PK-12 Immigration Literature Conference:
Storytelling for Visibility, Understanding and Transformation
This one-day conference was designed to inspire and empower educators to integrate immigration-focused literature into their classrooms by fostering a deeper understanding of the migration experience. Through a keynote presentation, interactive breakout sessions, and a panel with children and young adult literature authors, participants experienced the power of storytelling as a means to learn about oneself and one’s neighbors, and to take action to create a stronger and more interconnected society.
Educators left with a copy of the CUNY-IIE Guide for PK-12 Immigration Literature. The conference and the guide support educators working to include culturally responsive literature in their curricula that can teach their students to learn, act, and advocate in a way that centers our shared humanity. Four (4) CTLE credits were provided to eligible NYS educators who attend the conference.
Saturday, March 8, 2025
10:00 AM - 3:00 PM
The City College of New York
Great Hall at Shepard Hall
160 Convent Avenue, New York, NY 10031
*** Please contact info@cuny-iie.org for any questions. ***
DIGITAL PROGRAM
Gallery:
Program Schedule:
-
-
Edwidge Danticat, Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor of the Humanities in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University
See Edwidge’s full bio below.
-
“Teaching Themes of Belonging and Advocacy with Areli is a Dreamer” with Areli Morales Romero
“Books as Bridges: How Elementary Students Use Literature for Advocacy” with Marina Velásquez, Matteo Dinzey-Farrar & Liam Lizarraga
“Multimodal Middle Grade Text Sets for Desahogo” with Carla España
“Understanding the Middle East: Literature for Young Adults” with Mina Leazer
“Teaching about Religious Diversity with Picture Books for All Ages” with Heather H. Woodley
“The Power of Story: Supporting Immigrant Youth Mental Health Through Literature” with Cindy M. Bautista-Thomas & Evelyn Bautista-Miller
“Conociendo Autoras/es: Multilingual Creative Computing to Engage with Immigration Literature” with Sara Vogel
“Building Community Beyond the Classroom: The Importance of Public Libraries & Community Bookstores” with Arturo Agüero, Adrian Cepeda, & Mary Escalante
Q&A with Edwidge Danticat
-
-
Aya Ghanameh
Sonia Guiñansaca
Areli Morales
Emma Otheguy
Ly Tran
See speakers’ full bios below.
Speaker Bios:
Edwidge Danticat
Edwidge Danticat is the Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor of the Humanities in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University. She received her B.A. in French Literature from Barnard College and her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Brown University. She is the author of seventeen books, including Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah Book Club selection, Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist, The Farming of Bones, an American Book Award winner; the novels-in-stories, The Dew Breaker, Claire of the Sea Light, and The Art of Death, a National Book Critics Circle finalist for Criticism. She has written seven books for children and young adults, a travel narrative, After the Dance, and a collection of essays, Create Dangerously. Her memoir, Brother, I'm Dying, was a 2007 finalist for the National Book Award and a 2008 winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography. She is the editor of The Butterfly's Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States, The Beacon Best of 2000, Haiti Noir, Haiti Noir 2, and Best American Essays 2011. She is a 2009 MacArthur Fellow, a 2018 Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow, a 2018 winner of the Neustadt Prize, a 2019 winner of the Saint Louis Literary Award, a 2020 United States Artist Fellow, a 2020 winner of the Vilceck Prize, and a 2023 winner of the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. Her story collection, Everything Inside, was a 2020 winner of the Bocas Fiction Prize, The Story Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Prize. Her essay collection We’re Alone was published by Graywolf Press in Fall 2024.
Aya Ghanameh
Aya Ghanameh is a Palestinian illustrator, writer, and designer from Amman, Jordan currently based in New York City. Her work moves away from state-centric ways of thinking to center the voices of ordinary people in historical and political narratives. Her debut children's picture book, THESE OLIVE TREES (Viking Books, 2023), is inspired by the experiences of her family who cultivated her love of the earth throughout her upbringing in exile. She recently illustrated DEAR MUSLIM CHILD (Balzer + Bray, 2024) by Rahma Rodaah, and is currently illustrating a forthcoming picture book with Interlink Publishing. Aya graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Illustration and a minor in Literary Arts & Studies. Previously a Children's Books & Gifts Design Fellow at Chronicle Books, she is now a Designer at Penguin Workshop at Penguin Random House.
Sonia Guiñansaca
Sonia Guiñansaca is an international award winning queer migrant indigenous Kichwa-Kañari poet, cultural strategist and social justice activist. Sonia has over 17 years of movement and cultural organizing experience that began when they were among the first waves of young people to publicly come out as undocumented. They emerged as a national leader in the migrant artistic and political communities where they coordinated and participated in groundbreaking civil disobedience actions. Guiñansaca helped build some of the largest undocumented organizations in the U.S, including co-founding some of the first artistic projects by and for undocumented writers. Their writing appears in many anthologies like Daughter of Latin America: An International Anthology of Writing by Latine Women (2023). They co-edited the anthology Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices On Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings (2022). They self-published their debut poetry book Nostalgia & Borders (2016), and in 2023 it was translated to Kichwa & Spanish by Severo Editorial under Nostalgia Y Fronteras.
Areli Morales
Areli Morales is an award winning author and educator. She was born in Puebla, Mexico but was raised in New York City. She is a DACA recipient, and Areli is a Dreamer is her debut children’s book. A graduate of Brooklyn College, CUNY with a bachelor’s degree in childhood bilingual education. She currently works as a public school teacher. In her own classroom, Areli teaches children to value the power of storytelling and empowers them to share their own stories. She currently lives in New York City with her family.
Emma Otheguy
Emma Otheguy is the author of several books for children, including the picture books A Sled for Gabo and Martina Has Too Many Tías, the bilingual picture book Martí’s Song for Freedom, and the middle-grade novels Sofía Acosta Makes a Scene and Silver Meadows Summer. Her newest novel, Cousins in the Time of Magic, was called “a high-stakes story that provides historical facts and intriguing magic” by Kirkus Reviews. Otheguy holds a Ph.D. in History from New York University, where she focused on colonial Latin America and held fellowships and grants from the Mellon Foundation, the American Historical Association, the Council of Library and Information Resources, and Humanities New York. Otheguy’s books emphasize the deep connections between Latin America and the United States and aim to share these stories of bridges and convergences with everyday kids. Before becoming a writer and historian, Otheguy graduated from Swarthmore College, sold books at an independent bookstore, and taught elementary-school Spanish.
Ly Tran
Ly Tran is the author of the memoir House of Sticks, winner of the Hornblower Award from the NYC Book Awards and named one of NPR and Vogue's Best Books of the Year. The audiobook, narrated by Tran herself, earned an AudioFile Earphones Award for its outstanding narration. Tran's writing has been featured in Harper's Magazine, Vogue, and Lithub, among others. And she has received fellowships from MacDowell, Art Omi, Yaddo, and Millay Arts.
