SEPTEMBER 30, 2021 — As part of its Hispanic Heritage Month celebration, UTSA will present author and keynote speaker Gabby Rivera for an engaging conversation titled “Inspiring Radical Creativity: Empowering Young, Diverse Voices to Tell Their Own Stories.” The virtual event is free and open to the public.
Rivera is a Bronx-born, queer Puerto Rican author on a mission to create the wildest stories. She’s the first Latina to write for Marvel Comics, penning the solo series America about America Chavez, a portal-punching queer Latina powerhouse. Rivera’s critically acclaimed debut novel Juliet Takes a Breath was called “outstanding” by Roxane Gay and was re-published in September 2019 by Penguin Random House.
Currently, Rivera is the writer and creator of b.b. free, a new original comic series with BOOM! Studios. She also has her own podcast, Joy Revolution.
When not writing, Rivera speaks on her experiences as a queer Puerto Rican from the Bronx, an LGBTQ youth advocate, and the importance of prioritizing joy in QTPOC communities at events across the country.
Rivera believes that it’s vital to encourage people of all backgrounds to create, daydream, and tell their own stories—and in so doing, open a radical space for creativity. Now, in this affecting talk, Rivera unpacks how she navigates the world as a queer, Latinx, millennial woman, how she incorporates her heritage into her writing, how she strives to be a thoughtful ally for others and how she celebrates the healing power of community.
Rivera’s Hispanic Heritage Month talk at UTSA will address privilege and power, and what people can do to support the ideas of diverse artists working with progressive politics. For example, what if the United States made everyone—people of all colors, cultures, orientations, abilities, and genders—feel at home? What if the traumas experienced by marginalized peoples could be reconciled and incorporated into a broader, richer definition of America? What if our non-white ancestors weren’t erased, but represented in pop culture, in our textbooks and classrooms? What if we could privilege difference as a site of wonder, laughter and celebration, and not as something to fear? Attendees of Rivera’s keynote will be challenged to start imagining these worlds as reality.
The free, virtual event will be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, October 4. Attendees should pre-register at utsa.edu/rivera.
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Join the PEACE Center and Wellbeing Services for Denim Day, a day of learning about the importance of consent and why we wear denim on the last Wednesday of the month each April during Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Stop by our Denim Day display to take a photo in front of our Denim Wall, spin the "Is It Consent?" Wheel, and get a Concha or goodie.
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Alamodome, 100 Montana St.The University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
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We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education .
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to promoting access for all. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.