Frances Negron Muntaner: Decolonial Joy, Experiential and Community Storytelling

In Partnership with Philadelphia Latino Film Festival

What endless worlds can be dreamed when we purposefully involve our communities in collective media-making?
 
In this special learning session, Frances Negrón-Muntaner will discuss the origins and impact of her Valor y Cambio (value and change) project and its intersection with community storytelling and decolonial joy, a form of joy that arises when individuals and communities “feel” the possibility of a different future where colonialism no longer rules over their lives.
 
In 2019, Frances Negrón-Muntaner and Sarabel Santos-Negrón launched Valor y Cambio, a community storytelling and solidarity project first introduced in Puerto Rico. The project encouraged community members to record a story of what they value, in exchange participants were given a peso of Puerto Rico, a form of community currency which could be kept or used at participating local businesses. (https://www.valorycambio.org/)
 
Frances Negrón Muntaner is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, cultural critic, curator and scholar. With an interest in Latinx, Caribbean, decolonial art and media studies—Negrón Muntaner’s work spans several fields. Among her books and publications are: Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Latinization of American Culture (CHOICE Award, 2004), The Latino Media Gap (2014), and Sovereign Acts: Contesting Colonialism in Native Nations and Latinx America (2017). Her films include Brincando el charco (1994), War for Guam (2015), and Valor y Cambio, the Movie (2021). In 2008, the United Nations' Rapid Response Media Mechanism recognized her as a global expert in the areas of mass media and Latin/o American studies. Currently a professor at Columbia University, she is the founder of Columbia’s Latino Arts and Activist archive, and Media and Idea Lab.