ICCL in Panama

I will work on this blog page over the next week and will devote a page to each of four parts listed here, and each of the links will take you to the corresponding pages where you will find links to both photographs and video:

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

And Old Panama on Saturday

• Links to Three Previous Conferences
  
  

  

  The Ninth ICCL, St Lucia

  
  

  The Eleventh ICCL, Trinidad  

  
  

  Conference in Havana

  
  
  Wednesday, the Conference Opens
  
  
  

  Photographs from the First Day.  You can download large files
  

  

  from Flickr.

  
  
  

  The conference got underway bright and early on Wednesday morning.  And after an excellent breakfast at the hotel, we all got on the bus to the University of Panama.

  
  

  

  Over the course of the morning, I attended a session and walked over the beautiful campus with my friend Swift, taking a number of photographs along the way--including one of the great Cervantes, pictured earlier with a bird perched atop his head.

  
  

  
  At the luncheon and after we enjoyed our meal, Ian Isidore Smart of Howard University spoke with the group about "Three Decades of Pan-Caribbean Literary Theory," a topic in which he has made considerable contributions.

  
  

  

  Check out his blog, Ian Smart Speaks Out, for Dr. Smart expresses his views clearly.

  
  

  I recorded two sections of his speech for your edification:

  
  

  Part One:
  
  
  

  
  

  Part Two:

  
  

  
  

Later that afternoon, I had the opportunity to talk with the audience about Juan of the Dead, a Cuban Zombie film critical of the Cuban government in which the central character is an Afro Cuban. Despite some technological glitches, all went well, and I enjoyed talking to people over the next couple days about this and other zombie

films. 

The day concluded with the Opening Ceremony and Reception that included entertainment by Traditional Panamanian

Dancers from the University of Panama.  

Dr. Damaris E. Serrano Guerra, who teaches at Wright State University, gave the Keynote Address.

The following video includes the dancers and a section of Dr. Guerra's talk.