JUANAMARIA CORDONES-COOK IS A DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER, PROFESSOR, AND WRITER.

 

Cordones-Cook works on projects related to postcolonial theories and issues of identity, race, and gender as they relate to the Afro-Latin American Diaspora. Professor Cordones-Cook also explores the way in which writers incorporate the cultural and political processes of their regions into their works. She has collaborated on numerous projects with authors and artists such as Luisa Valenzuela, Nancy Morejón, Manuel Mendive, Rogelio Martínez Furé, Eugenio Hernández Espinosa, Georgina Herrera, Alberto Lescay, Eduardo Rivero Walker, Maité Vera, Víctor Fowler, Inés María Martiatu, Soleida Ríos, Rolando Estévez Jordán, Roberto Diago, Eduardo “Choco” Roca Salazar, Gloria Rolando, Pedro Pérez Sarduy, Rosa María Crespo de Britton, Cristina Escofet, Adriana Genta, and Ruth Behar, among others.

 

Her books include Poética de transgresión en la novelística de Luisa Valenzuela (Peter Lang, New York, 1991); ¿Teatro negro uruguayo? Texto y contexto del teatro afro-uruguayo de Andrés Castillo (Grafitti, Montevideo, 1996); Looking within: Selected Poems / Mirar adentro: Poemas escogidos, 1954 / 2000 (Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 2003), a bilingual critical anthology of Nancy Morejón's poetry (press bestseller); Soltando amarras y memorias (Cuarto Propio, Santiago de Chile, 2010), a revised edition is republished in Cuba (2014); La Habana expuesta / Havana on display, designed by Rolando Estévez (Ediciones Vigía, Matanzas, 2012), a bilingual anthology of poetry on Havana by Nancy Morejón.

 

She has also co-edited three critical anthologies of theater , Mujeres en las tablas: Antología crítica de teatro biográfico hispanoamericano (Nueva Generación, Buenos Aires, 2005), First Place for the “Theater of the World Award” from the Universidad de Buenos Aires; Más allá del héroe: Antología crítica de teatro biográfico hispanoamericano (Universidad de Antioquia Press, Medellín, 2008), and more recently on Afro-Latin American theater, Del palenque a las tablas (Universidad Nacional de Colombia Press, Bogotá, August 2012, reprinted twice in one year). Another edition of this book will be published in Cuba. In December 2013, a revised edition of Soltando amarras y memorias appeared in Havana (Colección SurEditores). She has recently published a bilingual anthology of poetry, by Nancy Morejón and Ruth Behar, NM-RB: Dos mujeres, una isla. / Two Women, One Island, with designs by Rolando Estévez Jordán (El Fortin, Matanzas, Cuba, 2014).

 

Building upon her research, Professor Cordones-Cook has become an award winning filmmaker. She has filmed over 100 hours of events in Cuba, the USA, and Canada on topics related to the Afro-Romance Diaspora culture and literature, such as conferences, interviews, ritual dances, and theatrical performances. She has also filmed a series of living histories of Afro-Hispanic intellectuals –over 30 already- and is as well directing and producing documentaries in Cuba and the United States. She has completed La silla dorada: antología audiovisual (Havana 2010); Cimarroneando con G.H. (Havana 2011); a series of documentaries on Ediciones Vigía, Un libro único de Estévez / A One-of-a-Kind Book by Estévez; Poéticas visuales / Visual Poetics; La Habana expuesta, un diseño de Estévez / Havana on Display, a Design by Estévez; Entre la palabra y la imagen / Between the Word and the Image (Matanzas and Havana, 2012). Other documentaries include Nancy Morejón: Paisajes célebres / Famous Landscapes (Havana, Toronto, Columbia, Missouri, 2012), Diago: Un artista apalencado / A Maroon Artist (Havana 2013). Professor Cordones-Cook has as well produced and directed in collaboration with Julie Middleton, Michael Hicks, and Barbara Williamson, Battle, Change from Within / Cambio desde adentro (Columbia, Missouri, 2012). She has completed a 7 hour and 30 minutes archival documentary on 27 years  of Ediciones Vigía book production, Ediciones Vigía: Abriendo Archivos / Opening Archives (1985-2011) (Matanzas: 2013), Rogelio Martínez Furé, un Griot cubano / A Cuban Griot (2014), Choco (2014), and El mundo mágico de Mendive/ The Magical World of Mendive. She is as well making progress on other documentaries on Afro-Cuban writers and artists, such as  Alberto Lescay Merencio, Santiago Rodríguez Olazabal, and Soleida Ríos, among others.