smart, funny, and engaging voice helps us to start imagining these worlds as our reality.
Rivera is the author of the critically-acclaimed YA novel Juliet Takes a Breath, a coming-of-age story starring a queer puertorriqueña experiencing one transformative summer. Rivera’s new Marvel series America stars America Chavez, a queer, Latinx superhero who tackles America’s ancestry and ethnicity. America is also a comic book with wide appeal: it’s committed to snappy one-liners, blowing stuff up, and beating up the bad guys, naturally.
Saturday, September 7 at 2:00 p.m.
Cleveland Public Library Auditorium
525 Superior Avenue
Cleveland, OH
This event is free and open to the public. Registration is requested, but not required. Seating is offered on a first-come, first-served basis.