IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 2, 2009

CONTACT: K.E. Schwab
724.738.2199

karl.schwab@sru.edu

SRU marks Hispanic/Latino Month 

with artist-in-residence, scholar lectures
 
SLIPPERY ROCK, PA. -- Slippery Rock University will celebrate its eighth annual Hispanic/Latino Month throughout October as a way of illustrating the wealth and diversity of the cultures of the Spanish-speaking world through music, literature, cinema, art, dance, food and the media. Campus events will include lectures by artist Roberto Alberto and scholar Antonio Cortijo from the University of California, Santa Barbara. 

            All events are free.

           Wednesday the film “Nostradamus 2012” will be shown at 3:30 p.m. in Spotts World Culture Building Room 111.

           Alberto, of Sevilla, Spain, will be an artist-in-residence Oct. 19-23 working on a painting in the Carruth Rizza Hall Lobby. The campus is invited to stop by and observe his work. He will also lecture at 12:30 p.m. Oct. 22 in McKay Education Building Auditorium, followed by a 4 p.m. reception/lecture in Carruth Rizza Hall.

           Alberto earned his degree in fine arts from the University of Sevilla. Stylistically his work is Hyperrealist. He has had gallery expositions in Sevilla, Barcelona, Madrid, Pittsburgh and New York.  He recently had an exposition at the Mada Primavesi gallery in Madrid, which was presented as a series of works on New York City.  

           Alberto is making his second visit to the SRU and will donate the painting he creates here to the University.

           An SRU Dance Faculty Concert is at 8 p.m. Oct. 27 in Miller Auditorium.

           Oct. 30 the salsa band Azucar will offer Afro-Columbiana music from 9 p.m.-midnight in Carruth Rizza. Cortijo will lecture on Witchcraft in the Hispanic World at 4 p.m. Nov. 2 in the Russell Wright Alumni House and Conference Center.

           Cortijo has worked extensively on Renaissance drama, with editions and studies on Calderón de la Barca’s “El Sacro Pernaso,” Lope de Vega’s “Porfiar hasta morir,” Belmonte Bermúdez’s “El acierto en el engaño,” Pierre de Provenza’s “Durandarte y Belerma” and Pérez Petreyo’s Latin comedy “Los Supuestos.” 

           He is the author of “La evolución genérica de la ficción sentimental” and “Pobreza y caridad a fines de la Edad Media y comienzos del Renacimiento,” and has worked on rhetorical theory along with cataloging of Spanish archives, with works such as the La Fernán Núñez Collection at the Bancroft Library, Berkeley and colonial American history.

           He co-edited essays on medieval, Renaissance, and contemporary Spanish literature, and is the founder and editor of the on-line journal eHumanista: www.spanport.ucsb.edu/projects/ehumanista. 

           Cortijo is now working several on projects on colonial American theater, a study of 16th-century political history, a study of 18th-centry Inquisition, and the edition of several 17th- century dramas.

           Thomas Dadessio, assistant professor of modern languages and culture and a program organizer, said the play “The Old Man’s Wings,” by Costa Rican writer Melvin Mendez, would be presented Feb. 23-28.

Slippery Rock University is Pennsylvania’s premier public residential university. Slippery Rock University provides students with a comprehensive learning experience that intentionally combines academic instruction with enhanced educational and learning opportunities that make a positive difference in their lives.