Date April 1, 2024
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Inaugural FLIP Festival celebrates Spanish-language writers with weekend-long event series

The open-to-the-public Festival of Ibero-American Literature of Providence, organized by Brown’s Department of Hispanic Studies, will feature prominent novelists, poets and short-story writers, from April 5 to 7.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A workshop on writing poems in Spanglish, a “translation slam” and panel discussions with prominent Spanish-language writers are among the many events planned for the inaugural FLIP Festival, which is short for the Festival of Ibero-American Literature of Providence.

Presented by Brown’s Department of Hispanic Studies, the festival will offer opportunities to engage with a “remarkable constellation of influential and award-winning writers from Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain,” said organizer Erica Durante, an associate professor of Hispanic studies.

Driven by a desire to share scholarship, literature and culture with the greater Providence community, Durante began organizing the festival in September, along with more than a dozen Brown Ph.D. students. The project offers students a window into how to apply scholarly work in Hispanic studies and literature within and the university setting, Durante said.

FLIP’s three days of free and community-inclusive programming, from Friday, April 5, to Sunday, April 7, are organized around the theme “Fuera de Lugar/Out of Place.”

“We want to delve into the experience of living and creating in foreign environments, exploring the sense of displacement that resonates deeply with the international landscape of Brown University, Providence and Rhode Island,” Durante said.

Workshops and presentations will be primarily delivered in Spanish and/or Spanglish, and English interpretation will be available at all events.

We want to delve into the experience of living and creating in foreign environments, exploring the sense of displacement that resonates deeply with the international landscape of Brown University, Providence and Rhode Island.

Erica Durante Brown University associate professor, Hispanic studies
 
Erica Durante

Participating authors include novelists Brenda Navarro, Clara Obligado, Pilar Quintana and Karina Sainz Borgo, and former Rhode Island Poet Laureate Tina Cane, who will be joined by scholars, translators and publishers. Several of the authors’ works explore themes related to politics and justice, including human rights abuses under authoritarian regimes and gender violence, Durante said

“Many of our guests are migrant writers, so we are also exploring the diversity of the Spanish language and the concept that there are many forms of Spanish,” she added.

The festival will be held at locations on Brown’s campus — including Rochambeau House, home to the Department of Hispanic Studies, the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs and the new Lindemann Performing Arts Center — as well as other sites in the city, including the South Providence Library, the Barker Playhouse and Twenty Stories bookstore.

On Saturday, April 6, MiniFLIP, a portion of the event for children and teenagers, will offer music and storytelling workshops at Rochambeau Public Library, South Providence Library and Tu Voz Es Música Talent School in Pawtucket, and conclude with a performance by participating children. 

“We wanted to create programming specifically designed for kids as a way to promote the value of bilingualism and multilingualism in a fun and age-appropriate way,” Durante said.

Saturday and Sunday begin with morning workshops (pre-registration is required, as space is limited), followed by several “Writers in Conversation” panel discussions in the afternoon. Other highlights of the weekend-long event include an opening celebration on Friday from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at Rochambeau House; a poetry open mic event on Saturday from 8 to 10 p.m. at Brown’s Lindemann Performing Arts Center; and, on Sunday, a closing conversation on the festival’s theme, “Out of Place,” at the Barker Playhouse.