Join us on May 14th for a conversation with Martin Tsang, PhD whose work spans scholarship, archives, cultural heritage, and material practice. Exploring the long history of beads in Afro-Atlantic religious traditions, this talk examines Cuban Lucumí beadwork as a vital form of ritual practice, memory, and the transmission of knowledge centered on the orishas. Drawing on fieldwork and personal experience as a priest, anthropologist, and bead artist, Tsang considers how meaning is embedded in color, pattern, and process, and how these traditions evolve through interdiasporic cross-fertilization, with resonances in the work of Wifredo Lam and the writings of Lydia Cabrera.

Support for this initiative is provided by the Art Bridges Access for All program and FIU CasaCuba.