Events

El Monte: Notes on the Religions, Magic, and Folklore of the Black and Creole People of Cuba (Duke University Press, 2023), is the first English translation of Lydia Cabrera’s master work of Afro-Cuban cosmogony, music, ethnography, and pharmacopeia.

Join us for a conversation with the book’s translator David Font-Navarrete (Lehman College).

David Font-Navarrete

David Font-Navarrete is a musician, artist, and ethnomusicologist. He is Assistant Professor in the Department of Music, Multimedia, Theatre, and Dance at Lehman College, and he is a member of the doctoral faculty in Music at the CUNY Graduate Center.

He has conducted primary research in Cuba, Senegal, the Gambia, and the United States. Recurring themes in his research include: the confluence of Afro-Atlantic cultural traditions, avant-garde art, and ethnography; cultural archives; and multimedia technologies.

His research has recieved generous support from awards and grants, including: PSC-CUNY and the CUNY Research Foundation; a US Latino Digital Humanities Grant-in-Aid (with Martin Tsang) from Arte Público Press and University of Houston; a Gerald E. and Corinne L. Parson Fund for Ethnography Award from the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress; a Library Travel Grant from Díaz-Ayala Cuban and Latin American Popular Music Collection, the Cuban Research Institute, the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center, and the Florida International University Libraries; and a Wayne Shirley Felowship from the Society for American Music.

His recent research projects include an annotated edition of Música de los cultos africanos en Cuba: The Cabrera-Tarafa Collection, ca. 1956; and a monograph, tentatively titled Art at the Edge of Tradition: Notes on Orisha, Music, and the Age of Multimedia.