The Taller Portobelo Film Team
El equipo de filmación del Taller Portobelo
(In alphabetical order)
Arturo Lindsay
Producer/Director/Writer
Photo Credit: Michael Reese
Dr. Lindsay is a Panamanian born, Brooklyn raised, and Atlanta based artist/scholar/educator whose work is informed by the research he conducts on African retentions, rediscoveries, and re-inventions in America. Lindsay has exhibited his work in over 30 solo and 80 group exhibitions and has produced more than 40 multi-disciplinary art projects, installations, and performance art rituals in national and international museums, galleries, and outdoor venues. He has authored 20 scholarly articles and essays on the art and aesthetics of the African Diaspora and is the editor of Santeria Aesthetics in Contemporary Latin American Art, a pioneering text that explores the legacy of the Yoruba aesthetic from antiquity to contemporary art theory and practice. Lindsay has spent over 25 years studying Congo art and aesthetics at Taller Portobelo, an artist cooperative in Portobelo, Panama that he co-founded in 1994 along with celebrated Panamanian photographer Sandra Eleta and Congo artist Yaneca Esquina. In an effort to share the story of the Taller; continue its movement of cultural self-determination; and recognize its increasing prominence as a source of indigenous creative genius, Lindsay is turning his treasure trove of research interviews, archival footage, and images into a documentary film, Artists’ Journey on the Congo Coast of Panama. Lindsay is professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of Art and Art History at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.
Daniele “Dan” Bascelli
“B” Camera Photographer/Editor
Bascelli is coordinator of Instructional Technology at Spelman College where he has trained faculty in digital media and teaches New Media courses on digital photography, video, and web design practice and theory. He has been exploring the use of new media to enhance written communications and the visual arts since the beginning of the digital media revolution. He began an enduring and productive collaboration with former Spelman colleague Arturo Lindsay in 2001, creating the online International Virtual Museum for artists to respond to the 9/11/2001 attack on America. He has also collaborated with poet Opal Moore, musician Joe Jennings, dancer T. Lang, cinematographer Ayoka Chenzira, The Gathering for Garner, and other artists and organizations on projects such The Voyage of the Delfina, Artists Contemplating Torture, and Bearing Witness. Over the years Bascelli has been involved with several other performances, websites, and environmental and video art projects with artists who share his interest in the exciting vistas opened by new media.
Cheryl Adams Odeleye
Producer
Originally from New York, Cheryl Odeleye worked primarily in the field of education when she lived in Washington, DC. There she helped to establish two independent Africa-centered elementary schools, taught freshman writing classes at two area colleges, and was an administrator at Duke Ellington School for the Arts, one of the country’s earliest arts high schools. Before leaving Washington, Odeleye was executive director of DC Arts, an employment and job-training program for artists. In 1984 she moved to Atlanta where she worked at in the Cultural Affairs Program at The King Center, City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs, Georgia Alliance for Children (where she produced the annual Great Atlanta Youth Walk), Hammonds House Museum, and Fulton County’s Southwest Arts Center. Odeleye served on the board of Atlanta-based radio station WRFG 89.3 FM from 2001 to 2020, eleven years as president. She joined the board of The ArtsXchange in 2005 and served as its president from 2008 to 2015. Odeleye has an extensive background in writing and is a freelance copyeditor. In 2003, she was nominated for an NAACP “Best Playwright” Theatre Award for a play she co-wrote with Yolanda King (oldest child of Coretta Scott and Martin Luther King, Jr.), for whom she regularly wrote speeches.
Sandra Eleta
Researcher/Project Consultant
Eleta is an internationally renowned photographer and co-founder of Taller Portobelo. In her description of her Portobelo photographic series, Eleta writes, "It could be said that with this series, my life and photography became one. When I arrived in Portobelo in the early seventies, I began photographing those who engaged me in some profound way, who seemed to resonate that which I felt deepest within me. Naturally wanting more, I drew nearer and dug deeper, hoping to fathom the very depths of their souls. I of course understood that I could not accomplish this alone, but eventually, winning their trust, they revealed themselves to me willingly, allowing their auras to repose in my lens. Then, much like an invitation to dance, we found ourselves locked in a mutual rhythm, completely unencumbered, completely in-tune. It was in this way the protagonists of this story revealed themselves to me: Josefa, a healer of the ‘evil eye,’ locally known as a ‘curandera’; Palanca, who only seemed to find solace in the arms of his grandmother, Ventura; Putulungo, the octopus fisherman, who much like his prey could instantly change his interior from light to dark; Dulce, a little girl light in years but possessing all the wisdom and tenacity of her cimarrón ancestors; and Catalina, Queen of the Congos. It could also be said that with this series my photographic identity was born, and that as I came face to face with these images for the first time, I felt I was looking at myself, but from a renewed point of view.”
Toshi Sakai
Cinematographer
Sakai was born in Tokyo, Japan and raised in New York City. He writes, “I discovered the magic of Panama when I lived in Portobelo over 40 years ago. It was a time before asphalt roads and electricity. People still lived by fishing and swung the machete to tend their fruits and vegetables. It was a life that had not changed much for centuries. History and tradition surrounded me, and the friendliness of people made me feel very welcome. I am grateful for the many wonderful experiences and the richness they have added to my life.” Regarding his documentary film, Cimarronaje en Panamá, Sakai says, “During the colonial period, tens of thousands of Africans were brought to Panama to be the labor force of the Spanish empire. Resistance to slavery occurred daily. Perhaps its fullest expression was marronage, in which African fugitives united to create societies independent of European rule. Their story is foundational to the history of Panamá. The film is dedicated to the people of Portobelo and to Congos throughout the isthmus. The significance of their history and culture is far deeper than we have imagined.”
Renée Alexander Craft
Researcher/Writer
Dr. Craft is an associate professor in the Department of Communication and Curriculum Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. For the past seventeen years, her research and creative projects have centered on the Afro-Latin community in the small coastal town of Portobelo, Panama who call themselves and their carnival performance tradition “Congo.” She has completed both a manuscript and digital humanities project which reflect this focus. The first is an ethnographic monograph titled When the Devil Knocks: The Congo Tradition and the Politics of Blackness in 20th Century Panama. The second project, titled Digital Portobelo: Art + Scholarship + Cultural Preservation (digitalportobelo.org), is an interactive online collection of ethnographic interviews, photos, videos, artwork, and archival material that illuminate the rich culture and history of Portobelo. Digital Portobelo was initiated through an inaugural 2013-2014 UNC Digital Innovations Lab/Institute for the Arts and Humanities Fellowship and was subsequently supported by an inaugural 2016 Whiting Public Engagement Fellowship.
Gustavo Esquina de la Espada
Researcher/Project Consultant
Esquina de la Espada, a native of Portobelo, is a multi-disciplinary artist and was one of the first members of Taller Portobelo, where he began as his father Yaneca’s assistant. He is a traditional Congo drummer, poet, songwriter, and singer with the Panamanian band Comparsa Barrio Fino. As an artist he has exhibited in Panama, the United States, Mexico, and Europe, and has contributed to mural designs and painted murals in Mexico and Panama. In 2013, he was one of five winners of the RADAR contest sponsored by the Panama Contemporary Art Museum. As a researcher for Artists’ Journey on the Congo Coast of Panama, Esquina de la Espada provides an insider’s perspective on the art and intention of Taller Portobelo as well as up-to-date information about Congo culture and its practice.
Oronike Odeleye
Production Coordinator
Oronike Odeleye is the Artistic Director of the National Black Arts Festival. Previously she was a freelance arts and entertainment consultant who worked with a range of clients including the Annie B. Casey Foundation, American Express, Atlanta Hawks, and City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office. She is the co-founder and managing director of Creative Currents Artist Collaborative, an outgrowth of the Spelman College Summer Art Colony and Taller Portobelo. Creative Currents coordinates culture related trips to Panama, Senegal, and Cuba. In 2019, Oronike was honored as one of OkayAfrica's 100 Women, which celebrated women from Africa and the Diaspora who are disrupting the status quo. In April 2019 she was honored with the Activist Impact Award at the Breakthrough Inspiration Awards in New York City, and in May of the same year she received the Visionary Champions award at Resilience's Evening of Impact in Chicago, IL. In The Root’s 2019 list of the 100 Most Influential African Americans between 25 and 45 years old, Odeleye was ranked number 5. The list honors the innovators, leaders, public figures, and game changers whose work from the previous year is breaking down barriers and paving the way for the next generation. In 2020, The ArtsXchange in Atlanta presented her with the Ebon Dooley Art & Social Justice Change Maker award. Odeleye graduated from Syracuse University in 2001 with a B.A. in Film Studies.
Tracy Murrell
Project Consultant
Tracy Murrell is a visual artist, art consultant, and curator. A graduate of Centenary College, Murrell served as resident curator for Hammonds House Museum; the Soul of Philanthropy exhibitions in Atlanta and Charlotte; the traveling exhibition for the Gone Home: Race and Roots through Appalachia project; and is the guest curator for Auburn Avenue Research Library’s gallery. Atlanta Magazine voted Murrell “Rising Curator” in its 2017 Best of ATL issue. Murrell has exhibited in numerous group, solo, and juried exhibitions, and her work has been featured in art publications including Create! Magazine, ArtVoices, Studio Visit Magazine, and New American Paintings Issue. Her painting Walk Alone | We Will Follow was selected for the cover of Witnessing Girlhood: Toward An Intersectional Tradition of Life Writing by Fordham University Press. She is currently working on her first solo exhibition, Dans l'espoir d'un Avenir Meilleur (In Hope for a Better Future) ... Exploring Haitian Migration opening in late 2021.
Sheila Walker
Researcher/Writer
Dr. Walker is a cultural anthropologist and documentary filmmaker. She is executive director of the non-profit Afrodiaspora, Inc. She has done fieldwork, lectured, and participated in cultural events in most of Africa and the Global African Diaspora, and has published numerous scholarly and popular publications. Her book African Roots/American Cultures: Africa in the Creation of the Americas and its companion documentary Scattered Africa: Faces and Voices of the African Diaspora are based on her international conference on The African Diaspora and the Modern World. Her book Conocimiento desde adentro: Los afro-sudamericanos hablan de sus pueblos y sus historias (Knowledge from the Inside: Afro-South Americans Speak of their People and their Histories), published in Spanish and Portuguese, features chapters by Afrodescendants from all the Spanish-speaking countries in South America. Her most recent documentary is Familiar Faces/ Unexpected Places: A Global African Diaspora. Walker was professor of Anthropology and director of the Center for African and African American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and professor of Anthropology and director of the African Diaspora and the World program at Spelman College.
Monique Gabriela Curnen
Project Consultant
Photo Credit: Mike Pont
Curnen is an actor and producer who has been in a string of critical and commercial successes including Half Nelson, The Dark Knight, Contagion, and Maria Full of Grace. In television, Curnen was a series regular on the dark comedic drama The Unusuals and the drama Lie to Me. She was a series regular on the NBC drama Taken as well as a series regular on the highly acclaimed season six of the hit Starz show Power, and had recurring roles on the series Sons of Anarchy, The Following, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Elementary. Curnen worked off Broadway in The Barrow Group’s Pentecost and made her Goodman Theatre debut in the world premiere of José Rivera’s new play Another Word for Beauty.
While working with Warrington Hudlin at the Black Filmmaker Foundation, Curnen produced two interactive short films, Weapons of Misdirection and Where My Ladies At? She also independently produced the films Absent, about the ripple effects of gun violence in a young teen’s life, and Noël, a look at the intimacy and connection that can arise between strangers caught in an emergency room. Curnen is a Film Independent Fast Track and Producing Lab Fellow for the feature I’m Not Down, and a Tribeca All Access Alum for the film White. She is invested in creating stories that address social issues through characters who illustrate the richness and complexity of our times.
Julio González-Ruiz (1972-2022)
Project Consultant
Dr. González-Ruiz was an associate professor of Hispanic Studies at Spelman College where he has also served as chair of the Department of World Languages and Cultures. Prior to his position at Spelman, González-Ruiz taught at Mount Holyoke College, University of Chicago, and University of Tel Aviv in Israel. Between 2006 and 2010, he was appointed to teach at the University of California in Santa Barbara for the Master’s Program organized by Summer Sessions. González-Ruiz has published and taught courses on the subject of the social construction of gender, race, and sexual identity in Hispanic cultural production, especially in literature and cinema. He is the author of the book El discurso homoerótico en el teatro de Lope de Vega (2009), where he explored the relations between race, gender, and sexuality as they intersect with the projects of nation-building and imperial expansion in Early Modern Spain. González-Ruiz’s most current research agenda focuses on Dominican cinematographic production and Dominican-Haitian relations.
Cornelia Nicole Stokes
Researcher/Production Assistant
Stokes received a B.A. in Art with a concentration in curatorial studies magna cum laude from Spelman College in December 2018. She is currently pursuing a Masters in Pan African Studies at Syracuse University where her thesis addresses reconfiguration, a contemporary method of visual representation of Black identity. Stokes’s research interests include the representation of the Black body in art history; the struggle for genuine representation of non-western cultures in western institutions such as museums; and how a Pan-African framework seeks to advocate for people of African descent in order for western presentations to reflect the realities and restore the identity of Black lives.
Anastasia Valecce, PhD
Project Consultant
Dr. Valecce is an associate professor of Hispanic Studies in the Department of World Languages and Cultures at Spelman College. She has an M.A. in literary translation with a specialization in the translation of film subtitles. Her research and academic activity center on the contemporary Spanish Caribbean and specifically on the cinema, performance, and visual art productions of this region. Her recent book, Neorrealismo y cine en Cuba: historia y discurso en torno a la primera polémica de la Revolución (1951-1962) [Neorealism and Cinema in Cuba: History and Discourse on the First Polemic of the Revolution (1951-1962)] (Purdue U Press, 2020), retraces the dynamics behind the formation of the revolutionary ideology in Cuban film production and its contacts with the Italian neorealist film aesthetic. She has several published articles on contemporary artistic, cultural, visual, digital, and film productions in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. She is also currently working as art manager and art curator of the work of Afro-Cuban artist Wilay Méndez Páez. She recently organized and curated exhibits of this artist in Atlanta at Ger-Art Gallery and the Atlanta University Center Woodruff Library. Valecce is co-curating a third upcoming exhibit of this artist at the Clark Atlanta University Museum.