One Houston One Book: Freedom to Read
In celebration of One Houston, One Book - Diverse Stories for a Diverse City we welcome you to read and discuss The house on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros at the Central Library.
Join The Mayor's Office for Adult Literacy for this "read-a-thon" model experience, with the special guest remarks and reading from local author, Channel 26 News Political Analyst, Librotraficante leader, and Nuestra Palabara founder, Tony Diaz.
The House on Mango Street is considered a modern classic of Chicano literature. The book has been translated into over 20 languages and is required reading in many schools and universities across the United States. It was on The New York Times Best Seller list and is the recipient of several major literary awards, including the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation.
- Date:
- Saturday, July 8, 2023
- Time:
- 11:00am - 1:00pm
- Time Zone:
- Central Time - US & Canada (change)
- Location:
- 1st Floor Events
- Campus:
- Central Library, Jesse H. Jones Building
- Audience:
- Adults
- Categories:
- Arts & Culture Author Talks / Book Clubs One Houston One Book
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sandra Cisneros (born December 20, 1954) is an American writer. She is best known for her first novel, The House on Mango Street (1983), and her subsequent short story collection, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991).
Her work experiments with literary forms that investigate emerging subject positions, which Cisneros herself attributes to growing up in a context of cultural hybridity and economic inequality that endowed her with unique stories to tell.
Sandra is the recipient of numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, was awarded one of 25 new Ford Foundation Art of Change fellowships in 2017, and is regarded as a key figure in Chicano literature.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.
In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation.
When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and 4 veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona.
He is author of The Aztec Love God. The Tip of the Pyramid is the first in his series on Community Organizing.