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I was honored to share my book, #CubanLiteratureInTheAgeOfBlackInsurrection with literary giant, Edwidge Danticat at the University of South Alabama.
#CubanLiteratureInTheAgeOfBlackInsurrection, demonstrates that Black Cuban colonial authors did not entirely assimilate to Spanish Catholicism. Rather, they appropriated Catholicism as a symbolic language for African-inspired spirituality. African religious knowledge subverted official Catholic dogma about redemptive suffering that might free the soul but leave the body enchained.
AVAILABLE HERE:
https://www.amazon.com/Cuban-Literature-Age-Black-Insurrection/dp/1496825012/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
#BLACKHISTORYMONTH we honor Plácido, a free Cuban poet of African descent whose entire literary career lasted just ten years: 1834-1844 . In a one decade, Plácido became the most prolific Cuban poet of the nineteenth century! Plácido was a poet of the people that comprehended what Dr. DaMaris Hills calls "the potential of poetry as a revolutionary and religious artifact." Below, I cite several stanzas from a satirical poem he wrote called "The Curro's Reply" where he mocks the slave mentality of black man enamored with his white enslaver.
I explore Plácido's critique of internalized white supremacist ideas in #CubanLiteratureInTheAgeOfBlackInsurrection.
MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE HERE WITH FREE DELIVERY:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cuban-literatur…/1131293339
Here is the dialogue between the enslaved man and the free black man living on the extreme margins of colonial Cuban society, known as a curro:
Tiene hasta de equitacion
Conocimientos profundos,
Por eso es que va a caballo
Siempre el doctor que da gusto.>>---
A lo que muy socarrón
Contestó el taimado curro,
Con risa burlesca,
Y dejándole confuso.
------ [sic] (original emphasis)
(Even about equestrianism
He possesses profound knowledge
That’s why the doctor goes horseback riding,
Always at his pleasure.>>--
To which mockingly,
The shrewd curro replied,
With sarcastic laughter
That dumfounded the slave.
----)
We set Mobile ablaze Thursday night at the University of South Alabama when I launched my book, #CubanLiteratureInTheAgeOfBlackInsurrection. A special thanks to the University of South Alabama and the Department of Modern and Classical Languages for hosting the event. And thanks to the University Press of Mississippi for the tremendous support they provided to promote the event.
#CubanLiteratureInTheAgeOfBlackInsurrection in a few words:
Juan Francisco Manzano and Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés (Plácido) were perhaps the most important and innovative Cuban writers of African descent during the Spanish colonial era. Manzano and Plácido portrayed African-inspired spirituality in the symbolic language of Catholicism. Their literature subverted official Catholic dogma about redemptive suffering that might free the soul but leave the body enchained. My book aims brings their stories to light in vivid prose.
AVAILABLE HERE:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cuban-literature-in-the-age-of-black-insurrection-matthew-pettway/1131293339?ean=9781496825018
LITERACY at any level means more than just reading; it also means communicating what we read and think about to a specific audience for a specific purpose.
So important always
This was my first chance to see the draft of the inspirational and historically important work-in-progress on Highlander Folk School and the Citizenship Education Project. Wow! Can't wait to see the finished project. Highlander and the CEP are critical and lost pieces in the grass roots history of the Movement. Yea, Literacy Project.
Brings the term, "literacy," to life! Wish we had more literacy campaigns in the U.S.
Trump Cuba Policy: What Will Happen in Coming Months?
“Trump’s policies cannot take effect until the new regulations are established, a process that, according to the White House Fact Sheet, ‘may take several months.’” A lot can happen within this time frame.”
http://bit.ly/2rzeWIb
My book available at Amazon
The Literacy Project lifts up stories of those who have taught literacy to others, implemented literacy programs,or struggled to achieve literacy.
