NEWS

The next event in Louisiana Tech’s Shaping the 21st Century: Focus on Latin America series may start Wednesday, April 1, but those wishing to participate have until May 12 to see the colors.

Dr. Peter Szok’s “The Mobile Colors of Panama: Panamanian Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Bus Art” will be available for viewing starting April 1 in Tolliver Hall. As an added bonus, Szok will give a special exhibition tour and discussion at 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 7 in Tolliver Hall.

“He focuses on Latin America, specifically Panama,” said Bill Willoughby, associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts. “He is influenced by popular art and will exhibit some of his photographs of painted city buses in Panama. They were painted by Latin Americans of African descent. They take old city buses and paint them so they take on a whole different meaning. It’s really cool.”

Szok, an associate professor of history at Texas Christian University, is the first distinguished speaker of the series. He will speak on art and ethnicity in Latin America at 10:15 a.m. April 7 in Wyly Tower Auditorium. His topic of discussion will be “Re-Africanization in Contemporary Latin America: The Lessons of Panamanian Popular Art.”

Both of these events are free and open to the public.

This year’s Shaping the 21st Century series is sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs, the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Education, the International Education Committee and the Working Group on Latin America Studies.

Written by Judith Roberts