Dramatic readings, crafts cap FESTIBA events

EDINBURG - Children frolicked across the quad, shuffling between taking photos with Clifford the Big Red Dog and listening to a story about an African boy sold into slavery.

Elsewhere on the University of Texas Pan-American campus, another lecturer shared photos and detailed the horrors of human trafficking in South Asia.

The vibrant mix of performance art, crafts and literature capped the weeklong Festival of International Books and Arts, or FESTIBA, on the UTPA campus. The festival, which is in its second year, celebrates arts and humanities and promotes literacy.

Visiting Professor Lorenzo Pace read his critically acclaimed book "Jalani and the Lock," which the Los Angeles Times named one of the best children's books of 2001.

The story is about Pace's great-grandfather who was stolen from Africa and shipped to the United States as a slave. He told the story as a performance piece, replete with traditional African drums and props ranging from children's toys to a flute.

"We will not be a slave," Pace said over a steady drum beat in a call-and-response with a crowd of about 30.

"I'll be buried in my grave ... and be free," the crowd repeated.

George McLemore spoke to a half-full theater about his journey photographing human trafficking from India to Bangladesh. The former UTPA professor spent about a month this past winter in the South Asian countries documenting how young girls are sold into forced labor and prostitution.

"Trafficking is the process. Slavery is the result," McLemore told the crowd. "There's more slavery today ... than there ever was during the Middle Passage from Africa," he said referring to the mass transport of African slaves to the Americas.

Elsewhere at the FESTIBA, children fashioned paper bags into parrot puppets after "The Parrot Tico Tango" was read to them.

The Dustin Michael Sekula Memorial Library sponsored another event at which children crafted necklaces from brightly colored macaroni.

"It's a little piece of memorabilia for them to remember they did this with the public library," said Vanessa Saenz, a librarian. "It's the only place where you can visit Egypt and China for free," she said of the library.