To Gabby Rivera, it’s vital to encourage people of all backgrounds to create, daydream, and tell their own stories—and in so doing, open a radical space for creativity.  As a queer, Latinx, millennial woman, she strives to be a thoughtful ally for others, she confronts privilege and power, and asks difficult questions: What if this country made everyone—people of all colors, cultures, orientations, abilities, and genders—feel at home? What if the traumas experienced by marginalized peoples could be reconciled and incorporated into a broader, richer definition of America? What if our non-white ancestors weren’t erased, but represented in pop culture, in our textbooks and classrooms? And what if we could privilege difference as a site of wonder, laughter and celebration, and not as something to fear? Rivera’s smart, funny, and engaging voice helps us to start imagining these worlds as our reality.

Rivera is the author of Juliet Takes a Breath, a critically-acclaimed YA novel, the coming-of-age story starring a queer puertorriqueña experiencing one transformative summer.  Rivera’s new Marvel series America stars America Chavez: a queer, Latinx superhero definitely tackles America’s ancestry and ethnicity, but it’s also a comic book aimed at wide appeal: committed to snappy one-liners, blowing stuff up, and beating up the bad guys, naturally. 

This event is free and open to the public.  Registration is requested but not required.  Seating is offered on a first-come, first-served basis.