Spend the afternoon at the Muscatine Art Center to commemorate Dia de los Muertos or, Day of the Dead, the Mexican holiday where families come together to honor their loved ones who have passed. Drop in between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. for Dia de los Muertos crafts and activities to celebrate the holiday.

From 2:00 to 2:30 p.m., join us in the Music Room to welcome two writers from the International Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa. Each writer will read from their selected works and discuss their personal connection to the holiday, the differences between celebrations in Mexico and Spain, and other topics, followed by Q & A.

Mélanie WERDER-AVILÉS (playwright, theatremaker, scholar; Spain) is the author of the plays *Buena suerte, chica; Sharenting; Nutella Days; and Tiradísimo de Precio [Dirt-cheap]; among others. Her play La Protagonista won the Lope de Vega award. She has been selected as a resident playwright at the Spanish National Drama Centre and has been a member of the International Summer Workshop at the Sala Beckett. She has been awarded the Carlota Soldevila Fellowship by the Teatre Lliure de Barcelona and is a member of the SGAE Playwriting Laboratory and the ETC of Contemporary Creation at the Sala Cuarta Pared in Madrid, among others. She is currently researching documentary theatre practices as a predoctoral fellow at the Complutense University of Madrid. Her participation was made possible by the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain in Washington DC and supplemental monies from the IWP.

Elena SALAMANCA (poet, historian, fiction writer, art curator; El Salvador) is the author of several multidisciplinary books of poetry, fiction, and scholarly historical work. She has published three bilingual editions of her poetry translated into English: Tal vez monstruos [Monsters Maybe] (2022), Landsmoder (2022), and La familia o el olvido [Family or Oblivion] (2017). She is the creator, author, researcher, and co-coordinator of the collection SIEMPREVIVAS: Extraordinary Women in the History of El Salvador (2022). She is a three-time recipient of the National Poetry Prize in El Salvador, and her books have been published in the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Though she currently lives in Mexico, she continues to work as an academic, artist, and activist in El Salvador. Her participation is made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

No registration required.