News Article

Children’s Authors Alma Flor Ada and Lee Bennett Hopkins to Appear at FSW

Oct 17, 2017

OCTOBER 17, 2017 – FORT MYERS, FLA – Award-winning children’s author Dr. Alma Flor Ada will speak about her life, experiences and the prejudices she faced as a Cuban-American at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 14, in Building AA, Room 177, at the Florida SouthWestern State College (FSW) Thomas Edison Campus, 8099 College Parkway, Fort Myers. The event is free and open to the public.

 Dr. Ada is the author of children’s books, poetry and novels including Dancing Home, Under the Royal Palms, Where the Flame Trees Bloom, Island Treasures: Growing Up in Cuba, and Yes! We are Latinos. She was born in Camagüey, Cuba and grew up in La Quinta Simoni, in a house owned by the family of Cuban revolutionary Ignacio Agramonte. At the age of 15, Dr. Ada traded a quinceañera party for summer school in the United States, thus beginning her life as a bilingual person. She earned a scholarship to attend Loretto Heights College, where she first encountered discrimination against Mexican-Americans, a discovery inspirational to her diversity appreciation efforts. A professor emerita at the University of San Francisco, Dr. Ada is recognized for her work promoting bilingual and multicultural education in the United States.

Award-winning children’s author and poet Lee Bennett Hopkins will also appear. His books include Been to Yesterdays: Poems of a Life, City I Love and the recent, Traveling the Blue Road: Poems of the Sea.

A book signing will follow the presentation. Books by both authors are available for purchase at the FSW Thomas Edison Campus bookstore.

For more information, contact Whitney Rhyne, director, Strategic Initiative, at (239) 433-6943 or Whitney.Rhyne@fsw.edu.

Last Updated: October 17, 2017