Afro-Cuban Legacies
April 10-12, 2024
Afro-Cuban Legacies: Visual Arts, Literature, Theatre, Music, and Religion is an international, interdisciplinary conference examining Afro-Cuban expressive cultures since the 1960s.
Expert scholars and contemporary Cuban artists will provide inspiration and insights at the intersections of
Afro-Cuban arts, cultures and religious traditions.
The conference schedule includes scholarly presentations, artist roundtables, visual arts exhibitions, live performances and screenings of documentary films.
For any questions about the event please contact us at muasevents@missouri.edu
GUEST ARTISTS
Award-winning contemporary Cuban artists who address the intersections of Afro-Cuban arts, cultures, and religious traditions will attend, including:
- Juan Roberto Diago, multimedia artist
- Román Díaz, percussionist and composer
- Monse Duany, actress
- Nancy Morejón, poet laureate
- Arturo O'Farrill, jazz pianist
- Order tickets for Arturo O'Farrill Quintet's concert
Presented in partnership with We Always Swing Jazz Series
- Order tickets for Arturo O'Farrill Quintet's concert
- René Peña, photographer
Pointed Questions: Rene Peña’s Everyday Objects
Departing from the traditions of photojournalism and documentary photography that dominated the fine art scene since the Cuban Revolution (1953-1959), Peña photographs familiar objects and household items – often used, broken, and mass-produced – that are laden with cultural assumptions and judgments. Indeed, his works are as much about the subjects they depict as the associations they raise in viewers’ minds. A string of pearls, Miracle Whip Salad, and a decorative fence evoke socioeconomic status, diet, and security, respectively. All, in turn, call attention to the stereotypes we hold and the assumptions we carry.
This exhibition was developed in conjunction with Afro-Cuban Legacies, an international, interdisciplinary conference examining Afro-Cuban expressive cultures since the 1960s, and was curated by Dr. Kristin Schwain, Professor of Art History, University of Missouri.
The exhibition was made possible by public support from the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency, with additional support from Museum Associates, Inc.
Image Credit: René de Jesús Peña González (Cuban, b. 1957), Sin título (Without Title), de la serie Untitled Album, 2007, Digital photograph on paper, Loan courtesy of the artist
Image Credit: Sin título (Without Title), de la serie Hacia Adentro, (Inward), 1992, Digital photograph on paper, Loan courtesy of the artist
Juan Roberto Diago: Foraged Materials, Assembled Histories
Diago’s interest in rewriting history to address race is a common thread in his work. He often uses reclaimed materials and found objects to underscore that history is always a process of assembly and reassembly; it is always PRESENT and in process of becoming. More specifically, he shows how the legacies of enslavement and resistance to it remain embedded in the contemporary world.
This exhibition was developed in conjunction with Afro-Cuban Legacies, an international, interdisciplinary conference examining Afro-Cuban expressive cultures since the 1960s, and was curated by Dr. Kristin Schwain, Professor of Art History, University of Missouri.
The exhibition was made possible by public support from the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency, with additional support from Museum Associates, Inc.
Image Credit: Juan Roberto Diago (Cuban, b. 1971), De la serie Libertad (From the Freedom series), 2022, Reclaimed wood and wire, Loan courtesy of the artist
Image Credit: Juan Roberto Diago (Cuban, b. 1971), S-T, 2023, Serigraph, Loan courtesy of the artist
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
- 8:15 - 9:15 a.m. — Conference Registration (Leadership Lounge)
- 9:15 - 9:30 a.m. — Welcoming remarks by Juanamaria Cordones-Cook (Leadership Auditorium)
- 9:30 - 10:30 a.m. — Keynote: Elzbieta Sklodowska, Washington University (Leadership Auditorium)
- “Etched in Memory, Recovered in Art: The Afro-Cuban Experience through the Lens of the Plantationocene” | Chair: Megan Moore
- 10:30 - 10:45 a.m. — Break (Leadership Lounge)
- 10:45 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. — Concurrent Breakout Sessions in MU Student Center Rooms
- Breakout 1: Aesthetics in visual Art (2205AB) | Chair: Elvira Aballi Morell
Guido Llinás: experimentando con juegos geométricos
Ineke Phaf-Rheinberger, University of Giessen, Romanistik
Diseñadores afrocolombianos: modernidad y ancestralidad
Diana Rodríguez Quevedo, University of Evansville
Sustainability, Beauty and Ashe in the Work of Art of Eduardo Roca, Choco.
Gloria Caballero Roca, Bard Microcollege Holyoke
(No) Cara a (no) cara: Breaking the Face with the Art of Belkis Ayón and Firelei Báez
Joseph Hartman, University of Missouri – Kansas City
- Breakout 2: The Rythm of a Nation (2206AB) | Chair: Guadalupe Pérez Anzaldo
Towards An Afro-Cuban Acoustemology and Multimodal Ethnography
Pablo Herrera Veitia, University of Toronto Scarborough
Harmony Across Generations: Exploring the Musical Legacy of Ernesto Lecuona in Paquito D’Rivera’s ‘The Cape Cod Files’
Lucas Willsie, Central Methodist University
When We Were Gods of the Music World
Wilfredo Vélez, University of Missouri
- Breakout 3: Dramatization of Afro-Caribbean identities (2206C) | Chair: Mamadou Badiane
Queer Poetics and Politics in Fátima Patterson’s Un repique para Mafifa, o La última campanera (1993)
Darrelstan Ferguson, University of Pittsburgh
El pensamiento regenerativo en el teatro para niños de Gerardo Fulleda: un antídoto contra la necropolítica de la plantación
Elisa Rizo, Iowa State University
Staging 1958: Violence and the Denouement of Dictatorship in Black Cuban Theatre
Conrad James, University of Toronto
Género y raza en la narrativa de Mayra Montero
Salvador Mercado Rodriguez, University of Denver
- Breakout 1: Aesthetics in visual Art (2205AB) | Chair: Elvira Aballi Morell
- 12:15 - 1:15 p.m. — Lunch
- 1:15 - 2:30 p.m. — FILM: Diago, Ancestral Instinct (Leadership Auditorium)
- 2:35 - 4:45 p.m. — Concurrent Breakout sessions in MU Student Center Rooms
- Breakout 1: Social Issues in Film and Performance (2205AB) | Chair: Elisa Rizo
Obsesión: My Song
Catherine Murphy, Independent filmmaker
“La Regla” [performance]
Carlos Manuel Rivera, Bronx Community College-CUNY
Memorias: Mis Memorias
Pedro Pérez-Sarduy, National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba
Breakout 2: Warrior Women: From Minos to Black Lives Matter (2206AB) | Chair: Dorothy Payne
Dorothy Payne, performance poet, writer and visual artist
Fatimata Vetu, videographer and performance artist
Denise Ward-Brown, Washington University in St. Louis
Breakout 3: Theatre, Concert Reading of Botanica, by Dolores Prida ( Leadership Auditorium)
Director: David Crespy, University of Missouri
- Breakout 4: Themes in Nineteenth Century Literature (2206C) | Chair: Alejandra Aguilar Dornelles
La mujer negra ausente en Sab
Frances Jaegar, Northern Illinois University
Costumbrismo, raza, ciencia y modernidad
Francisco J Solares-Larrave, Northern Illinois University
Entre el bronce y el olvido: heroísmo y afrodescendencia en Colombia, Brasil y Cuba
Alejandra Aguilar Dornelles, Florida Atlantic University
- Breakout 1: Social Issues in Film and Performance (2205AB) | Chair: Elisa Rizo
- 5 - 6 p.m. — Downtime
- 6 - 8 p.m. — Diago’s and René Peña’s Exhibits Reception (Museum of Art and Archaeology / Museum of Anthropology)
Thursday, April 11, 2024
- 9 - 9:15 a.m. — Opening Remarks by Leslie Willey (Hugh Stephens Library)
- 9:15 - 10:15 a.m. — Diago and his Afro-Cuban Legacies, Exhibit (Hugh Stephens Library)
- 10:15 - 11 a.m. — Keynote - William Luis, Vanderbilt University (Firestone Baars Chapell)
- Juan Francisco Marzano and the Transatlantic Abolitionist Movement. \ Chair: Daive Dunkley
- 11:10 a.m. - Noon — Bilingual Poetry Reading by Nancy Morejón w/ Sophie Campos (Firestone Baars Chapel) | Chair: Michael Middleton
- 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. — Lunch
- 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. — Concurrent Breakout Sessions in MU Student Center Rooms
- Breakout 1: Contemporary Women Poetry (2205AB) | Chair: Joseph Otebela
Paths to Self and Home: Memory and Grief Work in the Poetry of Caridad Atencio
Andrea Morris, Louisiana State University
Literary Translation as Afrodiasporic Witness: Poetics of Afrodiasporic Translation Between AfroCuban and Black US American Poets
Aaron Coleman, University of Michigan
El sagrado erotismo de la poesía cimarrona de Georgina Herrera
Alejandra Aguilar Dornelles, Florida Atlantic University
‘I Scream and I Know I Make Myself Heard’: Georgina Herrera’s Poetic Self-Portraits
Paula Sanmartin, California State University, Fresno
- Breakout 2: Afro-Cuban Imagination (2206AB) | Chair: Iván Reyna
Beyond Roots: Sites of Memory in Afro-Cuba
Abisola Akinsiku, University of Kansas
Religión afrocubana y primitivismo en la novela Casa de juegos de Daína Chaviano
Ramon Muniz Sarmiento, Owensboro Community and Technical College
The myth of Moise in the religious and literary imaginations of the Black Americas
Aurelia Mouzet, University of Arizona
Archiving the Pandemic in Cuba’s Unknown Regions: Daniel Ross’ film la Espera
Jack Riordan, University of Texas at Austin
- Breakout 3: Female Perspectives in Visual Expressions (2206C) | Chair: Alejandra Aguilar Dornelles
Reimagining Black Femininity: Harmonia Rosales’ Black Decolonial Aesthetics and AfroARTivism
Rosita Scerbo, Georgia State University
The Transnational Imprint of Belkis Ayón in the United States: Retrospectives and Resonances
Marilyn Miller, Tulane University
Avatars and Self-Portraiture in Black Cuban Art
Gwen Unger, Columbia University
- Breakout 4 (2:00 p.m. start): Musical legacies (Leadership Auditorium) | Chair: Andra Luque Karam
Conversation among Masters
Román Díaz, Arturo O’Farrill, Zack O’Farrill, and Sam Griffith
- Breakout 1: Contemporary Women Poetry (2205AB) | Chair: Joseph Otebela
1:30 - 3:45 p.m. — Lincoln University Poster Sessions (Leadership Lounge)
Lindsey Brand, Indya Givens, Emma Heather, Rachel Latimer, Rachel Meyer, Ryann Muenks, Sydney Nelson, Clara Taylor, Emma Schaefer, Whitney Ankton, Treston Lewis, Alana Freeman, Ayreona Carter
- 3:30 - 3:45 p.m. — Break (Leadership Lounge)
- 3:45 - 4:30 p.m. — Expresiones poéticas del folklore de Cuba Performance by Román Díaz | Accompanied by Ivor Miller (Leadership Auditorium)
- 7 p.m. (doors open 6 p.m.) — Dr. Carlos & Laura Perez-Mesa Memorial Concert: Arturo O’Farrill “Legacies” Quintet | Presented by “We Always Swing” Jazz Series in association with MU College of Arts and Science Afro-Cuban Legacies Conference (Missouri Theatre) | Purchase Tickets
Friday, April 12
- 8 - 9 a.m. — Morning Coffee (Leadership Lounge)
- 9 - 9:45 a.m. — Keynote - Ivor Miller, Roman Diaz (Leadership Auditorium)
- The Cuban batá drumming guild in cultural context | Chair: Signe Cohen
- 9:45 -10:45 a.m. — Premiere of René Peña: Provocation in Photography (Leadership Auditorium)
- 11 - Noon — Lunch
- Noon - 1 p.m. — Emelina Cundeamor, by Eugenio Hernández Espinosa | Monse Duany, actress (Leadership Auditorium)
- 1 - 2:40 p.m. — Concurrent Breakout Sessions in MU Student Center Rooms
- Breakout 1: Silencing of Afro-Cuban Issues (2205AB) | Chair: Avila Hendricks Nilon
The Silencing of Afro-Cuban Identities After The Revolution
Brian Norris, Lincoln University
Micah Wright, Lincoln University
- Breakout 2: "Black Renaissance”: Identity, History, and Spirituality in the Cultural Production of Cuba and its Diaspora (2206AB) | Chair: Iván Reyna
Queerness, Death, and Spiritualism in Lydia Cabrera and Belkis Ayón
Jossianna Arroyo Martínez, University of Texas at Austin
Sara Gómez: The “New Man”, the Abakuá, and “el negro superado”
Elvira Aballi Morell, Vanderbilt University
Sergio Giral’s Trilogy of Slavery Films: Experiments in Cinematic Historiography
Jerry W. Carlson, The City College of New York
Religious Poetics and the Afro-Cuban Venus
Elaine Penagos, Trinity University
- Breakout 3: Decolonizing Spanish and French Language Program ( 2206C) | Chair: Mamadou Badiane
Decolonizing Spanish and French language programs through critical pedagogies: centering Afro-descendant language varieties, cultures, and experiences
Latasha Valenzuela- Hernández, Louisiana State University
Andrea Morris, Louisiana State University
- Breakout 4: Rethinking Afro-Intellectual Polemics and Embodied Archives in Cuba and the Black Colombia Pacific (Leadership Auditorium) | Chair: Mar Soria
Walterio Carbonell: Thoughts for Revising the Intellectual History of the Caribbean
Nelson Mario Pagán-Butler, University of Texas at Austin
Instructions to unhear ghosts: Afrocubanidad in Orígenes and its criticism
Aribel López Andraca, University of Texas at Austin
The Archival Praxis of Viche: Matrilineal Memory Work and Archiving in the Black Colombian Pacific
Camille Carr, University of Texas at Austin
Afro-agonía and origenistas in the poetry of Ángel Escobar
César A. Salgado, University of Texas at Austin.
- Breakout 1: Silencing of Afro-Cuban Issues (2205AB) | Chair: Avila Hendricks Nilon
- 2:40 - 2:50 p.m. — Break (Leadership Lounge)
- 2:50 - 4 p.m. — FILM: Havana's Black Renaissance (Leadership Auditorium)
- 4 - 5:30 p.m. — Artists Roundtable (Leadership Auditorium)
- 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. — Downtime
6:30 - 6:50 p.m. — Lincoln University Vocal Ensemble (The Shack) | Director: Michelle Gamblin-Green, Yessnia Austin
Saniya Bryant, Veyonce Fullwood, Delon Boyd, Erin Lammers, Marie Wyatt, Micheala Gunter, Jade Westbrooks, Nyla Siller, Alex Oesterly, Reggie Ford, Sace Anderson, Gabriel Williams, Cornelius Thompson, Jesse Canamore, Jaff Makhi, Glenn Wright, Alontaye Flippins, Joshua Ubogu, Michael Chipungu, Mikayla Liddell
- 7 - 9 p.m. — Closing Banquet (The Shack)
FILM SCREENINGS
Afro-Cuban Legacies will include screenings of documentary films directed by Juanamaria Cordones-Cook that feature the Afro-Cuban artists present at the conference.
Diago, a Maroon Artist / Artista apalencado (Cuba 2013), ca. 28 minutes long with English subtitles. Direction and production by Juanamaría Cordones-Cook. Comment: presentation of a prominent multimedia artist, Juan Roberto Diago (1972). Diago understands the creative possibilities of recycling and bricolage and frequently enriches his images by juxtaposing graffiti with racially contesting implications. He has labeled himself a “maroon artist” and his art work results in cultural resistance. In this documentary, Diago openly discusses issues of race and poverty in contemporary Cuba, as well as their representation in his paintings and installations.
Nancy Morejón: Famous Landscapes / Paisajes célebres (Cuba 2013), ca. 52 minutes long with English subtitles. Direction and production by Juanamaría Cordones-Cook. This documentary offers a unique perspective on contemporary Cuban culture and intellectual life through the world, artistic achievements and life experience of one of its most celebrated poets, Nancy Morejón (Havana 1944), as well as through the voices and images of prominent Afro-Cuban intellectuals. The music was performed by Richard Egües, Marta Valdés, and Elena Burke.
René Peña: Provocación en la Fotografía/Provocation in Photography (Havana 2024), 50 minutes long with English subtitles. Production and direction by Juanamaría Cordones-Cook. Documentary presents the artistic journey of a foremost Cuban photographer, René de Jesús Peña González (Havana 1957). Born in a working-class family, from early on René Peña had a natural penchant for the arts. He became a self-taught artist who revolutionized photography with awe-inspiring introspective representations of Cuban society. Peña has created a personal and thought-provoking artistic language using his own body not as self-portrait but as support to make critical comments on a broad range of social issues, including identity, gender, race, and social class. His photographs metaphorically show what he thinks, not what he sees. In this film, a comprehensive range of his photographic work is displayed, while he candidly discusses his origins, his trajectory, his views, and his creative process. Documentary is enriched with comments by Roberto Diago, Cristina Vives, Rafael Acosta de Arriba, Odette Casamayor, Roberto Zurbano, and a poetic reading on René’s work by Nancy Morejón.