“Cuban Fusion” Book Launch with Dr. Eva Silot Bravo

“Cuban Fusion: The Transnational Cuban Alternative Music Scene” by Dr. Eva Silot Bravo. Published by Palgrave Macmillan.

Join Dr. Eva Silot Bravo, discussant Dr. Umi Vaughan, and surprise guest musicians for a lively afternoon celebrating Eva’s latest book, “Cuban Fusion: The Transnational Cuban Alternative Music Scene.” Explore Cuba’s musical diaspora, enjoy delicious food from Los Cilantros, and immerse yourself in a cultural experience like no other!

• About Dr. Eva Silot Bravo (more info)

A 14 years experienced educator, Afro-Cuban author, interdisciplinary scholar,  former diplomat and international negotiator in the United Nations, New York, representing Cuba and developing countries. Currently the Ethnic Studies Teacher at Oakland School for the Arts, in Oakland, CA, she is a PhD. in Cultural Studies, Spanish and Literatures from the University of Miami since 2016, an M.A. in International Studies from Florida International University and a B.A. in International Relations from Instituto Superior de Relaciones Internacionales, in Havana, Cuba. She recently published her first non fiction academic book: Cuban Fusion: the Transnational Cuban Alternative Music Scene, on Cuban music and transnationalism with Palgrave MacMillan editorial. She has published 20+ articles, art reviews and interviews on Cuban music, literature, film, and other cultural topics. Her sustained commitment for documenting voices of migrant, Afro-descendent and female creatives led her to create the blog Cubanidadinbetween, and two bilingual podcasts “Miami Alternativo” and “Word Culture.” She produced concerts and collaborated with local cultural institutions in Miami, promoting Cuban alternative music and arts.

• About the book (more info)

Surveying the impact of Cuba’s economic crisis after the demise of the eastern socialist block, this book documents a relatively unexplored transnational network of collaborations among Cuban musicians that migrated to many different countries from the 1990s forward. The book’s main argument is that in light of the 1990s crisis in Cuba, new transnational and alternative narratives emerged, resulting in creative “in-between” spaces that reflect a post- socialist aesthetic condition. The manuscript also documents important developments in the Cuban jazz and fusion scenes outside the island in the last 20+ years.

• About discussant Dr. Umi Vaughan (book “Silencing the drum”)

Umi Vaughan is an independent scholar/artist who conducts research, creates photographs and performances, and publishes work that examines the evolution and meaning of music/dance traditions across the African Diaspora. He holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Michigan and is formerly Professor of Africana Studies at California State University Monterey Bay. Dr. Vaughan is the author of Carlos Aldama’s Life in Batá: Cuba, Diaspora, and the Drum (Indiana University Press) and Rebel Dance, Renegade Stance: Timba Music and Black Identity in Cuba (University of Michigan Press) as well as co-author of Silencing the Drum: Religious Racism and Afro-Brazilian Sacred Music (Amherst College Press).