This year, some things have changed for Taller Puertorriqueño’s Arturo A. Schomburg Symposium, celebrating its 26th year.

Taller Puertorriqueño will be taking inventory of the past 25 years of the symposium — which is virtual this year — taking the opportunity to consider its past two and a half decades, as well as its future.

The arts institution will be considering the symposium’s themes, challenges, successes, and impact before considering its future.

For example, Taller will consider last year’s discussion on the COVID-19-accelerated social, economic, and health inequities faced by Black and Latin populations, now one-year removed from the discussion.

This year’s symposium will open a dialogue between speakers and audience members on the African Diaspora in the Americas.

The speakers will include Evelyne Laurent Perrault, Ph.D.; Edison Viera-Calderón, Ph.D., and researcher-activist Melanie Maldonado, who will each present and discuss different texts.

Perrault is an Assistant Professor at the University of California in Santa Barbara, a founder and long-time member of the Schomburg Symposium organizing committee.

Viera-Calderón will discuss “Breaking the Wall of Silence: Oral Narrative of Afro-Caribbean life in Santurce Puerto Rico,” and Perrault, “Invoking Amefrica Ladina.” 

“Textiles as declarations of liberation and remembrance in Puerto Rican Bomba” will be the topic discussed by Maldonado.

The discussions will be followed by Q and A’s. This year’s symposium will highlight the scholars, performers, writers, and topics that define it. 

Images from Taller’s Eugenio María de Hostos Archives will be shown prior to the event. The images highlight the topics of past Schomburg Symposiums.

The Philadelphia Inquirer called the symposium a chance to “reflect on the successes and challenges that Black Latinos have had over the last quarter century in the U.S. and Latin America.”

Tickets to the symposium will range from $12.50 (Student), $25 (General), to $30 (Social Worker Workshop). 

Taller Puertorriqueño is located at 2600 N 5th St., Philadelphia, PA, 19133.