Joel James Colloquium to honor Olga Portuondo in Cuba
Photo: Prensa Latina
Havana, January 21 (RHC)-- Dr. Olga Portuondo, National Prize for Social Sciences and History and Historian of the city of Santiago de Cuba will be one of the personalities to receive the tribute of the XVII International Colloquium Joel James In Memoriam.
According to sources from the organizing committee, another of the revered intellectuals will be poet Reinaldo Garcia Blanco, who holds the 2017 Casa de las Americas award for his work Esto es un disco de vinilo donde hay canciones rusas para escuchar en inglés y viceversa (This is a vinyl record where there are Russian songs to listen to in English and vice versa).
Under the title Joel James, Olga Portuondo and regional history, the event will also recognize the work of music producer Alden González, a keen researcher of the history of Cuban traditional music and a pillar in the two Grammy awards won by the Septeto Santiaguero.
The meeting becomes the other very significant cultural event organized every year by Casa del Caribe, of which James was founder and director, and has at its epicenter the International Festivals of the region, now in their 41st edition.
Last June, on the 40th anniversary of the institution, the large house in the Vista Alegre neighborhood underwent a general repair that provided it with better conditions to host the intense artistic and academic activity it promotes for Cuba, the Caribbean countries and other latitudes.
Born on January 13, 1942 and died in June 2006, the historian and anthropologist bequeathed a prolific work, expressed in dozens of books that revealed aspects of the Cuban and Caribbean being, with emphasis on the most authentic manifestations of popular culture.
The most recent editions of the Colloquium were dedicated to popular festivities in Cuba and the region, with dissertations and audiovisuals about the parrandas and the Santiago carnival, declared Cultural Heritage of the nation, the Office of the City Conservator and the Cuban point. (Source: Prensa Latina)
