How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance.”
The Ossining Public Library will celebrate the music and impact of Bad Bunny and the release of the new book “P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became The Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance,” by presenting authors Vanessa Diaz and Petra Rivera-Rideau in conversation with CNN’s Sofia Sanchez on March 6.
Bad Bunny’s success is due in large part to his unapologetic championing of his homeland and the intimate connections he maintains in Puerto Rico. Born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, Bad Bunny has lived a life marked by public crises — blackouts, hurricanes, political corruption and oppression — that have exposed the impacts of colonialism in Puerto Rico.
Offering a portrait of the past and future of Puerto Rican resistance through one of its loudest and proudest voices, “P FKN R” draws on ethnographic research and interviews with journalists, politicians, and the pop star’s close collaborators to set Bad Bunny and Puerto Rican resistance in a historical, political, and cultural context.
Díaz and Rivera-Rideau—creators of the “Bad Bunny Syllabus”— place Bad Bunny in the long tradition of infusing joy and protest into music.
Diaz is associate professor of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies at Loyola Marymount University and the author of “Manufacturing Celebrity: Latino Paparazzi and Women Reporters in Hollywood.”
Rivera-Rideau is associate professor of American Studies at Wellesley College and the author of “Remixing Reggaetón: The Cultural Politics of Race in Puerto Rico” and “Fitness Fiesta!: Selling Latinx Culture through Zumba.”
Publisher’s Weekly called “P FKN R” “an insightful consideration of the rapper’s significance and the many ways art can serve as protest.”
This event will take place on Friday, March 6 at 6:30 p.m. in the library’s Budarz Theater and is free for all to attend. Copies of the book will be available for purchase courtesy of Hudson Valley Books for Humanity.
