DETROIT, Nov. 8, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Marygrove College welcomes Lolita Hernandez, Detroit labor activist and author, to read from her collection of short stories, Autopsy of an Engine, on Thursday, November 17, 2005, at 7:30 p.m. in Alumnae Hall in the Madame Cadillac Building. Hernandez will also autograph copies of her book after her presentation titled "Detroit Factory Elegies: The Fiction of Lolita Hernandez."
Autopsy of an Engine, published in 2004, is a tribute to the assembly-line workers at Detroit's Clark Street Cadillac plant in its final years.
Hernandez is an activist in the Detroit labor movement, which has, in part, defined the city and the region for much of the last century. A native Detroiter with family roots in Trinidad and St. Vincent, her writing is greatly influenced by the rhythms and language of her origin and is tempered by over thirty years as a UAW worker, twenty-one of them at the Cadillac Plant. Her poetry has been widely anthologized and stories from this collection have appeared in The Iowa Review, The Michigan Quarterly Review and Seeds: The Biannual Journal of Sisters of Color. This spring, Hernandez received the prestigious 2005 PEN/Beyond Margins Award for her work.
Critics praise her work. "What separates this from other working-class memoirs is its stylistic range and the artfulness of the prose....Hernandez never resorts to a simplistic, preachy voice. She recognizes the humanity in all of her characters." -- Jim Daniels
"Here is not only a report from the assembly line, brilliantly told. This is also a talented writer's record of loss, a poet's meditation from inside the working place." -- Richard Rodriguez
Hernandez' appearance, which is free and open to the public, is part of the "Defining Detroit" series of lectures and programs that highlight the uniqueness of Detroit and the Detroit region. Hernandez will also conduct a special class session for local high school students on Friday, November 18, at 10 a.m. in the Library Lecture Hall.
Dr. Frank Rashid, professor of English, said, "We are fortunate to have the opportunity to hear such a distinctively lyrical voice at Marygrove. Hernandez is one of the important chroniclers of working life in post-industrial Detroit."
Marygrove is located at 8425 West McNichols at Wyoming in Detroit. Marygrove College is an independent liberal arts college sponsored by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) in a unique, diverse urban setting. Situated on 53 acres in one of Detroit's finest neighborhoods, more than 1,200 students attend classes in its undergraduate and graduate programs in education, business, human resource management, social justice, social work, science, theater, music and the arts and more.
This Onstage! event is possible with the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs.
Editors: Lolita Hernandez's photo is available at www.marygrove.edu.
The Marygrove College logo can be found at www.primezone.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=1666