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Leadership Auditorium

Havana’s Black Renaissance (2023), ca. 71 minutes long documentary with English subtitles. Direction and production by Juanamaría Cordones-Cook. Comment: Through the voices of over thirty prominent contemporary Cuban intellectuals, among them Rogelio Martínez Furé, Nancy Morejón, Roberto Diago, María del Carmen Barcia, Eugenio Hernández Espinosa, Georgina Herrera, Miguel Barnet, Rigoberto López, “Choco,” Alberto Lescay, Magdalena Campos-Pons, Víctor Fowler, Gloria Rolando, and Roberto Zurbano, this documentary presents reflections on the development of Havana’s Black Renaissance, the unprecedented Afro-Cuban intelligentsia who emerged and continued to develop through multiple generations after the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Their remarks go back to the historical antecedents of this blackrenaissance as well as to the literacy campaign and the extraordinary educational and artistic opportunities created for everyone including those in the margins of society who in their majority descended from African slaves. The film considers the flourishing of this Cuban black intelligentsia in a broad range of intellectual and creative disciplines, including history, literature, visual arts, theater, and dance.