InteRDom Presents Workshop on Culture and Identity on Thursday, June 30 at FUNGLODE and GFDD

As part of its agenda of summer programs, InteRDom will present an interesting workshop on Caribbean culture and identity for students featuring Dominican anthropologist and folklorist, Xiomara Fortuna, one of the leading experts in Afro-Caribbean fusion.

Students will explore issues surrounding indigenous culture and the influence of European and African cultures on the concept and definition of modern Caribbean identity. This conversation will help students to generate a more critical view of social and religious phenomena occurring amongst the habitants of the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba. The workshop’s roundtable discussion format will be very interactive: music, stories and dance are the tools that the
experts will use to develop the content.

Ms. Fortuna is a Dominican artist best known in the realm of World Music, for which she has received major international awards. In 1995 Maurice Cullaz, considered the father of French Jazz, appropriated her with an award for presenting one of the most innovative works of the gender, this work is part of
the movie "SMOOTHIE" by Jean Henri Meunier, which tells the story of jazz in Paris since the arrival of Louis Armstrong.

In 2008 UNESCO awarded her the Gandhi Medal for her work for peace. Recently the National University of Colombia gave her an award for her work on gender. Additionally, in her native Dominican Republic she has received numerous national awards, including the Cassandra, in addition to being declared a national treasure in El Festival
Internacional Arte Vivo (Live Arts Festival).

Her continued contribution to Caribbean art and culture is actively manifested through the Campeche Ecological Ranch in San Cristobal in the southwest Dominican Republic, where she teaches visitors about the wildlife and natural resources of the region.

Link to info on Campeche Ecological Ranch: http://youtu.be/OIND7X3yL3U