PUMA.CREATIVE AT THE GLOBAL CARIBBEAN SYMPOSIUM, MIAMI, U.S.A
4 March 2010
puma.creative arrived at registration meeting organizers Patricia Saunders and Sandra Pouchet Paquet. Also present is CCN member, artist and lecturer Hugo Moro who won one of the two seats to attend the Global Caribbean Symposium (the other winner Adler Guerrier arrives tomorrow). Another meeting was with puma.creative Mobility Award winners and keynote speakers Roshini Kempadoo and Joscelyn Gardner who will be speaking during Day Three of the conference. The panel is entitled Critical Visions and Voices in Contemporary Caribbean Art...
The Global Caribbean Symposium Program began with an immersive topic “Intersecting Geographies: Sexing the Subject and the Nation State”. The panel was kicked off with a tough to-the-point reading by Sheri-Marie Harrison discussing, to put it simply, sexual exploits. The pace did not diffuse as a number of papers were presented representing diverse and eclectic experience-including an intriguing dialogue about the portrayal of the transvestite in Santos-Febres novel "Sirena Selena vestida de pena" by Diane M Grullon from the Department of Modern Languages at the Florida International University.
A second panel begins moderated by charismatic Miami gallerist Rosie Gordon Wallace featuring a distinguished panel of speakers of which Onajide Shabaka conducted an fascinating discussion on the presence of African American cemeteries and associated iconography-including radios, sea shells, crosses-some of which came from the last object the person was in contact with before passing within and outside of the Caribbean. The panel is continued by Selina Roman who talks about her duality as a 'white person' and a Puerto Rican person—who grew up not speaking Spanish—and how this connects to her perception of identity in her work.
The day ended with a treat...two powerful readings by respective authors Patricia Powell and Marion Bethel, which was a taste of what is to come at a formal talk featuring the two readers scheduled later during the conference at Books and Books in Coral Gables.
Contributions
ClaireComments (3)
Re: PUMA.CREATIVE AT THE GLOBAL CARIBBEAN SYMPOSIUM, MIAMI, U.S.A
The first day of the conference was certainly rich, engaging, intellectually stimulating. The readings at the end of the evening reminded us of the extent to which the wordsmiths (the poets, novelists, essayists) of the Caribbean region open and even explode the frameworks of the things we think we know and have come to understand from our experiences.....especially ourselves. It is as if they invite us to come and visit ourselves again, and yes, to know ourselves differently.
And to think.....we have more tomorrow.....
Re: PUMA.CREATIVE AT THE GLOBAL CARIBBEAN SYMPOSIUM, MIAMI, U.S.A
The opening sessions of the conference really were very thought-provoking. I'm glad that PUMA.Creative is supporting this kind of intellectual work and that the creative mobility grants were able to bring such an exciting mix of artists and writers. It certainly adds to the dialogue when critics and teachers can hear from and speak to different kinds of cultural workers.
Re: PUMA.CREATIVE AT THE GLOBAL CARIBBEAN SYMPOSIUM, MIAMI, U.S.A
As a participant I really enjoyed my co-panelists Onajide Shabaka and Selina Roman's presentation and their contribution to the conversation on Pan-Caribbean and Pan-African art. Our papers on Francophone Caribbean visual arts (me), the practice of photography from a female Puertorican/American (Selina) perspective, and African American burial practices in the South of the US couldn't be more diasporic in their approach. Rosie Gordon-Wallace did an amazing job as a moderator bringing in her experience as an art gallery director and a Jamaican living in the US. The exchange with the audience was equally stimulating. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Drs. Saunders and Pouchet Paquet and their hard working assistants for putting together a quality event. I salute Puma's initiative in supporting the dissemination of Caribbean culture and arts.