Among the Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations at Lone Star College-CyFair is a Sept. 18 “Out of the Barrio” presentation and book signing with Stephanie Elizondo Griest, a globe-trotting foreign correspondent, human rights activist and author.

In a high-energy motivational presentation, Griest will describe her “escape” from South Texas and share how she combated racial, gender, and cultural stereotypes along the way. Griest has mingled with the Russian Mafiya, polished Chinese propaganda, and belly danced with Cuban rumba queens. She has explored five continents and once drove 45,000 miles across America in a Honda Hatchback named Bertha. A 2005-2006 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University, she recently won the Richard J. Margolis Award for Social Justice Reporting.

This presentation also includes a performance from her award-winning memoirs “Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana” and “Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines.”

Following the 2:30 p.m. Sept. 18 presentation in the Conference Center rooms 152-153, there will be a meet and greet reception, Elizondo will sign her book, which will be available for purchase with cash or check, and there will be a drawing for her book.

Co-sponsoring this event is X-Présate (the Hispanic Student Organization), Windows on the World, the Harris County Public Library LSC-CyFair Branch and the LSC-CyFair English Department.

For information on Elizondo, go to www.MexicanEnough.com. For information about the book signing and presentation, contact Valerie Peyer at 281-290-3910 or Valerie.M.Peyer@LoneStar.edu.