The panel discussion is free and open the public. Hors d’oeuvres and refreshments will be provided

In the fall of 2017 Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, wiping out the electric grid and plunging 3 million people into the worst blackout in US history. Roughly 3000 people died in the months after the storm and thousands lived in the dark for nearly a year.

“DisemPOWERed” finds no “natural” disaster, but instead a “perfect storm” of debt crisis, corruption, manipulation by Big Oil and Wall Street, an electric utility that was bankrupt before Maria, and the burdens of colonialism that has left Puerto Rico with a dying economic model and a legacy of heavy oil dependence.

Join us for a screening of “Disempowered” followed by a discussion with the film makers from Univerity of Puerto Rico.

View the trailer here: https://vimeo.com/330053614

Panelists:
Cecilio Ortiz Garcia (PhD), University of Puerto Rico
Lilo Pozzo (PhD), University of Washington
Ileana Rodriguez (PhD), University of Washington