As part of the Center for Inter-American Studies 15-year celebration, C.IAS and the Center for Jewish Studies are organizing a reading and conversation between poet Marjorie Agosín and photographer Samuel Shats titled From Austria to Chile: A Journey of Braided Memories on May 9, 3:00 pm, HS 06.03 (HS C,Universitätsplatz 6). This presentation will speak about the braiding of poetry and photography in the poetry collection where Marjorie Agosín speaks abouther journey to find her great grandmother Helena Broder living in Vienna in 1939 to the shores of Valparaiso during the Holocaust. The images of Samuel Shats symbolically illustrate these times as well as Helena's future in the New world. After the discussion, we plan to show a brief film.
Marjorie Agosín is the Andrew Mellon Professor of the Humanities at Wellesley College, USA. In her works, Marjorie Agosín imagines the memories of her Jewish great-grandmother Helena Broder, who came from Vienna – and thus the history of Europe. Marjorie Agosin has received numerous awards for her writing and for her work as a human rights activist, including the Jeanette Rankin Prize for Human Rights and the United Nations Leadership Award for Human Rights. The Chilean government honored her with the Gabriela Mistral Medal for her life's work from her works.
Samuel Shats is an independent award winning photographer with exhibits in Latin America, the USA, Europe, and Israel.
