Photo taken by poet Amber West (Hen & God and Daughter Eraser) at the Culver City Small Press Festival, September 21, 2019. The gorgeous book cover art featured is by artist Clovis Blackwell, Fleur de Bloom Editions.
Saturday, March 7, 2020 | Reading & Signing from The Latin Poet’s Guide to the Cosmos, with Special Guests Yalil Guerra (Latin Grammy award-winning composer & musician) and Justin Lack (percussionist, Graham Bonnet Band)| Reading from Until We’re Fish, forthcoming on October 6, 2020 | Q&A and Reception to follow | 2-4:00pm | Boca de Oro Festival of Literary Arts & Culture | For more information, please contact bocadeoro.org
Wednesday, November 6: Fowler Out Loud Series | Singing the Body Electric, With Special Guests Susannah Rodríguez Drissi, Amber West, The Singer & The Songwriter, and Audrey Densmore | Join us in honoring the legacy of the father of American poetry with an evening of original poetry, puppetry, and music by diverse Los Angeles artists | 6-7:00pm | Fowler Museum, UCLA | For more information, please visit https://www.fowler.ucla.edu/events/fowler-out-loud-daughters-of-whitman/ or visit whitmania.com
Monday, November 4, 2019: Please join the College of Charleston, Latin American & Caribbean Studies for a presentation of “The Road to Santiago: Arab & Islamic Presence in Cuba” | This talk by Dr. Susannah Rodríguez Drissi explores representations of the Arab and Islamic world in Latin American literatures and cultures. Reception to follow | 4-5:00pm |EHHP Alumni Center, 86 Wentworth Street, College of Charleston
Monday, November 4, 2019: Please join the College of Charleston, Latin American & Caribbean Studies for the Reading & Signing of The Latin Poet’s Guide to the Cosmos, with Special Guests Professor Michael O’Brien (Musicology, College of Charleston) and Fisher Wilson (2018-2019 Outstanding Student Award in Music, School of the Arts, College of Charleston) | Reception to follow | 12-1:00pm |EHHP Alumni Center, 86 Wentworth Street, College of Charleston
Sunday, October 6, 2019: LitCrawl, Los Angeles Daughters of Whitman: A Poetry Reading, featuring poets Susannah Rodríguez Drissi , Amber West, Cecilia Fairchild, and Dominqua Dickey; free; more info: whitmania.ucla.edu | 5th Street Entrance, Los Angeles Central Library, 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071 | 3:30-4:15pm. More info: whitmania.ucla.edu and litcrawl2019.sched.com
Saturday, September 21, 2019: Culver City Small Press Festival. I will be reading and signing from The Latin Poet’s Guide to the Cosmos (Floricanto Press, 2019), along with poet Amber West (Hen & God and Daughter Eraser) and artist Clovis Blackwell (Fleur de Boom Editions) – Clovis is the artist behind the gorgeous cover art for Hen & God and The Latin Poet’s Guide to the Cosmos.The Wende Museum of the Cold War, 10808 Culver City Blvd., Culver City, CA 90230 | Find us at the Fleur de Boom Editions table | 11:00am. More info: Vagabondbooks.net
Thursday, August 15, 2019: A Spoken Word Event, co-sponsored by UCLA Academic Advancement Program and UCLA Writing Programs. Special Guests: Poets Susannah Rodríguez Drissi, Amber West, Dominiqua Dickey, Emily Van Klay, and Mr. Hip | 7-9:00pm | UCLA, DeNeve Auditorium
Wednesday, August 14, 2019: Book Launch Event: Reading & Signing from The Latin Poet’s Guide to the Cosmos, with Special Guests Dr. Simona Livescu, and musicians JD Mata and Justin Lack. Book Soup is located on the world-famous Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. Founded by Glenn Goldman, the bookstore has been serving readers, writers, rock ‘n’ rollers, and celebrities since 1975. | Reception to follow | Book Soup, Hollywood | 7:00pm | For more info: Contact Book Soup directly or find them online
Monday, July 29, 2019 | Book Launch Event | Join us at the beautiful The Last Bookstore for a Reading & Signing from The Latin Poet’s Guide to the Cosmos, with Special Guests Magdalena Edwards, and musicians JD Mata and Justin Lack | Q&A and Reception to follow | The Last Bookstore, Los Angeles | 7:30pm | For more information and to purchase tickets, contact The Last Bookstore directly.
Friday, July 19, 2019: Book Launch Event | Join me for for a Reading & Signing of The Latin Poet’s Guide to the Cosmos, with Special Guests musicians JD Mata and Justin Lack | Reception to follow | Alley Cat Bookstore & Gallery, 24th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110 | For more information, please visit the bookstore at Alleycatbookshop.com or contact them at 415.824.1761
Sunday, June 2, 2019: Daughters of Whitman: A Poetry Reading, featuring poets Ali Liebegott, Amber West, Susannah Rodríguez Drissi, Heather Nagami, and Vickie Vertiz; fiction writer Dominqua Dickey; performance artist Cecilia Fairchild; and puppeteer Audrey Desnmore; free; more info: whitmania.ucla.edu | Beyond Baroque, Venice, CA | 5-8:00pm. More info: whitmania.ucla.edu and beyondbaroque.org
Friday, May 31, 2019: Organizer & Speaker, Ecos del Gran Viejo: Latin American Poets Sing Walt Whitman, a bilingual celebration of Latin American writers influenced by Whitman at UCLA | Powell Library Rotunda, University of California, Los Angeles | 2-4:00pm | For more info: whitmania.ucla.edu
Sunday, May 19, 2019: Daughters of Whitman, with Special Guests Susannah Rodríguez Drissi, Amber West, and Dominiqua Dickey | Join UCLA faculty for a reading celebrating the bicentennial and radical optimism of the first bard of democracy | 3-4:00pm | LitFest Pasadena | Find us at The Strand on Molino Avenue | For more information, please visit litfestpasadena.org
Monday, April 29, 2019: Featured poet in Poetry Bureau, an evening of Whitmanic poetry | Getty Museum College Night–Whitman Dreams in Color | Getty Museum | 6-9:30pm | Free for students with ID. Free shuttle service available to/from UCLA; contact arts@orl.ucla.edu for information. http://www.getty.edu/education/college/collegenight.html
“The Hybrid | Blurring the Line Between Scholarly Pursuits & Creative Work | A Conversation with Susannah Rodríguez Drissi” | July 31, 2018, at 1:30pm, Powell Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
On Wednesday, June 6th, 2018, at 2:30pm. Rolfe 4302, Lydeen Library, Department of Spanish & Portuguese. Join us for a table reading of my award-winning play, HOUSES WITHOUT WALLS, premiering at the Hollywood Fringe Festival on June 3rd, 2018. The reading will be followed by a discussion with playwright and the following UCLA faculty: Dr. Gabriela Venegas, Dr. Magda Matuskova, & Dr. Daniel Whitsell. The event is sponsored by UCLA’s Program on Caribbean Studies and the Latin American Institute.
“Reading & Conversation with Scholar & Playwright Dr. Susannah Rodríguez Drissi.” On Thursday, May 10th, 2018, at 1:00pm, HIB 135, I will be joining faculty and students at the University of California, Irvine for a table reading of my award-winning play HOUSES WITHOUT WALLS, premiering at the Hollywood Fringe Festival on June 3rd, 2018. THE event is sponsored by the Department of Spanish & Portuguese, Illuminations, and Humanities Commons.
Join us on Saturday, May 26th at 1:30pm at KXLU 88.9, Alma del Barrio, Loyola Marymount University’s Latin sound since 1973. DJ José Cristóbal and I will be discussing my new play, HOUSES WITHOUT WALLS, my work as a scholar, writer, and translator. Find a recording of parts 1 and 2 of the interview HERE.
Panel Co-chair, Co-organizer, Presenter: “Post-communist Perspectives on Medicine, Literature, and Film.” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), March 29-April 1, 2018. Presentation title: “Post-Communist Tourism and Medical Humanities in Yoss’s “A Planet for Rent.”
Presenter: Reading from Letters from Camus, a novel in progress. “Homecomings, Placements, and Displacements in Contemporary Cuban-American Literature,” Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP), Tampa, Florida, March 7-10, 2018.
Guest Performer: “Hasta Santiago a pie,” a spoken word piece published in¡Camina y prende el fogón!: Ontología del son y otros ensayos. Raúl A. Fernández and Rafael Bassi L. (May 2016)UC-Cuba Academic Initiative, UC Irvine, November 17, 2017.)
Discussant at Large: UC-Cuba Graduate Workshop, UC-Cuba Academic Initiative, UC Irvine, November 17, 2017.
Invited Speaker: Premiere of feature film, Forbidden Cuba, directed by Art Jones, West Coast Premiere at the Downtown Los Angeles, Film Festival, September 23, 2017.
Invited Speaker: Starting a Writing Career. Bindercon, LA 2017, University of California, Los Angeles.
Panel Chair, Organizer, Presenter: “Righting and Writing Cuba from Afar.”Reading Cuba: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Cuban and Cuban-American Literature, Florida International University, Miami, November 9-10, 2016. Presentation title: “Ways of Going Home: Fiction, Inscription & Translation in Until We’re Fish.” Reading from Until We’re Fish (novel manuscript).
Panel Chair, Organizer, Presenter: “José Martí in the 21st Century.” Latin American Studies Conference on Cuba in the 21st Century, California State University, San Bernardino, April 28-29, 2016. Paper Title: “Martí, Abdala & the Arab World”
Invited Writer: Reading of “Even You, Miami.” Saw Palm—Florida Literature and Art. Launching of Saw Palm’s Issue 10 on Cuban and Cuban-American writers. Tampa, Florida, March 3, 2016.
Panel Chair and Organizer: “Reorienting the Racial Compass: Moros, turcos, polacos, judíos and palestinos in Cuban Studies and Beyond.” The 10th Conference on Cuban and Cuban-American Studies of the Cuban Research Institute, Florida International University (FIU), February 26 and 28, 2015.
Visiting Fellow Discussant: UC-CUBA Graduate Student Workshop. UC Irvine, November 14-15, 2014.
Panel Chair and Organizer: “Hagar’s Other Children: Moorish, Arab, and Islamic Presence in Latin American Literature and Cultural Production.” LASA, Chicago, May 21 –24, 2014.
Invited Talk: “The Best Go to Algeria: Algeria in the Cuban Imagination in the 1950s and 1960s.” New Directions in Cuban Studies, Cuban Heritage Collection Graduate Fellows Conference, University of Miami, March 20 and 21, 2014.
Panel Chair and Organizer: “Oriente and Orientalism in Cuban Cultural Studies.” The 9th Conference on Cuban and Cuban-American Studies of the Cuban Research Institute, Florida International University (FIU), May 23 and 25, 2013.
Panel Co-organizer and Presenter: “Diasporic Transformations and Reimaginations: Performing Cuban Identity in the U.S. and Abroad.” The 9th Conference on Cuban and Cuban-American Studies of the Cuban Research Institute, Florida International University (FIU), May 23 and 25, 2013. Paper Title: “Cuban à l’Arab: Cubanness and Exile in Jesús Díaz’s ‘El pianista árabe.’”
Panel Co-organizer and Presenter: “(Re)Mapping the Nation: Latin America in the Twentieth Century.” LASA, San Francisco, May 23-26, 2012.
Complete List of Presentations Available Upon Request.
Susannah Rodríguez Drissi 