Join the NWHM for an inspiring midday recitation and concert with poet Deborah Paredez and pianist Donna Weng Friedman.
About this Event
Join the National Women's History Museum for an inspiring midday poetry recitation and musical concert with poet Deborah Paredez and pianist Donna Weng Friedman.
Engage in original poetry recitations by Deborah and learn more about her experiences as a co-founder and co-director of CantoMundo, a national organization for Latinx poets, and enjoy classical music performances by Donna.
Come away recharged by their journeys through their successful professional creative careers, and ask your own questions of these inspiring contemporary role models for women and young girls everywhere.
The National Women’s History Museum strives to provide programs that are accessible to all visitors. For questions, or to request accommodations such as an ASL interpreter or captioning, please email [email protected] at least 7 days in advance of the program.
About Deborah Paredez:
Deborah Paredez is a poet, ethnic studies scholar, cultural critic, and longtime diva devotee. Deborah is the author of the award-winning critical study, Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory (Duke 2009) and of the poetry collections, This Side of Skin (Wings Press 2002) and Year of the Dog (BOA 2020). She has published widely on topics including Black and Latinx performance, poetry of war and witness, feminist elegy, and the role of divas in American culture. Her poetry, essays, and commentary have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, National Public Radio, Boston Review, The Georgia Review, Feminist Studies, and elsewhere.Deborah is a Co-Founder and for a decade (2009-2019) served as Co-Director of CantoMundo, a national organization for Latinx poets. She is a founding member of the Poetry Coalition and currently serves as a board member of CLMP: Community of Literary Magazines and Presses and LitNet: The Literary Network.Deborah is a professor of creative writing and ethnic studies at Columbia University where she teaches courses about poetry, disaster, and divas. She was previously a professor of English and Theatre at the University of Texas-Austin and a professor of Drama and Film at Vassar College.Born and raised in San Antonio, she has lived on both coasts, endured a handful of Chicago winters, and taught American poetry in Paris, while remaining rooted in her Tejana love of Selena and the Spurs. She received her PhD in Interdisciplinary Theatre and Performance at Northwestern University and her BA in English at Trinity University. She lives with her husband, historian Frank Guridy, and their daughter in New York City.Deborah's current projects include a work of literary nonfiction about the impact of divas on her life and on American culture during the last fifty years and a collection of poems about the sea.
About Donna Weng Friedman:
Award winning pianist Donna Weng Friedman enjoys a varied career as a soloist, chamber musician, teacher, curator, and app developer. In collaboration with WQXR, Ms. Weng Friedman created and produced Heritage and Harmony, a virtual concert video series in celebration of Asian Pacific Heritage Month. She is the co-creator and co-host of HER/MUSIC; HER/STORY, a miniseries on WQXR as well as a concert series that shines a light on women composers, past and present. In conjunction with the virtual concert series Season of Hope, HER/MUSIC; HER/STORY is proud to celebrate the anniversaries of our 19th Amendment as well as the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as part of the centennial programming of the National Women's History Museum. She was the guest speaker on TEDx Santa Barbara’s series Making Waves: Conversations with Influencers and Disruptors.
As a recitalist, she has appeared at Caramoor, Jeu de Paume, France, Symphony Hall in Shanghai, the Flagler Museum, the 92nd St. Y, Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall and Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center. She has collaborated with St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, Carter Brey, Ani Kavafian, David Shifrin, Elizabeth Mann, and Anthony McGill, and has performed as soloist with the Atlanta, Philadelphia and Shanghai Symphony Orchestras, to mention but a few. Ms. Weng Friedman has conducted master classes at the Shanghai and Beijing conservatories and is on the faculty of the Mannes School of Music.
The curator of the Donna Weng Friedman '80 Master Class Series at Princeton University, she is also a member of Princeton University Music Department’s Advisory Council as well as the board of directors of Friends of Thirteen and WNET. Ms. Weng Friedman received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University where she was a University Scholar and a Master’s of Music Degree from the Juilliard School, under the tutelage of Adele Marcus, where she was awarded the prestigious Gina Bachauer Award as well as the William Petschek Full Scholarship. She has had the privilege of working with the great composer/teacher Nadia Boulanger as well as pianist Radu Lupu.