Marisol LeBrón, Yarimar Bonilla, and Molly Crabapple in conversation on the intersecting crises that have plagued Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria in 2017, and the communities organizing to resist and rebuild.

This event includes the premier of the new short film: "Aftershocks of Disaster," directed by Juan C. Dávila, and produced by Yarimar Bonilla.

“Broad in scope, passionate, and urgent, Aftershocks is a necessary anthology of Puerto Ricans telling the story not just of Maria but of resistance to colonialism, austerity and disaster capitalism.” —Molly Crabapple

Three years after Hurricane Maria hit, Puerto Ricans are still reeling from its effects and aftereffects. Aftershocks collects poems, essays and photos from survivors of Hurricane Maria detailing their determination to persevere.

The concept of "aftershocks" is used in the context of earthquakes to describe the jolts felt after the initial quake, but no disaster is a singular event. Aftershocks of Disaster examines the lasting effects of hurricane Maria, not just the effects of the wind or the rain, but delving into what followed: state failure, social abandonment, capitalization on human misery, and the collective trauma produced by the botched response.

Speakers:

Yarimar Bonilla is the co-editor of Aftershocks of Disaster: Puerto Rico Before and After the Storm. She is a political anthropologist specializing in questions of sovereignty, citizenship, and race across the Americas. She has tracked these issues across a broad range of sites and practices including: postcolonial politics in the French Caribbean, the role of digital protest in the Black Lives Matter movement, the politics of the Trump presidency, the Puerto Rican statehood movement, and her current research, for which she was named a 2018 Carnegie Fellow, on the political, economic, and social aftermath of hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

Marisol LeBrón is is the co-editor of Aftershocks of Disaster: Puerto Rico Before and After the Storm and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research and teaching focus on social inequality, policing, violence, and protest. She is the author of Policing Life and Death: Race, Violence, and Resistance in Puerto Rico, which examines the growth of punitive governance in contemporary Puerto Rico.

Molly Crabapple is an artist and writer whose inspirations include Diego Rivera and Goya’s The Disasters of War. She is the author of Brothers of the Gun, an illustrated collaboration with Syrian war journalist Marwan Hisham, which was a NY Times Notable Book and long-listed for the 2018 National Book Award. Her memoir, Drawing Blood, received global praise and attention. Her animated short film “A Message from the Future with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez” has been nominated for an Emmy award in the category of Outstanding News Analysis: Editorial and Opinion.