Escobedo Saint John's Bible Lecture Series: "A Summer with the Butterflies" / Feb. 23, 2023
From Loretta Sanchez
views
From Loretta Sanchez
The Escobedo Saint John’s Bible Lecture Series presents
The Saint John’s Bible through the Lens of the Arts
A Summer with the Butterflies
Dramatic Performance
Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023
7 p.m.
Treadaway Hall, Guadalupe Chapel
Join the St. Mary's University community for an original one-person performance featuring Lucero (Lucy) Perez. This production is an adaptation of María Fernanda Benavides' 2019 book, A Summer with the Butterflies: A journey of courage, persistence and hope. Benavides, a young immigrant, artist, and activist, shares her experiences creating visual art with refugee children from Africa and Latin America. Theater director and writer José Rubén De León brings to life these emotional and playful encounters, honoring the ways art creates opportunities for connection, expression and transformation.
Copies of A Summer with the Butterflies will be available for sale at the event.
About the Author: María Fernanda Benavides
María Benavides was born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico. At the age of 14, she moved to San Antonio, with her family to pursue an education in the United States. Motivated to act after the family separation crisis during the summer of 2018, Benavides started volunteering at the bus station in downtown San Antonio, where she provides brief legal aid to incoming refugee families from Africa and Latin America.
While interacting with the families at the bus station, she discovered a passion for activism and social justice which has led her to use creative outlets such as writing and public speaking to share the current migration crisis, among other social justice issues. Benavides often draws inspiration from her hometown, her family and her experiences as an immigrant woman living in the United States.
For more information, contact Allison Gray, Ph.D., at agray7@stmarytx.edu