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.