Following are the remarks delivered June 16, 2016, at the Barnes Foundation by AAUP Executive Director Peter Berkery during the Opening Reception for the Association’s 2016 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.

I know you are all eager to return to your conversations, the wine, and the phenomenal artwork, but I hope you’ll indulge me in a few brief, final words first.

In 2014, the University Press of Florida published the collected poems of Reinaldo Arenas, a Cuban poet self-exiled to NYC because of the Castro regime’s persecution of LGBTQ people. Arenas’ experiences of oppression ultimately led to his suicide in 1990. Continue reading Peter Berkery’s Remarks on Sunday’s Tragedy in Orlando →