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Día de los Muertos Community Altar Boxes
Part of the 2022 Día de Los Muertos community altar boxes exhibit, curated by Roberto Torres Mata.
Day of the Dead is celebrated throughout Mexico as a traditional way to honor family and relatives. Retired UW professor Carolyn Smythe Kallenborn initiated local celebrations in Dane County over the past decade to create individual “altar boxes” to honor loved ones; in 2022, Latinos Organizing for Understanding and Development (LOUD) is coordinating the exhibit and related events. Altar and art exhibit featuring Tomy Tepepa and Tanay Rivera takes place Thursday at 6 p.m. followed by a poetry reading at 7 p.m.; on Friday, the exhibit is open (at 6 p.m.) as part of Gallery Night.

Keeping ethnic studies programs alive is a crucial part of providing spaces in higher academics that speak to diverse experiences and welcome marginalized students, but first they have to be created. “War of the Flea: The Fight for Xicano Studies” will be screening at Edgewood College on Wednesday, Nov. 2, with the hope it will provide people with a story that will lead them to engage in the history and necessity of ethnic studies programs. Dr. Ernesto Mireles is one of the student activists in the film that follows Chicana and Chicano students at Michigan State University in the 1990s as they fought to both establish and fund a Chicano/Latino Studies program at the school.

Día de los Muertos altars: 'Each is a little story'
Madison’s Community Altar Project celebrating Día de los Muertos is continuing on following the retirement of its founder, Carolyn Smythe Kallenborn, this summer.
Kallenborn started the project in 2014 after being inspired by people she worked with in Oaxaca, Mexico.
She retired to Oaxaca in June, but handed the event over to Latinos Organizing for Understanding and Development, or LOUD. It’s now part of a three-day series of events that celebrates Latinidad in Madison. It begins Wednesday with a screening of “War of the Flea” in the Anderson Theatre at 1000 Edgewood College Drive.

Local Artist Mireles Part of Exhibit
Carlos Mireles of Kansasville has been invited to exhibit his artwork at the “Day of the Dead 2022” exhibit Nov. 3-4 at the Common Wealth Gallery, 100 S. Baldwin St.
Mireles, a retired nurse, majored in art at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. While drawing and painting have always been his passions, once he retired, Mireles had the time to focus his creative energy on his artwork.
“It is an honor to have my artwork featured at this exhibit,” he said. “This event is a wonderful way of celebrating our Hispanic culture.”

Latino Art Fair returns to Overture Center May 2022
After a two-year pandemic hiatus, the Latino Art Fair returns to Overture Center for the Arts this weekend.
The free event will feature 15 visual artists of Latino heritage with works for sale, as well as more music this year in the form of the youth mariachi ensemble from the Milwaukee-based Latino Arts Strings Program from Milwaukee. The group has performed everywhere from the White House to the Wisconsin State Capitol Martin Luther King Day celebration.
As Announced by Madison365

ANNOUNCING THE WISCONSIN CONFERENCE ON LATINX ART AND CULTURE (VIRTUAL)
Announcement by the Chican@ & Latin@ Studies at the University of Wisconsin Madison
