ABSTRACT
Performances of the community project Okan-Tomi in the Havana area were a cultural and professional exchange highlight for the delegations of the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME). The performers with provocative, sweeping arm and leg dance moves followed the rhythmic beat of others on stage dressed in white and playing drums and other percussion instruments while accompanied by singers with fabulously rich, melodic voices. Many of the NAME delegations were similarly entertained in Cienfuegos, where another dance group performed for us. But these were elementary school-age children, and the stage area was mostly open to the outdoors. The group was the Community Project Abracadabra. The children were dressed in costumes as they sang and danced, performing skits that they had rehearsed extensively. There also was the Agricultural Cooperative in Havana. NAME delegates saw firsthand with each how Cuba—as a developing nation hugely affected by climate change—is doing more than anyone ever imagined, than we were ever told in the United States by politicians or the media, to create a more green and sustainable environment. Cuba's history and how it was intertwined with our own rode with us throughout each NAME delegation's travels and with each cultural and professional exchange in the intensive itinerary that Bette developed.
