FILM SCREENING AND PANEL:
50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE STRUGGLE FOR PUERTO RICAN STUDIES AT CUNY
Scholars Maria E. Perez y Gonzalez, Virginia Sanchez-Korrol, and Ricardo Gabriel join filmmakers Tami Gold and Pam Sporn to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the struggle for Puerto Rican Studies at the City University of New York.
After the film screening of MAKING THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE, speakers will also talk about their research on Puerto Rican studies as a discipline for the CUNY book project, as well as a current overview of Puerto Rican Studies at CUNY.
RSVP: https://centropr.nationbuilder.com/50yearsPRStudies
About the Film
Making the Impossible Possible, chronicles the story of the student-led struggle to win Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College, CUNY, in the late 1960s. The documentary is a mosaic of voices, film footage, and photographs taken by student activists. This important intergenerational story highlights how students and faculty seized the moment to build upon an alliance of Puerto Rican, African American, and other progressive students forged in their communities and the civil rights movement. Together they changed the face of higher education, transforming the curriculum and expanding who gets educated. The film sheds light on the 50-year history of struggle that started with the founding of one of the first Puerto Rican Studies departments in the nation, and documents the continued movement to maintain their gains.
Speakers:
María Elizabeth Pérez y González, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies at Brooklyn College, CUNY, where she has served as faculty for 29 years with 17 of those years as Chairperson. Her research includes the Puerto Rican diaspora, Latinxs, women in ministry, and Pentecostals. She has published Puerto Ricans in the United States (2000) and scholarly pieces on Latinas in ministry. She is the co-editor of Puerto Rican Studies in CUNY: The First 50 Years (forthcoming 2021). Contact info and to submit to the digital archives: 50YearsofPRS-CUNY@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Dr. Virginia Sanchez Korrol is Professor Emerita at Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, Brooklyn College, CUNY. Dr. Sanchez Korrol writes about the Puerto Rican experience in the United States. Among her extensive publications, she authored From Colonia to Community: The History of Puerto Ricans in New York City, and co-edited Latinas in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia. Recipient of the Herbert H. Lehman Prize for Distinguished Contributions to New York History, 2020, she serves as historical consultant to media projects, government and cultural institutions. She is the co-editor of Puerto Rican Studies in CUNY: The First 50 Years (forthcoming 2021). Contact: vsankorr@brooklyn.CUNY.edu
Ricardo Gabriel is a scholar-organizer and a PhD candidate in sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center. His research interests include social movements, decolonial education, and climate justice. Ricardo’s dissertation uses oral histories and other qualitative research methods to analyze the movement for Puerto Rican studies at The City University of New York, from 1969 to the mid-1970s. He has written for NACLA: Report on the Americas and other publications. Contact: rgabrielnyc@gmail.com
Producer/Director — Tami Gold is an award-winning filmmaker and educator. Her films have been at the forefront of social justice, focusing on issues of race, gender, sexual identity, labor, and police brutality, and have screened at MOMA, Whitney, Chicago Arts Institute, Sundance, Tribeca, and The New York Film Festival and have been screened on television worldwide. She is recipient of Rockefeller, Guggenheim, and Fulbright fellowships.
Producer/Director — Pam Sporn is an award-winning filmmaker and who taught in NYC high schools for 28 years. Her films have screened on PBS and at the U.S. and International film festivals. Some of her films include Detroit 48202, Cuban Roots/Bronx Stories, and With a Stroke of the Chaveta. Pam is a member of New Day Films and the Bronx Filmmakers Collective and New York Women in Film and Televisions.
Co-sponsors:
Department of Film and Media Studies at Hunter College
Puerto Rican and Latino Studies Department at Brooklyn College
Third World Newsreel
Making the Impossible Possible is a production of the Alliance for Puerto Rican Education and Empowerment and was directed by Pam Sporn and Tami Gold and co-produced by Gisely Colón López. It is available from Third World Newsreel, www.twn.org.
