CULTURAL AGENTS

Third Continental Conference on Afro-Latin American Studies 2024
2024-07-12 08:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York)

Play Drive in the Hard Drive at Spazio Matta
2024-07-15 08:00 - 17:00, 2024-07-16 08:00 - 17:00, 2024-07-17 08:00 - 17:00, 2024-07-18 08:00 - 17:00

“Arts, Activism, and Social Justice”, Amoeba Tour at Harvard Arts Museums
2024-07-30 13:00 - 14:30
“Amoeba Tour” at the Harvard Arts Museums, facilitated by conveners Anna Mudd and Cris Martin, and by Doris Sommer.
The Aboeba tour was part of the Harvard Divinity School seminar: “Imagining a Better World: Art, Activism, and Social Justice.” Sponsored by Harvard University’s Asia Center, the Center for African Studies, the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and the Global Health Education & Learning Incubator, with support from Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.

Pre-Texts in Siempre Carrillo, Buenos Aires
2024-08-03 15:00 - 17:00, 2024-08-10 15:00 - 17:00, 2024-08-17 15:00 - 17:00, 2024-08-24 15:00 - 17:00, 2024-08-31 15:00 - 17:00

Select Pre-Texts in Recreando Juntos, Buenos Aires
2024-08-06 17:00 - 19:00

Pre-Texts in Recreando Juntos, Buenos Aires
2024-08-13 17:00 - 19:00, 2024-08-20 17:00 - 19:00, 2024-08-27 17:00 - 19:00

Pre-Texts Argentina in Casa Walsh
2024-08-18 13:00 - 17:00

Nuquí, "Caminos por Colombia"
2024-08-25 08:00 - 17:00
On August 25, Antonio Copete, Vice President of the EAFIT in Medellin and President of the Harvard-MIT club of Colombia [far right] and Doris Sommer visited Josefina Klinger, founder of the NGO “Mano Cambiada,”and geologist Vladimir Mosquera in Nuquí.

Green Schools for the Pacific, Colombia
2024-08-29 08:00 - 17:00, 2024-08-30 08:00 - 17:00
On August 29 and 30, “Green Schools for the Pacific” hosted a 2-session demonstration of the Pre-Texts Workshop at the Alumni Club of the Universidad de los Andes, academic launching pad for the collaboration to build and to develop faculty for new schools in the Afro-Pacific region of Chocó, Colombia.

Conference Education and AI Ethics Conference at Harvard University
2024-10-08 18:00 - 20:00 | Barker Center, Harvard College University Hall Cambridge, MA 02138, Boston, MA, United States
Date: Tuesday, October 8, 2024, 6:00 pm
Location: Barker Center, Room 110
We invite you to join the discussion: Education and AI Ethics, featuring opening remarks by Mark Schiefsky (Harvard University) and Doris Sommer (Harvard University), with Charalambos Tsekeris (Greek National Commission for Bioethics & Technoethics) as the keynote speaker, Ofrit Liviatan (Harvard University) as the respondent, and Nicolas Prevelakis (Harvard University) as the moderator. The event will explore the responsible use of AI in education, highlighting the importance of grounding it in pedagogical values that foster moral development, equity, and justice, while prioritizing skill-building and social interaction over automation. Don’t miss this opportunity to engage in an insightful discussion about the future of AI in education.
Here, more info

THE ART OF CONNECTING Paths to Cohesion in a Fractured Society Interdisciplinary scientific conference
2024-10-22 08:00 - 2024-10-23 17:00 | Prague, PRAGUE, Celetná Street 20, lecture hall 247, Prague, Czech Republic
Date: October 22-23, 2024
Location: PRAGUE, Celetná Street 20, lecture hall 247,
We invite you to discuss the art of connecting in the face of divisions as part of the Good Connections series.
Professors Doris Sommer (Harvard University), Sara Uboldi (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia), and Pierluigi Sacco (University of Chieti and Pescara) will participate in Session IV: Connecting Culture (October 23rd) with the conference Pre-texts in Prison: The Harvard Protocol to Support Empowerment and Mental Well-being in Marginalized Settings.
Our starting point for reflection is the paradoxical fact that, in an era of universal connectivity, we must intensify efforts to master the art of connecting. As individuals, communities, societies, and generations, we are technologically interconnected, but we often lack true cohesion—understood as the capacity to establish and cultivate positive, mutually beneficial, strengthening, and enduring relationships.
More info

Pre-Texts Training at Tumaco, Colombia
2024-12-13 08:00 - 2024-12-15 17:00
Cultural Agents, in collaboration with Colombia Transforma and the Ministry of Justice, will host a training and certification workshop on Pre-Texts on December 13, 14, and 15. This initiative aims to promote a culture and pedagogy of peace by strengthening the skills of 30 community leaders.
Having the opportunity to share Pre-Texts in a place like Tumaco is a great honor and an experience I deeply enjoy. Tumaco is a region characterized by its openness and the incredible resilience of its people. I am confident that Pre-Texts will contribute to the fabric of peace, reconciliation, and full civic engagement. I am very excited!
Carlos Correa – Pre-Texts Trainer
Stay tuned for more news!

Pre-Texts: The Arts Teach (Everything) A Workshop in Literacy, Creativity, and Democracy
2025-01-10 08:00 - 17:00
The sessions will take place on January 15th and 17th from 10 AM to 5 PM at the Microsoft Garage in Manhattan. Participants include members of the Microsoft team, the Civic engagement Commission of NYC, the New School, Guggenheim Museum, Bard College, EnjoyJazz, and other artists and educators. This training will prepare for certification as Pre-Texts facilitators. Stay tuned for sequels in the City!

Upcoming Congress: Collective Justice – Defending Afrodescendant Territories
2025-01-24 08:00 - 2025-01-25 17:00
On January 24 and 25, 2025, join us at the Afro-Diasporic Museum of Stanford, Uolaba, in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, where Afro-descendant leaders, scholars, and legal experts will discuss ancestral territories, ancestral pilgrimages, maritime rights, and collective justice.
What can you expect?

Keynote presentations by prominent figures such as Quince Duncan, Agustín Lao-Montes, and Pastor Elías Murillo Martínez.

Innovative workshops Pre-Texts, led by Dr. Doris Sommer (ALARI, Harvard University).

Cultural activities and historical tours at key sites in the Southern Caribbean.

Register now!

Artificial Intelligence Needs Humanity
2025-02-27 17:00 - 19:00 | Humanities Center, Plymont RM, Plympton Room, Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University, Boston, United States
Mike Pell, inventor of the PDF and a continuing disrupter of technological habits, will speak on the relationship between AI and the Humanities. To manage the present ecosystem of technology and to prepare for the future requires imagination and judgment, the core faculties of a humanistic education that is currently sidelined and threatened. Paradoxically, the most forward looking approach to technology is to promote humanistic education, as training to build the capacity to understand, to experiment, and to think by abduction.
Sign up, here!

Taller Pre-Textos en Uniandes
2025-03-03 16:00 - 17:00
Acupuntura pedagógica holística

Bastan solo 15 horas de formación para preparar a los facilitadores a fin de involucrar las artes y las humanidades en una educación rigurosa y placentera, así como en el desarrollo profesional. Los textos se convierten en materia prima para la creación artística, lo que transforma las dificultades: dejan de ser obstáculos y se vuelven desafíos artísticos.
Esta es una forma de acupuntura pedagógica holística, ya que una única consigna—“crear arte a partir de los textos”—activa facultades cognitivas, emocionales y cívicas.
Siguiendo a John Dewey, José Vasconcelos, Augusto Boal, Maria Montessori (médica y científica que desarrolló su método en los barrios marginados de Roma), y muchos otros mentores, demostramos que la inteligencia y la creatividad abundan en todas partes.

Inscríbete aquí: https://live.eventtia.com/es/taller-pretextos

Meet a founding member of the Nuyorican Poets collective: Víctor Hernández Cruz
2025-03-04 16:00 - 17:00
Join EMR and the Latinx Studies Working Group for a beautiful evening with Víctor Hernández Cruz, a Puerto Rican-born poet based in Morocco and a distinctive voice in the Nuyorican arts movement of the 1970s. Named one of the greatest American poets by Life Magazine, Cruz is the author of several acclaimed poetry collections, including Guayacán (Ishmael Reed Publishing, 2022) and Beneath the Spanish (Coffe House Press, 2017). His poetry focuses on African cultural retentions in the Americas while also engaging with African politics of decolonization.

Arts and Culture as Renewable Human Resources for Health
2025-03-05 14:30 - 16:00
Sign up: https://shorturl.at/oXwyx

Enjoying Difference (Pre-Texts)
2025-03-06 17:00 - 18:00
