Federico García Lorca, Flamenco, and the Harlem Renaissance

Before the evening concert with Kiki Morente and Carlos de Jacoba, join Sybil Cooksey, José Javier León, Noël Valis, and moderator K. Meira Goldberg for a free panel discussion about Lorca’s legacy, almost 90 years after his assassination during the Spanish Civil War. A queer poet who drew inspiration from (and continues to inspire) flamenco, rooted in Gitano (Kalé, Spanish Roma, or so-called “Gypsy”) culture, Lorca was also deeply impacted by the Black artists he encountered during his stay in New York at the height of the Harlem Renaissance. Still influential today is Lorca’s concept of duende, a dark and mysterious aesthetic power, which expresses a kind of tragic ecstasy for singer, dancer, and audience.

Featuring: Sybil Cooksey, assistant professor at New York University and author of the forthcoming book The Objective I: Black Life Writing and Inauthenticity in Post-Negrophilia Paris; K. Meira Goldberg, scholar-in-residence at the Foundation for Iberian Music, a flamenco performer and choreographer, and author of the award-winning monograph Sonidos Negros: On the Blackness of Flamenco; José Javier León, a professor at Centro de Lenguas Modernas de la Universidad de Granada and author of numerous books related to Lorca, including Finding Duende: Imagination, Inspiration, Evasion; and Noël Valis, professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Yale University and author of the award-winning book Lorca After Life.

Followed by a Q&A.

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