Author and cultural scholar Valorie Thomas will talk with painter Candida Alvarez and artist/film maker Cauleen Smith about their artwork. Both artists are exhibiting their work concurrently in solo exhibitions at the Hyde Park Art Center. Thomas’s recent essay “Live from Mambo Mountain” will be published in the catalog for Candida Alvarez’s exhibition to be released in fall 2013.

Valorie D. Thomas is an Associate Professor of English and Africana Studies at Pomona College, in Claremont, California, where she teaches literature and social justice. Her writing has been included in Black Cool (edited by Rebecca Walker, 2012) and she is currently writing a book on indigenous spirituality and sacred space in African Diaspora film and literature.

This event is co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture at the University of Chicago. Admission is free and open to the public.

Thank you to the Host Committee for Candida Alaverz: MAMBOMOUNTAIN:
Madeleine and Tom Burrell
Janis Kanter and Thomas McCormick
Kerry James Marshall and Cheryl Lynn Bruce
Cheryl and Eric McKissack
Isobel Neal
Chelsea and James Smith