At a Needham library lecture on Sunday December 7, Wellesley College professor Octavio Gonzalez will celebrate the Harlem Renaissance of 100 years ago through the lens of educator/translator Dorothy R. Peterson, an important figure whose legacy has been overshadowed by other luminaries.
Peterson was a close friend of novelist Nella Larsen, as well as poet Langston Hughes, with whom Peterson collaborated on many translations from Spanish to English. Peterson also introduced Hughes to major Puerto Rican poets of the era, including Nicolás Guillén, with whom Hughes developed a close relationship as fellow poets.
Professor Gonzalez will present other aspects of Peterson’s life, including her lifelong work as a teacher and educator as well as her final years as an expatriate in Spain. In the final decades of her career, Peterson devoted herself to archiving the manuscripts and ephemera of the Harlem Renaissance, ensuring the continuity of that period into the present, by curating and helping to promote the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of African-American Arts and Letters at Yale University. This Collection is where Peterson’s own papers are found.
The public is invited to this free program presented by the Friends of the Needham Public Library in the library’s Community Room at 1139 Highland Avenue, Needham, from 2-3:30 PM, Sunday, December 7th. A question-and answer period will follow the presentation.
Professor González is the Barbara Morris Caspersen Associate Professor of Humanities and an Associate Professor of English & Creative Writing at Wellesley College. He is the President of the Modernist Studies Association and on the editorial board of the Queer Feminist Modernities Book Series.
Please note that seats are limited and registration is required. Register at
https://needhamlibrary.org/events/.
For more information please contact Gay Ellen Dennett, program specialist, at
Z2Rlbm5ldHQgfCBtaW5saWIgISBuZXQ=, 781-455-7559 x223.
Also check out other Arts events in Needham, Literary Art events in Needham, Nonprofit events in Needham.
