Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil (Ayutla Mixe, 1981) gives a free, online lecture as part of the Spring 2022 Intra-Disciplinary Seminar series. By looking at some of the ways in which different languages use metaphors to predicate time, the presentation will address the relationship between this diversity of metaphors and the possibility of elaborating collective aesthetics of the earth that would be distinct from art produced within the capitalist system. How might such aesthetics inform what could be called an “indigenous futurism”?

Registration is required.

Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil is a member of COLMIX, a collective of young Mixe people who carry out research on Mixe language, history and culture. She studied Hispanic Languages and Literatures and holds a Master's degree in Linguistics from UNAM. She has participated in many projects aimed at fostering linguistic diversity and developing educational materials in indigenous languages, as well as projects documenting and calling attention to endangered languages. She has been involved in developing written material in Mixe and furthering the emergence of readers of Mixe and other indigenous languages. She has been active in the field of literary translation, in the defense of indigenous language speakers’ linguistic rights, and in advocating for the use of indigenous languages in the virtual world.

The IDS public lecture series is part of the Robert Lehman Visiting Artist Program at The Cooper Union. We are grateful for major funding from the Robert Lehman Foundation. The IDS public lecture series is also made possible by generous support from the Open Society Foundations.