The Cuban release of Pelican Heart – An Anthology of Poems by Lasana M. Sekou edited by Emilio Jorge Rodríguez took place at the 30th annual Festival del Caribe (7/5/10) in Santiago de Cuba.
"Among the people in the audience at the launching of the anthology was Abel Prieto, Cuban Minister of Culture," said Rodríguez (L). According to Rodríguez, the launch took place "at the most important space of the Festival, the International Colloquium ‘El Caribe que nos une’ (The Caribbean that joins us." The Cuban scholar is promoting the bilingual book as a way of introducing the St. Martin writer to Spanish language audiences. The outstanding Cuban poetess Teresa Melo (R) introduced the Spanish-English book at the popular festival organized by Casa del Caribe and which was this year dedicated to Curacao and Pernambuco, Brazil. Melo concluded the book party by reciting the Spanish translation of the poem "On Caribbean Aesthetics," which is originally from Sekou’s collection Born Here (1986) and is one of the poems in the anthology published at the end of May 2010. The 428-page Pelican Heart / Corazón de Pelícano with its critical introduction, notes, and poems selected by Rodríguez from each of Sekou’s previous poetry volumes, is available at Van Dorp and Arnia’s bookstores. The title is now available in Cuba, at Amazon.com and other online bookstores. In photo: Rodriguez holds copy of Pelican Heart as he discusses Sekou’s poetry at the launch panel while Melo looks on. Casa’s academic coordinator Kenia Dorta was instrumental in facilitating the book launch, stated House of Nehesi, the book’s publisher.