Please join the Public Square at the Illinois Humanities Council and Cafe Teatro Batey Urbano for a special event with Dr. William Santiago-Valles

Puerto Rican scholar-activist William Santiago-Valles is professor of Africana Studies at Western Michigan University. Dr. Santiago-Valles will be interviewed and then will answer questions from the audience. He has lived, traveled, and organized all over Latin America including Puerto Rico and Brazil and his work focuses primarily on race and radicalism.

His most recent work highlights little known activist political and cultural organizations like the SISTREN Women’s History Theatre Collective in Jamaica, the Red Thread Women’s Development Programme in Guyana, and the Society for the Promotion of Education and Research (SPEAR) in Belize.

His dissertation entitled "Memories of the Future: Maroon Intellectuals from the Caribbean and the Sources of their Communication Strategies, 1925-1940" traced the pioneering work of Fernando Ortiz, Patricia Galvao, Elma Francois, Richard Hart, and C. L. R. James throughout the Caribbean.

His more recent publications include "Producing Knowledge for Social Transformation" in The Black Scholar and "CLR James: Asking Questions of the Past" in Race and Class.

This event is Free and Open to the Public. Reservations are NOT required.

For more information, please contact Catherine Chandler at 312.422.5580.