Join us for a talk by Rolando Estévez, a Cuban visual artist and poet renowned for his spectacular artist books. He will present for the first time a series of his new artist books, which are in exuberant conversation with a range of Cuban poets, including José Martí, Dulce María Loynaz, and Nancy Morejón, and talk about being a book artist in a rapidly changing Cuba. The lecture will be in Spanish with simultaneous English translation, and followed by a reception.

An artist of the book for more than thirty years, and now the first licensed independent bookmaker in Cuba, Estévez is finding exciting ways for words and images to speak to each other, creating books at once delicate and sturdy, ambitious and humble, books that breathe, carry earth, sand, seashells, and twigs, and are full of life.

U-M Library holds a major collection of his books, which offer a window onto Cuban cultural and artistic life over the past three decades. View a selection of these holdings in the online exhibit Intersections: Cultures, Identities, Narratives.