Monday, August 15, 2022

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Dance, Nana, Dance

To start the new week, I wanted to share this marvelous BILINGUAL book of folktales from Cuba which contains quite a few Afro-Cuban stories. The book is Baila, Nana, Baila / Dance, Nana, Dance by Joe Hayes:


Be sure to check out the detailed author's notes in the back of the book to learn more about the African storytelling traditions that you can see in these stories, starting with the first story, Yams Don't Talk. Here's the note to the story: (click on the image for a larger view)


The illustrations are by Mauricio Trenard Sayago, a Cuban artist now based in Brooklyn, and you can see how the book is laid out, with the English and Spanish texts on the same page (click on the image for a larger view):


Most materials about African Diaspora stories in Cuba are books in Spanish, so we are very lucky to have this book in both Spanish and English that opens the door to this storytelling world. Highly recommended, and just a click away at the Internet Archive thanks to the power of Controlled Digital Lending!

by Joe Hayes



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