St. Maarten National Heritage Foundation & Museum will be hosting its second of two heritage lectures this evening, presented by anthropologist and ethnographer Cesar Escalona from the Central University of Venezuela.
Last week Saturday, the first lecture took attendees on a historical journey through the Arawak and Carib cultures of the past and present.
This evening’s lecture will be a digital photographic exhibition and oral presentation, focused on Afro-descendant cultures in the Caribbean.
The lecture will focus on historical contextualisation regarding the cultural diversity of African American populations in the Americas.
Using the Venezuelan case as the centre of the exhibition, you will be studying and reflecting on the complexity of Afro heritage cultures in the Americas and the Caribbean, and gaining an appreciation of the importance of this historical knowledge.
The programme will include the following:
* History and cultural resistance – a reflection on Afro-descendant cultures and the historical challenges of societies.
* Geo-history and chronological positioning of African American cultures.
* Colonialism: Socio political systems of the plantation and processes of liberation and cultural resistance of Afro-descendant societies.
* Diverse and specific – the myth of miscegenation “mestizaje” and African-American cultures in the 20th century.
* Today's cultural diversity and processes of ethnic identity today: Spirituality, economical, political participation and cultural style of life.
Through these lectures, the museum is seeking to generate reflections and understanding about the importance of the indigenous heritage in the past and present of Antillean Caribbean societies.
The lecture takes place this evening, August 31, from 6:00 to 9:00, at the museum, located at Front Street #7 (in the Speetjens Alley).
