When: Tuesday, September 12, 7 – 9 p.m., CDT
Where: Laredo Center for the Arts, 500 San Agustin Ave., Laredo, TX
Mehnaaz Momen will read from her new book, Listening to Laredo, A Border City in a Globalized Age. She will also answer questions about the the book and the people she interviewed. Signed copies of her book will be available for purchase. The event is free and open to the public. Mehnaaz Momen is an associate professor in the Department of Social Sciences at Texas A&M International University. Her research interests include citizenship, immigration policy, urban theory, public space, political satire, and marginality.
About the book:
Bringing together issues of growth, globalization, and identity, Mehnaaz Momen traces Laredo’s trajectory through the voices of its people. In contrast to the many studies of border cities defined by the outside—and seldom by the people who live at the border—this volume collects oral histories from seventy-five in-depth interviews that collectively illuminate the evolution of the city’s cultural and economic infrastructure, its interdependence with its sister city across the national boundary, and, above all, the strength of its community as it adapts to and even challenges the national narrative regarding the border. The resonant and lively voices of Laredo’s people convey proud ownership of an archetypal border city that has time and again resurrected itself.