Cafe XV: the Journey of Cuban Artists Symposium

Graphic Art by Leandro Soto

Café XV: the Journeys of Cuban Artists Symposium at UWI, Cave Hill, was a cultural event where Ms. Linda Bair and Dr. Jorge Luis Morejon, along with other presenters, discussed ideas about diasporic communication, the arts, cultural retention and collaboration outside the diaspora. They also presented the dance piece My Hands, Tus Brazos with Solodos Dance which in the context of the symposium illustrated the diasporic issues discussed, but through the creative process used in dance. The symposium invited other important presenters such as key speaker Achy Obejas, Lecturer Dr. Grisel Pujala and Performance Artist Leandro Soto.  In the audience there were present the Cuban Ambassador in Barbados, the Cuban Consul, representatives of the Canadian Embassy, UWI students and other audience members.

Carpentier en Barbados: El Siglo de las Luces

From left to right, Leandro Soto, Linda Bair and Jorge Luis Morejon.

The event took place in the NuEdge Gallery, at the Limegrove Lyfestyle Centre Holetown,

St. James, Barbados on October 26, 2012

Carpertier in Barbados 

 

 Video: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/232984234

 

The performance piece Carpentier en Barbados: El siglo de las luces was part of Café XV: the Journeys of Cuban Artists, a yearly event curated and directed by visual and performance artist Leandro Soto and Dr. Grisel Pujala respectively. Dr. Pujala is also a lecturer at UWI, Cave Hill. As part of Solodos Dance, Dr. Jorge Luis Morejon was able to play three of the male characters of Carpentier’s novel El siglo de las luces (literally The Century of Enlightenment), titled in English Explosion in the Cathedral, while Ms. Linda Bair played Sofia, the most important female character in the story.  Leandro Soto played Alejo Carpentier, the writer himself. The event invited dancer, chorographer and lecturer Neri Torres, who interpreted a dance for Afro-Cuban goddess Oshun.

Changing Higher Education

Dr. Jorge Luis Morejon participated in the 3^rd Barbados International Conference on Higher Education and Human Resources Development, which took place from October 21 – 24, 2012 in the Hilton Hotel at St. Michael, Barbados.  The title of his paper was Changing Higher Education Paradigms: Crafting New Multidisciplinary Educational Programs and Policies.  Dr. Morejon had the pleasure of sharing his paper with a numerous audience of educators from different fields of study who for the first time were faced with the benefits of the arts as catalyst in the acquisition of technological and scientific knowledge. The presentation was part of an attempt to develop Higher Education research in the area of the arts.  In his study he considered the implementation of the arts across Higher Education curricula as a way to improve Higher Education pedagogy, communication between fields of study and professional environments, quality of multidisciplinary education and cognitive as well as embodied learning structures.

Conference: 54 International Congress of Americanists

“Building dialogues in the Americas."

Paper Title: Performance Ritual in the Cuban Diaspora."

University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. July 5 – 20, 2012.

LINK: http://lai.at/54-ica-international-congress-of-americanists

XXX International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association

Toward a Third Century of Independence in Latin America.

Paper Title: Caribbean First Ritual Performance Practices: Restoring the Areito.

Marriot Marquis Hotel. San Francisco, California. May 23rd – 26th, 2012.

It’s all about love Sunday night at gallery performance

May 18, 2012 - Posted by Special to The Enterprise
 

Jorge Luis Morejon and Linda Bair will dance Sunday evening at the John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 First St. in downtown Davis. Mattias Falk/Courtesy photo“A Small Evening About Love” will be presented at 7 p.m. Sunday at the John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 First St. in downtown Davis.

Love in all its grandeur and messiness is the theme of the night. Artists, most of them local, will address the subject through dance, poetry or prose.

The seed of the idea came from the reunion of Linda Bair, artistic director of the Linda Bair Dance Company, and Jorge Luis Morejon, dancer, actor and opera singer currently teaching at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad.

Two years ago, the dancers met while Morejon was finishing his Ph.D. in performance at UC Davis and they decided to work together. Over the course of many months of exploration in the dance studio, “My Hands/Tus Brazos” was created. The dance is a passionate exploration of love in a long-term relationship.

Morejon will be back in Davis this weekend and so the two will again be able to present their piece.

“So many people have come up to speak to me each time we perform it, sharing their own story about love or guessing at ours,” Bair said in a news release.

Wanting to see more cross-pollination between artists, they have invited other local artists to join them in sharing work about love.

“My Hands/Tus Brazos” opens the evening, followed by poetry from Davis’ poet laureate Allegra Silberstein; renowned poet and mom of three Jill Stengel; and UC Davis student, poet and painter Corey LaRue.

Ann Murray Paige, an award-winning journalist, writer, founder of Project Pink, a nonprofit organization supporting young women with breast cancer, and star of ‘The Breast Cancer Diaries,” will read a new piece.

Dave Griffin, actor, writer and creator of the radio series “Bunker 21,” will do a scene reading. Lastly, Cassie Gardner will give a sneak preview of a new one-woman show titled “The Break Up Letters,” a hilarious look at leaving, and leaving and leaving.

The performance is a free event and runs about an hour.

Details

What: "A Small Evening About Love," a
performance of dance,
poetry and prose

When: 7 tonight

Where: John Natsoulas
Gallery, 521 First Street, in
downtown Davis

Cost: Free


Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=177278

II Congreso de Estudios Teatrales.

In-Disponer la Escena: Una reflexión sobre la puesta en escena ayer y hoy.


Paper Title: Escuela de Teatro Cubano-Exiliada: el cultivo del absurdo como técnica teatral. (Cuban Exile Theatre School: The Cultivation of the Absurd as Theatre Technique).

Universidad de Antioquia. Facultad de Artes. Auditorium Alfonso Restrepo Moreno. Edificio Comfama, San Ignacio, calle 48 # 43 – 87, Piso 4, Medellín, Colombia. May 16 to 18th, 2012.

LINK: http://www.udea.edu.co/portal/page/portal/bActualidad/Principal_UdeA