Lyn Di Iorio
“Writing Palo Monte: Lyn Di Iorio’s New Novel Outside the Bones, Moderated by Jerry W. Carlson”
“My spirit working was more about what people wanted it to be. I was good at making people believe they’d get what they wanted with a little pinch of honey, splashes of Florida water, a ground up tiger’s nail from Perla’s Botánica thrown over a photo and penciled paper. Yeah, focus their anxieties with the chaos of my creation. Whenever I did a trabajito, a fufú, people in the hood believed it would work for them. They’d trade in kind, clean my house, get me concert tickets and buy me gift coupons to my favorite Italian restaurants. Life can be comfortable when you got a lot of people’s faith behind you. What they believe creates a current; and that current becomes their reality.”
Lyn Di Iorio, Outside the Bones
Photo courtesy of Lyn Di Iorio.
Lyn Di Iorio is the author of Killing Spanish: Literary Essays on Ambivalent U.S. Latino/a Identity and the co-editor of Contemporary U.S. Latino/a Literary Criticism; both were published by Palgrave Macmillan. She has a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, a master’s degree from Stanford University’s creative writing program, and a Ph.D. from The University of California at Berkeley. She teaches in the English departments at The City College of New York and CUNY Graduate Center. Outside the Bones (Arte Público Press, University of Houston, 2011) is her first novel. In it she weaves aspects of the Afro-Caribbean religious practice of Palo Monte in New York City’s Latino community with the sixteen-year-old mystery of a woman’s disappearance in Puerto Rico to examine issues of race, class, power, and greed. An excerpt from the novel won an honorable mention in the 2009 New Millennium Writings Awards Competition.
Date: Monday, November 14, 2011
Time: 7PM
RSVP:
We prefer that you RSVP. Your RSVP will help facilitate security. Also, we expect that the event will fill-up quickly. If you are learning about this event at the last minute, please feel free to come, and we will do our best to accommodate you, but we cannot guarantee seating if the event fills up. Please RSVP at abenedicty@ccny.cuny.edu or (212) 925-6625, ext 207.
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Location:
Division of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Center for Worker Education
The City College of New York
25 Broadway, 7th floor (in front of the bull statue at Wall Street)
New York NY 10004
(212) 925-6625, ext 0
Subways: 4 or 5 to Bowling Green; R or 1 to Rector Street; J or Z to Broad Street
Sponsors and Special Thanks:
This talk is possible thanks to major funding from the City College of New York at the City University of New York (CCNY, CUNY). Major funding was also provided by the City SEEDS Award, and with support from the Offices of the President and Provost and President Lisa Staiano-Coico. We would also like to acknowledge support at CCNY from the Division of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Center for Worker Education, the Department of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, the M.A. in the Study of the Americas, and the Department of Media and Communication Arts. Additional thanks go to the Transnational and Transcolonial Caribbean Studies Research Group (TTCSRG), Arte Público Press, University of Houston, and Kaiama L. Glover.