Featuring award-winning authors and storytellers in an enchanting evening of performances celebrating and affirming the richness of Latino heritage and culture.
Friday, June 21, 2019
Hispanic Reading Room - Library of Congress
7 - 8:30 p.m.
Free! - RSVP on Facebook
Meg Medina is the author of the Newbery Medal–winning book Merci Suárez Changes Gears, which was also a 2018 Kirkus Prize finalist. Her young adult novels include Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, which won the 2014 Pura Belpré Author Award; Burn Baby Burn, which was long-listed for the National Book Award; and The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind. She is also the author of picture books Mango, Abuela, and Me, illustrated by Angela Dominguez, which was a Pura Belpré Author Award Honor Book, and Tía Isa Wants a Car, illustrated by Claudio Muñoz, which won the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award. The daughter of Cuban immigrants, she grew up in Queens, New York, and now lives in Richmond, Virginia.
Born in Yelapa, Mexico, where she currently resides, Yuyi Morales lived for many years in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she still maintains close relations with booksellers and librarians. Professional storyteller, dancer, choreographer, puppeteer, and artist. She has won the prestigious Pura Belpré Award for Illustration six times, for Just a Minute, Los Gatos Black on Halloween, Just in Case, Nino Wrestles the World, Viva Frida - also a Caldecott Honor Book - and Dreamers. She also illustrated Sherman Alexies Thunder Boy Jr., a New York Times Bestseller.
Elvia Pérez Nápoles is a world-renowned storyteller, storytelling advocate, author, actress, and journal editor who has served on the Cuban National Cultural Counsel for more than two decades. Elvia has received many distinctions and awards for her contributions in the cultural arena, including the award Cuentacontigo, and the award Brocal given to her artistic trajectory by the Biennal de Oralidad. Elvia is the author of From the Winds of Manguito, Desde los vientos de Manguito: Cuban Folktales in English and Spanish, Cuentos folklóricos de Cuba, edited by Margaret Read MacDonald (Libraries Unlimited 2004).