Panel: Impossible Features of Identity in Contemporary Music, Literature and the Visual Arts

Beyond the hyphen: Transnational and Alternative Cubanidades
Eva Silot Bravo, University of Miami

My paper examines the circulation of cultural narratives in diasporic music networks and among some authors of the Novísimos generation in Cuba resulting from the economic crisis of the early nineties to the present. I argue that the 1990s Transnational Alternative refers to aesthetic and generational scenes that straddle cultural fields like music and literature resulting in “in-between” spaces of creativity in which narratives about the Cuban nation and cubanidad are reconfigured. I put in dialogue less visible narratives from the hardly explored music scene of transnational collaborations among Cuban singers, songwriters and jazz musicians with two novels by Novísimos generation authors: Pedro Juan Gutiérrez’s Trilogía sucia de la Habana (1998) and Ena Lucía Portela’s Cien botellas en una pared (2003), in search for common narratives and/or aesthetics that project the possibility of a generational voice across different cultural fields bolstered by the nineties crisis. The research locates itself in the academic conversation about the impact of transnational practices on the reconstruction of narratives on nations and national identities in a global context, as well as on postmodern inquires about a post-national condition.

Señales frías: sobre algunas escrituras desnaturalizas

Walfrido Dorta, CUNY

¿Hacia dónde señalan algunos textos muy recientes escritos por cubanos? ¿Es posible pensar desde ellos alguna condición “post”, como la postgeográfica, propuesta como marco general del evento? Y, en todo caso, ¿cuáles serían los límites de esa posible marca de posterioridad? Quisiera interrogar textos de Carlos A. Aguilera, Gerardo Fernández Fe y Javier Marimón a partir de estas preguntas. ¿Qué se coloca en estas escrituras en el lugar de la borradura o el desplazamiento de Cuba?

Features of Identity in Contemporary Cuban Cultural Production

Odette Casamayor, University of Connecticut

Discussant: Lizabel Monica, Princeton University

Bios:

Cuban-born scholar and writer Odette Casamayor-Cisneros is Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut-Storrs. Her book Utopia, Dystopia and Ethical Weightlessness: Cosmological reconfigurations in post-Soviet Cuban Fiction has been published by Iberoamericana/Vervuert, May 2013.She is currently working on a new book On Being Black: Racial Self-identification Processes in Post-Soviet Cuban Cultural Production. Odette Casamayor is also the author of the book of short stories, Una casa en los Catskills, San Juan, La Secta de los Perros, 2011.

Walfrido Dorta realiza su doctorado en el programa Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages en el Graduate Center (CUNY), sobre literatura latinoamericana y caribeña del siglo XX. Se concentra  en la relación entre ideología, intelectuales y literatura. Le interesa la historia intelectual y la teoría crítica. Ha publicado un libro sobre Gastón Baquero (El testigo y su lámpara…, 2001), y recientemente un texto sobre los escritores del grupo Diáspora(s) en la edición facsímil de la revista homónima, además de otros ensayos en revistas culturales y académicas. Planea hacer su investigación doctoral sobre dinámicas culturales en Cuba de los últimos 30 años, y algunos proyectos como Paideia, Diáspora(s), y su relación con el Estado.

Eva Silot-Bravo is a Phd. Candidate/ ABD. in Modern Languages and Literatures at University of Miami. Independent Blogger and Journalist. Collaborator to online magazines like Cubaencuentro (Madrid) and Timba.com (L.A.). Former diplomat and international negotiator in United Nations.  My current research interests are focused in: Cultural Studies; Narratives of Post-Socialist and Transnational Identities; Alternative Cultural Networks; Popular Music; and the Transnational Cuban Alternative Music Scene (TCAMS). Cultural promoter, experienced in Media Relations and Cultural Events Production. M.A. in International Studies from Florida International University; and B.A. in International Relations from University of Havana. Formal training in Piano and Classical Music in Havana.