Please note that this lecture has been moved to the Hussey Room in the Michigan League.

Every time I walk into a classroom, any group of students, or a young audience in Puerto Rico, I request if they can give me a lists of any abolitionist’s names (abolicionistas o liberadores). MLK is always pronounced. Although this has colonialist’s reasons concerning our island political status, and while some appear to ignore other crucial personalities within the LIBERACIÓN (freedom movement) inside the Puerto Rican arena, I have learned to use this so called “advantage” to connect with my listeners. This lecture will intent to be a reflection of my personal work for the past decade on migration, LGBTTIQ issues, Afroidentity and antiracist popular education inside our communities.

Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro is an award-winning Afro lesbian novelist, short story writer, essayist, and feminist activist from Puerto Rico; she addresses both racial and gender issues, and sexual identity in her combative, non-conformist, and creative works. She offers lectures about antiracist, decolonial feminism, LGBTTQ issues and how to be a black woman in today’s society. She is also the Director of the Department of Afro-Puerto Rican Studies, a performative project of Creative Writing based in San Juan and has founded the Chair of Ancestral Black Women to respond to the invitation promulgated by UN and UNESCO to celebrate the International Decade of Afro- Descendants 2015−2024.