The Roots of Brazil, a New York-based dance troupe, will present an educational and artistic program of folkloric, traditional, and contemporary Brazilian dance beginning at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 1, in the Skidmore College Dance Theater. Roots of Brazil has performed at numerous well-known venues ranging from Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival to New York City's Radio City Music Hall and the United Nations. The banquet will feature Spanish food, merengue music by the Albany band Bachata Joven, and an address delivered by Juleyka Lantigua, a 1996 Skidmore graduate and managing editor of Urban Latino magazine. A keynote lecture on the topic of the importance of multicultural education in the present and the future will be delivered by Felix Padilla, professor of sociology at Long Island University. It will begin at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, November 15, in Gannett Auditorium of Palamountain Hall.
Admission is free.
Padilla, who is currently a visiting scholar in American Studies at Yale University, has taught at Carleton College in Minnesota, Northeastern University in Boston, and DePaul University in Chicago. He is the editor of the Latino Studies Journal and the author of six books and numerous articles on the subjects of urban sociology, race and ethnic relations, education, and Latino culture and identity.