Raquel Cepeda's Blog, page 11

Mark Anthony Neal and I talk “Bird of Paradise” on Left of Black

I had the honor of being interviewed by Duke University Professor, Scholar, Author and Original B-Boy Mark Anthony Neal today on his webcast Left of Black. Check it out.

AL JAZEERA’S THE STREAM: Uncovering Latina suicides

Earlier today I took part in a discussion on Al Jazeera’s The Stream about what’s driving the high depression and suicide ideation rates in America with my homegirl Beatriz Coronel (LIP), anthropologist Lauren Gulbas, and Eric Ibarra.

THE TOPIC:

Latina teenagers have one of the highest rates of suicide among teens in the United States. In many cases they share a common thread: they are first-generation Americans with immigrant parents – and they find themselves caught between old traditions and their American life. So what is driving these girls to the brink of hopelessness and what is being done to stop it?

THE SEGMENT:

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Al Jazeera did a great job gathering more information, statistics and viewer content here for you to peruse. Huffington Post recently published the results of a recent study about the subject that’s worth a read here.

Additionally, while we are still in the production phase of Deconstructing Latina, we are making headway with our girls every day. Our participants are using their results to create self portraits, if you will, adding elements of their enhanced identities into their work. It’s exciting to witness. I’m so looking forward to the next phase of the doc, which I will announce once we get there.

NYC Book Signing and Discussion on Wednesday the 13th!

MAKE SURE YOU RSVP FOR THIS EVENT ASAP AT NoMAAProg@nomaanyc.org!

International Women’s History Month Literary Festival in Baltimore, Maryland

Yesterday was a great day at the Enoch Pratt library in Baltimore. Only four days after the release of my book Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina, I had the honor of sitting on a panel with my new lit-sisters Jami Attenberg (The Middlesteins), Ayana Mathis (The Twelve Tribes of Hattie), and Dina Nayeri (A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea). The panel, moderated by the timeless Linda Duggins (Hachette Book Group), was a discussion about the intersection of place, time, and culture in literature and in the lives of women.

At first, I was thinking, “How in the hell are we going to fill our three-hour time slot with a meaningful discussion? but the time flew by like sand through my fingers. I must say, however, that the highlight of the event for me wasn’t what was going on onstage or at the book signing (although running into an old college friend I hadn’t seen in years was awesome!): I couldn’t take my eyes off of the young woman who was signing our dialogue, particularly when we read from our respective books. It was breathtaking.

Let’s do it again, real soon, Baltimore!

Here, a momento.

 

 

Huffington Post Reviews Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

Raquel Cepeda is hip-hop. Her work, her experiences, and her voice encapsulate the history and aesthetics of the hip-hop generation. Cepeda, a leading journalist whose work has appeared in People, the Associated Press, The Village Voice, MTV News, CNN.com, has shaped the conversation about hip-hop for decades. Her film, Bling: A Planet Rock, “takes a hard-hitting look at how the flashy world of commercial hip-hop played a significant role in the 10-year civil war in Sierra Leone, West Africa” and her edited collection And It Don’t Stop: The Best Hip-Hop Journalism of the Last 25 Years are two significant works within the hip-hop landscape. A career of reflecting on artistry, identity, culture, and a generation looking for voice, Cepeda turns inward with her memoir Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina (Atria Books, 2013). Telling the story of a young women whose life was turned upside down over and over again, Bird of Paradise is her story of redemption, of a her search to understand her identity in a society that told her over and over again that she did not matter. READ MORE HERE.

Booklist starred review for Bird of Paradise!

Just in time for my publication date tomorrow!

Al Jazeera’s The Stream: Language, Race & Racism in the US

Earlier today, I took part in a discussion on Al Jazeera’s The Stream about the use of the “N-word” with Dr. Cornel West, Tim Wise, Akiba Solomon and Mychel Smith.

THE TOPIC:

Have African-Americans reclaimed racist language? The “N” word has always been associated with the crimes of slavery, but today with the influence of the hip-hop industry it has evolved into a term of endearment used within the community. However, debate continues, as many fear this is disconnecting black youth from their history and making the word acceptable. Join the conversation with Dr. Cornel West.

THE SEGMENT:

MY THOUGHTS:

I was a little surprised that we were tasked to talk about the N-word as if rappers—I am staying within the hip-hop checkbox here because it’s in context with the segment—just started dropping that word into their lyrical lingua franca yesterday. And still, with that said, I felt like the more interesting and progressive conversation would have been how we can, as Jay-Z intimated in the video, redefine how it’s used. None of us have the power to force people to stop using it and then there’s this ideal, free speech, that we must protect at all costs. So, now what?

I live a predominantly Dominican neighborhood where mi gente use the N-word so gratuitously that I think it can mean everything from “friend” to “foe” to “egg sandwich.” Seriously, it’s that crazy.

So, as I was saying, the N-word: I think it has the potential to be used as a connector. It can show, or rather, edutain folks about the things that people in the Diaspora have in common. For example, one of the earliest accounts of the N-word I’ve come across is in a 1518 letter to Charles V from a Santo Domingo based lawyer in reference to slaves on the eastern side of the island (which is also, incidentally, the site of the first slave rebellion in the Americas in 1522). I have shared this fact with people in both my own and the Black American community, not as a teacher but just as someone eager to share all of the things that can bind us together.

However, there’s major hurdle we must cross, before we can continue the discussion: how little we know, beyond the immigration issue, about the Latino experience in America. It’s like, to borrow a line from one of my favorite flicks: “Either they don’t know, don’t show, or don’t care about what’s going on in the hood.” And that, in 2013, is a bummer.

What do you think of the video? 

 

 

Ms. Magazine Bookmarks Bird of Paradise

Thanks to Ms. magazine for the shout.

Latina magazine March, 2013 Issue

Thanks to Amaris Castillo at Latina magazine for the Bird of Paradise love…countdown to March 5!

 

 

Inwood at the dawn of the 1970s

A friend recently turned me on to Goodbye to Glocamorra, a short documentary film about my neighborhood in the 1970s, or more specifically, the lamenting of the arrival of “negroes” and “Puerto Ricans” into this once Irish and Irish-American enclave. It’s surreal to see Broadway back then, a few years before my parents moved into the area. My favorite part of the piece is the interview with a young Good Shepherd priest, Father Travers, which begins at around 15:05. He says that he received many complaints against him for preaching tolerance to a parish with “blinkers on.” Despite their fear, says Father Jerry Travers:

“The national report on civil disorders said that the problem of all the riots and disorders in this country laid with the white man, white racism, and I think this church isn’t taking a strong stand against it.”

Film credit, from the synopsis: This film was originally produced by Radharc, an Irish television network, for broadcast on Irish television. It was re-presented by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in 2012 as part of their “Hidden Ireland” cultural series.