Presentation 1 - Aztec Dance - Xochitl-Quetzal - Mexico's Ancient Culture and Living Tradition
The 2021 – 2022 roster is no longer available for booking through this program. However, you may book them outside of any Illinois Humanities affiliation using the contact information provided.
Experience a journey into Mexico’s ancient Aztec culture of music, song and dance. Xochitl-Quetzal invites you to a dynamic and vibrant performance honoring the heritage of the tradition of La Danza De Los Concheros.
Join us and explore the Aztec world of indigenous ceremony and ritual.
Program Topics
- Dance
- Ritual
- Indigenous
Book this presentation by first scheduling a date with Henry via email, then completing the Road Scholars Host Organization application.
Presentation 2 - The Power of Nonviolent Struggle for Social Change
The 2021 – 2022 roster is no longer available for booking through this program. However, you may book them outside of any Illinois Humanities affiliation using the contact information provided.
Social movements throughout history have tapped into the creative power of nonviolence to win human rights, political freedoms, and greater social justice campaigns.
Join us as we learn about the history and philosophy of nonviolent action for social change.
Program Topics
- History
- Nonviolence
- Social Justice
Book this presentation by first scheduling a date with Henry via email, then completing the Road Scholars Host Organization application.
About Road Scholar Henry Cervantes
Henry Cervantes is an artist and educator raised in Chicago’s Little Village community and is the founder and director of Xochitl-Quetzal Aztec Dance. Cervantes serves as Manager for The Peace Exchange, an organization that engages youth in leadership training and international travel to study nonviolent social movements. Cervantes has trained youth activists from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Central and South America. Cervantes volunteers as a nonviolence trainer at the Cook County Jail in Chicago as part of the Sheriff’s Anti-Violence Effort (SAVE) and is also an adjunct professor for North Park Theological Seminary at Stateville Correctional Center, a Maximum Security Prison. For his work for peace and social change Cervantes is one of 40 Human Rights Defenders featured in the Take A Stand Center at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.
Learn More and Follow Henry
About Illinois Humanities Road Scholars Speakers Bureau
Since 1997, our Road Scholars Speakers Bureau has invited Illinois writers, storytellers, historians, folklorists, musicians, and living history actors, among others, to share their expertise and enthusiasm with people throughout our state. It also supports local nonprofit organizations – including libraries, museums, arts councils, historical societies, civic groups, and many others – in presenting free-admission cultural programs of high quality to their communities for a modest application fee, which can be waived if your organization is experiencing financial hardship.
Our Road Scholars Speakers Bureau roster features speakers hailing from many different communities across Illinois who offer presentations on topics in history, archaeology, philosophy, literature, theater, film, music, politics, and other subjects that are thought-provoking and engaging. The breadth of these offerings reflects our conviction that the humanities can help us to examine the world in all its varied shades and discover in it the remarkable, the strange, the fantastic, the tragic, the humorous, and the beautiful.