Image by Megan Fuentes

by Leni Villagomez Reeves
Co-chair Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Committee, WILPF Fresno Branch

October 2022

Cuban Women of the African Diaspora – Inspirations for Change is a series of five film programs with discussion, to be presented online on Sunday evenings in October. Tune in on Oct 2, 9,16, 23, and 30 at 5 pm Pacific, 6 pm Mountain, 7 pm Central and 8 pm Eastern Time. This festival features films made by Juanamaría Cordones-Cook, University of Missouri Professor and Emmy-Nominated Filmmaker, who has built her scholarship around the related and complementary areas of  Gender Studies, Afro Latin-American theater, Afro-Cuban Renaissance and Documentary filmmaking. All films have English subtitles. There will also be featured presenters who will help create context and connection for our audience.

Here is a sneak peek of some of the films: 

• In the film Paisajes Célebres Nancy Morejón offers a unique perspective on contemporary Cuban culture and intellectual life, with other outstanding Afro-Cuban intellectuals who came of age with the 1959 Cuban Revolution. 
• Poet Georgina Herrera is featured in two films, Cimarroneando con G.H , and Georgina Herrera: Mujer, Negra y Pobre, discussing memory, gender, race, and Black rebellion.
• Playwright and director Fátima Patterson explores race, gender, African popular religion through theater and oral history, in the film Race Gender and Theater.
• Author and researcher Gisela Arandia returns to her experience as a young Black woman intellectual and to her recent experience opening spaces for exploration of race and racism in Intelectualidad negra después de 1959. 
• Artist Belkys Ayón, who tragically died at an early age, is filmed showing her exploration of the Abakuá world-view.

Don’t miss this great opportunity to see how Cuban women of the African diaspora have seized the opportunity to define culture and made it glorious.

Timetable:
All films have English subtitles

October 2: Belkis Ayón: Grabado de desasosiego  
October 9: Cimarroneando con G.H & Gisela Arandia: Intelectualidad negra después de 1959  
October 16: Georgina Herrera: mujer, negra y pobre     
October 23: Fátima Patterson: Raza género y teatro     
October 30: Nancy Morejón: Paisajes célebres               

The film series will appear via the following platforms, and be available for 24 hours:

1) Twitch.tv via Hothouse Media
2) Facebook live stream (we will have a link for your promo in early October) 
3) YouTube via Hothouse Media 

The primary sponsors of this festival are the WILPF US Women and Cuba Collaboration and The Literacy Project; other sponsors include Code Pink, the National Network on Cuba, the Southern Anti-Racism Network, and Teatro de la Tierra.  

Help us spread the word by becoming a co-sponsor. Contact Leni Villagomez Reeves at lenivreeves@gmail.com. We appreciate our WILPF-US mini-grant.