The 9th International Colloquium on Cultural Diversity in the Caribbean will meet in Havana from today until May 19 at Casa de las Américas, focused on regional ecological thought as a process inherent to its culture.
The event will address topics such as the links between gender and nature and the rescue of the ecology that subsists in the knowledge of native cultures, and will include a tribute to the Barbadian writer George Lamming for his legacy in terms of philosophical and cultural thought for the Caribbean.
Isabel Rigol-Savio, Cuban architect and professor at the José Antonio Echeverría Polytechnic Institute, will offer the inaugural conference in which she will refer to the cultural landscapes of the Caribbean as a combined work between the action of nature and human being.
The cycle of conversations, talks and theoretical reflections part of the Colloquium will also have its counterpart from the visual arts. The exhibition Islands without Limits will be inaugurated this Monday, which brings together the work of Antillean artists Glenda Salazar (Cuba), Ira Kononenko (Cuba) and Nadia Huggins (Trinidad and Tobago). Said exhibition will be held in the Latin American Gallery of the Casa de las Américas headquarters.
For their part, four academics -three Cubans and one Haitian- will give master lectures that will complement the panel program and organized debates.
The day in honor of Lamming, scheduled for Wednesday, May 17, will also include the panels Testimonies of a fraternal relationship: Lamming at Home and A multidimensional thought: Lamming in and for the Caribbean, in which the contributions of scholars and researchers of his work will come together.
Dominican filmmaker José María Cabral will present one of his most current productions, the documentary Tumba y quema, on national parks as natural heritage and the deliberate deforestation of which they are victims.
Cuban filmmaker Gloria Rolando will talk on Thursday, May 18, about the conceptual marks of her work as well as her relationship with the thought and culture of the Caribbean region, and with Casa de las Américas.
As the centenary of the Haitian artist Préfète Duffaut is celebrated, Casa de las Américas takes advantage of the space to highlight the presence of the painter within the Haydeé Santamaría Art of Our America collection, and the imprint of his colors on the Caribbean imagination.
This Colloquium is an invitation to rethink landscapes, nature and the climatic-environmental emergency from the academic, artistic, literary legacies.
