WCU community got a chance to see Miami culture and heritage from a perspective of Afro-Latina art during the talk from Dr. Allison Harris. Harris was hosted by Josefina Niggli speaker series.
Photo credit to Professor Birkhofer
Harris has been an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in the English department for a year now. Harris has a published interview with black Cuban artist Juana Valdes and co-edited a special issue called “Looking for Black Miami” in Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal. Her talk is an extension of this work and is titled: “Hanging by a nail, by a thread, by the skin of your teeth: Liminality and Contrast in the Art of Juana Valdes,” an Afro-Cuban artist based out of Miami.
Josefina Niggli Latinx Speaker Series was started in 2016 with a goal to bring students, faculty, and the WNC community together with speakers to discuss issues related to Latinx communities especially in Latinx art, literature, poetry and film.
“What I wanted to do was bring acknowledgment and bring importance of the culture in Miami and how it also has a role with even us. Miami has a heavy Cuban presence, it’s the majority population there, but here it would be the minority,” Harris explained in an interview after the event.
During the event Harris introduced Valdes and her current artwork that highlights the issues of race, gender, labor, class and transnationalism in today’s society. It also shows the experience of migration for Afro-Latin culture and heritage. Harris introduced some of Valdes artwork like “Trade Wind Endeavors” which is a screen print of cotton handkerchiefs, and also “Colored China Rags” that is made of porcelain bone china.
Miami Cuban based artwork by Juana Valdes
Valdes work is important because she is part of the majority race in Miami but anywhere else she is the minority and her work emphasizes issues that not only happen within her race or culture in Miami but can happen here at Western Carolina.
“The event was interesting and made me look at societal values and see how they have changed over time. It was relatable to me being a minority student here at WCU and the change that has been made on campus just the last 4 years,” said Grady Thomas, a senior at WCU who attended the event.
Dr. Harris shared a lot of knowledge during her presentation and made points of how much society has changed but how much further we still have to go.
