Orismay and Lleonard: a surprising dialogue between teacher-student and poet to poet.
Memories flow easily in the space of Promoción Literaria San Juan Murmurante, at its usual headquarters in ARTEX Plaza, on Narvaez Street, when poet Orismay Hernandez begins the dialogue, this time with his guest, writer and journalist Brian Pablo Gonzalez Lleonard.
And the surprises for the audience increased when they learned that the decimist, recently elected by the people as a deputy of the Cuban Parliament, was a primary school teacher of the writer and how from the beginning he observed in Lleonard a devotion to reading, which some attribute to his librarian mother, and others to his father, support throughout his existence.
However, his strongest line is poetry. His first poem was entitled «El perro invisible» (The Invisible Dog) and won the José Jacinto Milanés Prize-Debate. From then on, his style was consolidated, threaded with contemporary trends of intertextuality and poetic prose, with journalistic tones, the writer declares, until reaching a suggestive atmosphere of strong lyricism.
Of his work, the poem «1995», the year he was born, which motivated his inspiration, has also achieved great recognition and was published by Vigía Editions.
Brian Pablo is also vice-president of the Hermanos Saíz Association in Matanzas and has contributed to the growth of the Los Grafómanos workshop and the Aldabón publishing house, which has published his collection of poems «Habitantes de Marte» (Inhabitants of Mars).
He has been winner of the contests La cola de la serpiente 2015 and 2019; José Jacinto Milanés Poetry Prize-Debate, convened by Ediciones Matanzas and the Center for Literary Promotion, in the contests of the AHS Matanzas Eliecer Lazo and Mangle Rojo de Isla de la Juventud, both in 2020.
Students from the Professional Music School of Matanzas also offered their art.
The event was attended by Magaly Cárdenas, director of the Gener y del Monte library, an institution that is celebrating the 190th anniversary of its foundation, as well as Frank Santana, director of the Milanés Literary Promotion Center and Cary Padilla, president of Artex, who presented awards to the guest and representatives of Gener, regulars at this literary event, which is held on the last Wednesday of each month.
Written by María Elena Bayón
