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Afropop Worldwide's
Cuban Music & Popular Culture Seminar, November 2001
Havana -- Santiago -- Guantánamo -- Matanzas - Havana
Led by Ned Sublette -
November 22-December 2,2001
This trip will be of special interest fo professional musicians, music historians, and musicologists, journalists, art critics, students and practictioners of Afro-Cuban folklore.
Itinerary
November 22 (day 1) Thursday
Morning: Arrive at José Martí Airport in La Habana from Miami and check in at hotel (Note: all participants must be at Miami International Airport at 3:00 AM for check-in)
Evening: Welcoming dinner with Cuban musicians. We'll experience decompression by hanging out family style with an up-and-coming son band. We recommend crashing early because Friday's going to be strenuous.
November 23 (day 2) Friday (La Habana) Morning: Walking tour of La Habana Vieja. A distinguished Cuban architectural historian will give a guided tour of the old city and answer your questions about its history.
Afternoon: Visit to Fundación Yoruba in Centro Habana - a newly opened museum created by an independent association of babalaos (scholar-diviners of the Yoruba religion popularly known as santería) which displays the personalities and attributes of the orishas (deities of the religion).
Evening: A visit to the Wemilere African Roots Festival in Guanabacoa, a barrio of Havana known for its intense Afro-Cuban culture.
November 24 (day 3) Saturday (La Habana)
Morning: Free time
Afternoon: Rumba and orisha performance with Yoruba Andabo. This excellent Havana-based rumba group plays and dances both rumba (the percussive Cuban street music) and music of the Yoruba religion using batá drums. In the latter segment the dancers impersonate the orishas in full costume.
Dinner: at a paladar, or private restaurant.
Evening: Timba research -- wherever the best dance band is playing. Timba is an old word for "rumba" that in the mid-90s came to be applied to the contemporary hard-edged black dance music of Havana. It could be Los Van Van, NG La Banda, Paulito FG, Issac Delgado, Adalberto Álvarez, Charanga Habanera, Bamboleo, Manolito y Su Trabuco - or someone else . . . we'll keep you posted . . .
November 25 (day 4) Sunday (La Habana-Trinidad)
Late Morning: Depart for Trinidad
Afternoon: Arrive Trinidad and check in at hotel
Evening: Cabildo de San Antonio de los Congos Reales. A traditional organization of Congo culture in Cuba.
November 26 (day 5) Monday (Trinidad-Santiago de Cuba)
Morning: Walking tour of Trinidad
Depart Trinidad
Night: Arrive Santiago de Cuba and check in at hotel.
November 27 (day 6) Tuesday (Santiago de Cuba-Guantánamo)
Morning: Depart for Guantánamo and presentation on Haitian and Jamaican culture in Cuba
Afternoon: Presentation of Tumba Francesa, the Afro-Haitian dance and music brought to Cuba after the Haitian Revolution of 1791.
Evening: Changüi. An old-timey cousin of the son of Oriente, the changüí still lives in Guántanamo.
Night: return to Santiago
November 28 (day 7) Wednesday (Santiago de Cuba)
Morning: Presentation
Afternoon: Visit Basílica del Cobre, the mountaintop home of the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, protector of Cuba and known in the Yoruba religion as Ochún. On a clear day you can see Jamaica.
Evening: Performance at Casa de la Trova, the home of traditional vieja trova in Santiago.
November 29 (day 8) Thursday (Travel Day)
Morning: Depart Santiago de Cuba for Matanzas.
Evening: Arrive Matanzas and check in at hotel.
November 30 (day 9) Friday (Matanzas)
Morning: Free time
Afternoon: Presentation on Afro-Cuban culture in Matanzas, one of the great African cities of the New World. Known as "the Athens of Cuba" for its cultural life in the 19th century, it was a commercial rival to Havana. Both a major slave port and the heart of the sugar industry, Matanzas gave birth to the danzón and the guaguancó, as well as being principal seats of santería, palo (Congo religion) and, from the Calabar region of the Africa, the Abacuá secret society for men.
Evening: Folkloric music and dance event.
December 1 (day 10) Saturday (Matanzas/Havana)
Late Morning: Depart for Havana
Afternoon: Free Time
Evening: Farewell Dinner and Night Out. There are always cultural events on Saturday night in Havana.
December 2 (day 11) Sunday (Havana)
Morning: Depart from José Martí Airport for Miami
Afropop Worldwide's Cuban Music & Popular Culture Seminar
Registration Information
The cost of this tour is $3,250 for double-occupancy, including round-trip airfare between Miami and Cuba, accommodations at five-star hotels, English speaking Cuban guide, daily breakfast, most meals, walking tours of Havana's and Santiago's historic architecture and legendary music venues, museum and music venue entrance fees, and Cuba visa. The price for single-occupancy is $3,500 and we ask that you indicate your preference at the time of registration.
A non-refundable deposit fee of 10 % is required at the time of registration. Minimum deposit for single-occupancy is $325; minimum deposit for double-occupancy is $350. Your program deposit must be received by SEPTEMBER 1, 2001. Space is limited and registration is first-come, first-serve, so please send your deposit to the Cuba Research and Analysis Group as soon as possible.
TO REGISTER: Send your deposit (check or money order, please) along with a registration slip to the Cuba Research and Analysis Group.
CRAG will then send you a detailed application form, which we ask you to fill out at your earliest convenience.
Checks should be made out to: Cuba Research and Analysis Group (or) CRAG and sent to:
Cuba Research and Analysis Group
P.O. Box 6510
Albuquerque, NM 87197-6510
For more information or to get your registration form,
call CRAG at: 505 463 0439
Dear Colleague:
I don't have to tell you the importance of Cuban music. Cuba was always a leader in music, and in Cuba the music has never stopped, not for a moment. Today the island is boiling with music and musicians.
If you want to know about Africa, go to Cuba - where the cultures of the Yoruba, the Kongo, the Carabalí and the Arará are maintained and practiced.
World Music Productions and the Cuba Research and Analysis Group have invited me to come along with you on an intensive cultural study session of Cuba that I think will be truly educational and inspiring. We're going to start out in Havana, then go across the island on an air-conditioned bus to the historic colonial city of Trinidad, to Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, and back through the great Afro-Cuban city of Matanzas. We'll experience such typical Cuban genres as son, rumba, changüí and the Afro-Haitian tumba francesa, the sacred batá music and dance of the Yoruba religion, the modern style popularly called timba, and more. We'll meet with Cuban experts and scholars, with an emphasis on comprehending the history behind the places and genres we see.
Given that U.S. law forbids you to go to Cuba as a tourist, is this legal? Yes! This is NOT tourism - no beach trips, no cigar-buying expeditions. This trip is serious cultural study, and you have to qualify for it. (There are a number of ways you could possibly qualify. Contact us.) Knowledge of Spanish is not necessary, though it is helpful.
I hope you'll join us in Cuba in November.
Ned Sublette will be our musical guide to Havana, Matanzas, and Oriente (eastern Cuba).
Author of the forthcoming Before and After the Revolution: a History of Cuban Popular Music, Ned is the co-founder of Qbadisc, the first American record label dedicated to marketing contemporary Cuban music in the U.S, as well as Senior Co-Producer of Public Radio International's Afropop Worldwide and its groundbreaking coverage of the Havana Cuban music scene. Ned will introduce us to musicians in Afro-Cuban folkloric groups as well as leading artists in the world of contemporary Afro-Cuban popular music.
The Cuba Research & Analysis Group (CRAG) is a private non-profit and tax-exempt organization based in Albuquerque, New Mexico whose mission is to improve and enhance relations between the peoples of the United States and Cuba through cultural, academic and informational exchange activities. CRAG is a 501 (c)(3) organization licensed by the United States Department of the Treasury and is made up of scholars, writers and community and cultural activists playing a needed role in bringing people together in lasting, effective ways. CRAG personnel have been taking groups to Cuba for over 20 years, and over the past three years the organization has led seminar tours to Cuba on Cuban law, foreign policy, the arts and popular culture, as well as sponsored exchange programs involving both U.S. and Cuban based musicians and artists.
World Music Productions is a non-profit, multi-media entertainment and education organization devoted to promoting, understanding, and recognizing the contemporary musical cultures of Africa and the African diaspora. Founded by Sean Barlow in 1986, World Music Productions produces Afropop Worldwide, the USA's first and longest-lived weekly program focusing on the musical cultures of Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas. The organization's board members include Randy Weston, Youssou N'Dour, Kind Sunny Ade, Gilberto Gil, and Bonnie Raitt. Since 1997, World Music Productions has organized highly acclaimed tours to Africa and Latin America, including Mali, Senegal, Cape Verde, Madagascar and Cuba. What distinguishes Afropop Tours is the direct experience with local artists.
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