Those who want to expand their cultural celebrations of Cesar Chavez Day will want to add a trip to Grand Valley State University's DeWitt Center, where the college will be hosting a special Young Lords in Lincoln Park presentation.
Kicking off the event is Elvira, a 90-minute live performance about a Mexican woman who sought sanctuary with her son for over a year inside a Chicago UMC building to bring attention to immigrant families being divided. These individuals, part of the Young Lords movement of Lincoln Park, went on (like Chavez) to become national heroes.
The occasion also presents an opportunity for two filmmaking teams to present their latest work.
The first offering is from a new Young Lords film in production,
Milly and the Lords. This story centers on a female college student who joins the Young Lords in New York City and seeks to address the topic of domestic violence and other urban barrio concerns. The filmmakers will be screening approximately 30 minutes.
The second film is a documentary on the Young Lords and is the creation of a couple of professors from Modern Languages department at GVSU. The public will have a chance to see a 15-minute clip from this work in progress.
Also speaking on this day will be GVSU's archivist, Nancy Richard, who will describe the various uses of the college's impressive Young Lords in Lincoln Park collection. Highlights of this collection include a rich collection of more than 110 oral histories, historical photographs, papers, and clippings documenting the origins of the Young Lords Movement. The event is a production of the new GVSU Young Lords Student Organization and will offer refreshments.
If you are interested in sharing your memories, donating materials to the collection, or would like to learn more about this effort or schedule a research visit, please contact GVSU Special Collections and Archives at
[email protected] or 616.331.8726.