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
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.