On February 22, the Thompson Room at Harvard University’s Barker Center was the venue for the much-anticipated global book launch of Pre-Texts International, hosted by Cultural Agents. The event showcased a remarkable assembly of facilitators from various corners of the globe, highlighting the Pre-Texts protocol’s diverse applications and profound impact.
The book, a rich collection of essays and photographs, vividly documents the Pre-Texts experiences from around the world, demonstrating its utility in fostering educational empowerment and societal change. Attendees included Tom Osborn, Adriana Gutierrez, Luis Reyes, Joshua Peck, Isabella Madrigal, and Sophia Madrigal, who shared insights and reflections on their work with Pre-Texts.
I have witnessed the enormous power and appeal of Pre-Texts, which I have been able to observe in cities as diverse as Cambridge (USA), Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Huamanga, Ayacucho (Peru) – and which has been applied, as we see in this volume, in many other countries and continents. It is a crucial method, as it delivers something that I consider indispensable for empowering agency and effective change in our societies through education: it promotes reading, stimulates creative paths, and rescues our traditional cultural practices, endowing them with social value.
Salvador del Solar, Actor, Former Prime Minister and Minister of Culture of Peru