Date/Time
Friday, October 9, 2026
5:30 PM EDT - 7:00 PM EDT
Location:
Bank Street College, Library (5th Floor)
610 W 112th St
New York, NY 10025
Event Title:
Library Salon #47 | Amigues presente: Reclaiming Language, Identity, and Belonging Through Storytelling
Description:
Spanish has always evolved, but for Latine children, that evolution is personal. It lives in Spanglish, language loss and reclamation, accents, and feeling caught between languages, cultures, and identities. This Bank Street Library Salon, powered by Promise Venture Studio’s Early Childhood Leaders of Color Network, will explore how Spanish-speaking, Queer, and Indigenous Latine artists and educators create joyful resources that help children understand Spanish as a living language.
Join us to learn:
- How educators can support Latine children navigating Spanglish, heritage language reclamation, accents, names, gendered Spanish, and identity
- How bilingual storytelling and children’s literature can help children feel at home in their languages, cultures, families, and identities
- Practical strategies for creating joyful, inclusive classrooms and communities that affirm children’s language, culture, and identity
Guests will also enjoy good conversation, great company, free children’s books, hands-on activities, and light snacks and refreshments.
About Our Presenters
Dr. Veronica Benavides has spent her career exploring and advocating for the intersection of identity, language, and learning. Throughout her career in education—as a high school and middle school teacher, Fulbright scholar, researcher at Harvard, leadership coach, and executive director of a leading early childhood educational research and training center—she always sought to create strengths-based environments where all people and children thrive. Now, as founder and CEO of Bilingual Generation, Dr. Benavides works to support the reclamation and flourishing of heritage languages across global contexts. Through innovative learning resources for children and cohort-based programs for educators and families, she works to promote bilingualism in homes and schools.
Andrés Acosta is a nonbinary Latine storyteller, educator, and digital content producer with over 350K followers across their social media platforms. As a first-gen immigrant & third-gen educator, they explore the impact of language on culture, politics, and society to educate and entertain their audience. They’ve helped brands engage underrepresented communities through outreach diversification. Partnerships with Meta, TikTok, Prime Video, and Giphy have enabled them to navigate the corporate world towards more genuine storytelling by pursuing inclusive initiatives sans performative methods. As a Hurricane Katrina survivor, Andrés is also dedicated to educating their audience on the climate crisis and has worked alongside organizations to lead campaigns promoting green initiatives.
Dr. Gloria Rosario Wallace (she/her) is a Black Dominicana educator, scholar, and organizer committed to supporting racially conscious, human-centered school and organizational leadership. In her professional and personal worlds, she aspires to center and hold space for Black women and femmes and celebrate Black joy in its many forms. Dr. Gloria Rosario Wallace brings 20+ years of experience in co-creating equitable, culturally reflective learning spaces. She co-founded a Brooklyn high school for overaged, under-credited youth and applied Liberatory pedagogy to build inclusive instruction. As executive director of equity at New York City Public Schools and founder of GRW Together NYC, her leadership bridges systems and healing. Her work with BLESS offers critical insight into Black Multilingual Learners’ lived experiences. Gloria lives in New Jersey with her amazing partner Kevin and their joyful, silly, and brilliant kids, Amari and Khari.
Dr. Lizette B. Suxo (ella/her/she) is a first-gen Bolivian-American, Aymara educator, scholar, and leadership coach dedicated to holding space for historically marginalized people and centering their/our perspectives across sectors. She uplifts Andean Indigenous women navigating emerging identities as daughters of immigrants in the global diaspora. Lizette brings expertise as a first-gen Aymara educator, school founder, and Harvard-trained leadership coach. She led a nationally recognized school for immigrant and Latinx families and now supports leaders globally. Her lived experience, cultural insight, and commitment to language reclamation make her a vital voice in Bilingual Generation’s mission to center identity, equity, and Indigenous knowledge in education. Lizette recently published her first children’s book in Aymara in collaboration with Bilingual Generation. She lives in New York with her mother, son, and playful cat, Tita.
About Bank Street Library Salons
Bank Street Library Salons are a series of informal lectures and group discussions held in the Bank Street Library or online. #BankSteetLibrarySalon
Cost:
Free
Contact:
Kristin Freda
kfreda@bankstreet.edu
RSVP:
Click here to RSVP