As the proud recipient of the American Library Association’s “Resilient Communities” grant, New Canaan Library has partnered with New Canaan Land Trust and Planet New Canaan to present public programming centered around films which explore climate change and community resilience.
Session two in the four-part series is set for Wednesday, March 10 with the presentation “Fire and Flood and the Emergency Response Archive of Puerto Rico,” live via Zoom, from 7:00 – 8:15 PM EST. Attendees are encouraged to watch the film, “Fire and Flood: Queer Resilience in the Era of Climate Change” in advance of this lecture and will receive streaming instructions immediately after registering at newcanaanlibrary.org.
In September 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated the U.S. commonwealth of Puerto Rico, leaving unprecedented death and destruction in its wake, while dangerously inadequate government relief left so many victims without help. The documentary “Fire and Flood: Queer Resilience in the Era of Climate Change” reveals through personal stories how one marginalized community came to its own rescue. Innovative forms of mutual aid not only delivered critical services but created an enduring infrastructure of support for the island’s Queer community. Their story of resilience can be instructive for all.
The virtual lecture will be a presentation on the “Emergency Response Archive of Puerto Rico,” by Valeria Fernández-González, profiled in the film and representing the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras (UPRRP); Mirerza González Vélez, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs of the College of Humanities at UPRRP; Christina Boyles, Assistant Professor of Culturally-engaged Digital Humanities, Andy Boyles Petersen, Digital Scholarship Librarian, and Elisa Landaverde, Special Collections LGBTQ+ Librarian, of Michigan State University Libraries; and Ricia Anne Chansky of University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez. With the support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the “Emergency Response Archive of Puerto Rico” will be a digital open access repository of Puerto Rican artifacts of disaster pertaining to Hurricane María (2017), the Guayanilla earthquakes (2020), and COVID19 (2020), to be housed in the project’s Omeka S site, with copycat collections available at the Digital Library of the Caribbean and at Michigan State University. Learn more here.
In addition to the ALA’s “Resilient Communities” grant, a supporting grant from The Conservation Commission, Town of New Canaan, has helped make this series possible. The films and the accompanying programs provide a fascinating window into what many thought they knew about climate change and inspire participants to take local action to mitigate its consequences.