Bronx, NY, Aug 3 – Over 20 organizations based in The Bronx, Manhattan and Puerto Rico will join forces in September to celebrate the centennial of Evelina Antonetty, one of the most impactful activists of the Puerto Rican diaspora of the 20th century.
Titled EVELINA 100, A Celebration of the Life and Times of Dr. Evelina Antonetty, the program is scheduled for the week of September 12-19 at 19 venues and will feature concerts; an exhibition of specially commissioned art; the reading of the play, Evelina’s Heart; panel discussions; poetry readings;the premiere of a specially commissioned work by maestro Humberto Ramírez; and a teleconference between community activists in New York and Puerto Rico.
The calendar of events is attached to this announcement. All events are free of charge.
“Today the legacy of Evelina Antonetty lives on as scholars, friends, family members and those she mentored gather to celebrate her centennial nearly forty years after her untimely passing in 1984,” said Dr. Daisy Cocco de Filippis, president of Hostos Community College (CUNY), the principal sponsor of the celebration. “May this centennial serve to rekindle the fires she set in her time, and introduce her to and inspire young people to continue her work.”
A biography prepared for the centennial reads: “(Evelina Antonetty) was a force to be reckoned with, one of the most effective and impactful leaders of the Puerto Rican diaspora of the twentieth century.
She started her public life as a union organizer and aide to progressive elected officials. Then, as a mother, she immersed herself in parental oversight of schools and founded United Bronx Parents, a parent advocacy agency that gained national attention serving as a model for other efforts from coast to coast.”
The sponsors and collaborators of Evelina 100 are: Hostos Community College (CUNY), BronxCare Health System, Centro (The Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College), The Bronx Music Heritage Center, the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, Pregones/PRTT, BronxNet, Bronx County Historical Society, 52 People for Progress, Rincón Criollo, G8-Caño de Martín Peña (Puerto Rico), Nos Quedamos, The Point, Caribbean Studies at Brooklyn College, Borough of Manhattan Community College, LaGuardia Community College-Dean of Students Office, Taino Towers, Casita Maria, Chocolate Cortes/ChocoBar, Vito Marcantonio Forum, College of Staten Island, UniteHere Local 100, APREE, NYPIRG, L.E.A.P.S./ Chelsea Rising, The Ramirez Brothers and more.
###
For inquiries please contact:
Nydia R. Edgecombe Ph.D., Chair Evelina 100:
(917) 691-7887
evelina100centennial@gmail.com
Wallace Edgecombe, Vice Chair, Cultural & Arts Evelina 100
(914) 659-7292
Amillie Coster, Chair Communications Evelina 100
(413) 854-5611
