Paintings by Bayate accompany a tribute to Joel James in Cuba

Santiago de Cuba, Jan 13 (Prensa Latina) Paintings by the Bayate group accompany the sessions of the XVI Joel James In Memoriam Colloquium, which ends here today after four days of conferences and other approaches to the intellectual born 81 years ago.

On the walls of the Casa del Caribe, founded by James in 1982, you can see those pieces of naive or primitive art that intertwine so well with the naturalist vocation and attachment to the roots of those who also launched the International Festivals of the culture of the region in 1981.

The paintings of this art venture, located in the Julio Antonio Mella municipality of Santiago, belong to the Camino Verde exhibition, and are the result of the inspiration of artists from various Cuban provinces who joined this initiative, which will remain until February 10.

A good start to the year becomes this presence of Bayate, whose members are preparing to participate once again, in the middle of next summer, in the International Popular Art Fair that will take place in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the United States.

The closing of this edition of the event includes a tribute to James in the patrimonial cemetery of Santa Ifigenia, the delivery of the Memoria Viva awards and obeisances to Natividad Alfaro, National Edition Award, and the narrator Manuel Gómez Morales, tireless promoter and cultural creator.

Consecrated to the Cuban point, recently declared Oral and Intangible Heritage, the program also had lectures referring to coffee culture from the peasant perspective, sociological analysis of the work of the historian and anthropologist and his imprint in the defense of traditional popular culture.

A special moment was the presentation of the Haydée Santamaría compilation, life must be defended, a co-edition of Casa de las Américas with Ocean Sur, by Fernando Luis Rojas, director of the Editorial Fund of that institution that she directed.