Free Screening: Les Enfants du Paradis

Poetic realism reached sublime heights with Children of Paradise, widely considered one of the greatest French films of all time. This nimble depiction of nineteenth-century Paris’s theatrical demimonde, filmed during World War II, follows a mysterious woman (Arletty) loved by four different men (all based on historical figures): an actor, a criminal, a count, and, most poignantly, a mime (Jean-Louis Barrault, in a longing-suffused performance for the ages).

Book Launch: Tale of Black Histories by Edouard Glissant

Édouard Glissant has emerged as one of the major figures of 20th-century postcolonial literature, and his novels, poetry, and essays have been widely translated and studied. Little has been written, however, about his cultural and educational activism which informed and shaped his theoretical work. This edition sheds light on this chapter of Glissant’s career by translating and annotating the collaboratively composed and staged play, Histoire de Nègre, which he helped to write and perform while teaching at the Institute for Martinican Studies.