Our latest Afropop Worldwide seminar in Cuba was a resounding success. The dense week of music and talks was organized by the Cuba Research and Analysis Group (CRAG) and Afropop Worldwide/World Music Productions in association with Casa del Caribe in Santiago de Cuba.

We traveled from Santiago de Cuba to Guantanamo to Baracoa to Holguin and back to Santiago, experiencing usually three or four music groups a day--from classic son, to its forbear, ningon, to changui to conga to Latin jazz big band.

We enjoyed a convivial, high energy group of Afropop Worldwide fans who dove into the program whole-heartedly. And our content expert guides, veteran Afropop Worldwide Producer Ned Sublette and Casa del Caribe anthropologist and author Dr. Jose Millet, supported by returning local escort Jesus Garcia, delivered a steady stream of background talks that provided key historical and musicological context for all the musical cultures we were experiencing.

This is just a brief first report, mainly to share some of the hundreds of digital images that Afropop Worldwide Executive Producer Sean Barlow took during the seminar. Visit afropop.org later this week for Dispatch #2 on our "Oriente Express" seminar in Cuba.

























Contributed by: Sean Barlow