Cuba Experts & Community Come Together at "Forbidden Cuba" LA Film Fest Screening

Heartfelt thanks to SUSANNAH RODRIGUEZ DRISSI (Cuban Poet, Writer, UCLA Professor ) and HUMBERTO CAPIRO (Cuban architect, writer, journalist) who joined Art Jones for a very personal, full-tilt panel following the 9/23 screening of "Forbidden Cuba" at the DTLA Film Festival. Through conversation and cross-cultural perspectives, Drissi and Capiro helped explore key cultural and political issues surrounding "What's at Stake in Cuba Today" as well as major themes revealed in the film. Many in the deeply engaged audience asked for additional information on Susannah and Humberto - here it is.

SUSANNAH RODRIGUEZ DRISSI is a Cuban poet, writer, translator, and scholar. She has a PhD in Comparative Literature from UCLA where she specializes in Cuban & Latino Studies and teaches in Writing Programs and in the Department of Comparative Literature. She is associate and literary editor at Cuba Counterpoints, a new journal dedicated to dynamic analysis and commentary on Cuban affairs. She is currently at work on her book manuscript, Moorish Cuba. Her work has been published in Saw Palm, in an issue dedicated to Cuban and Cuban-American writers, Literal Magazine, Acentos Review, Diario de Cuba (Madrid), SX Salon, Raising Mothers, and Cuba Counterpoints, among other journals. In the past, she has conducted archival research on the topic of Cuba at the José Martí National Library in Havana and The Cuban Heritage Collection, at the University of Miami. She has also published chapters, articles, reviews, and encyclopedia articles on the topic of Cuba. She has been an active member of the UC-Cuba Program Initiative since 2009 and she co-organized the first UC-Cuba Graduate Student Workshop, serving in the capacity of mentor and discussant thereafter. Her first novel, Until We’re Fish, is under review at a literary press. Currently, she writes Letters from Camus, her second novel. Her jukebox musical about Cuba in the 1970s is currently in the development process. You may check out her latest story, “Viva Cuba Pigeon,” at cubacounterpoints.com. “Viva Cuba Pigeon” is a story about the pigeon who landed on Castro’s shoulder on January 8, 1959—from the pigeon’s perspective. Visit her at susannahrodríguezdrissi.com or find her on Twitter at @rsdrissi. 

HUMBERTO PABLO CAPIRO was born in the small town of Cabaiguan, Cuba in 1960. He, along with his younger brother and widowed mother immigrated to the United States under the Freedom Flights in 1969 through Mexico City and settled in Inglewood, California along with his extended family. He is a graduate of Lennox High School and has a Bachelor’s of Architecture from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo with a year residency in the Italian city of Florence. Currently he resides in Venice, California where he has residential design practice of over 25 years. Humberto has been involved in the LA arts scene for the past 20 years, co-producing Cuban Architecture lectures with The Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, small opera, zarzuela and Latin classical music programs with Pacific Lyric Association, The Cultural Affairs Department of Santa Monica and The Santa Monica Library system. He was a member of the board of directors of Hispanics for LA Opera for over 5 years but now reserves some of his spare time as a writer for Living Out Loud Los Angeles magazine covering arts and culture. http://www.lol-la.com/author/hcapiro/ He is an avid supporter of Human Rights, especially in Cuba and in China and has been active in social media championing for these causes, including the release of Danilo Maldonado “El Sexto” whom he has followed since 2011.