The 30th edition of the Havana International Poetry Festival today invites lovers of the genre to enjoy readings of Hispano-American poetry at the National Museum of Decorative Arts in Havana.
The event, which will conclude on 1 June, invites the pleasure of verse in the voices of Marcos Rivadeneira, Julia Erazo (Ecuador), Arturo Cordero, Sophía del Carmen Cortés (El Salvador), Melissa Merlo (Honduras), Oscar Molina, Estefanía Yetsel (Mexico), Nora Curosini, Eldy Toro (Peru), Luisa Oneida Landín, and José León, Rafael Díaz, Marta Acosta, Rubiel Labarta (Cuba).
Meanwhile, at the Fidel Castro Ruz Centre, attendees will be treated to readings by Hanan Awwad (Palestine), Mijaín Gubernic, Silvia Monros (Serbia), Lina Zerón (Mexico), Norberto Salinas (Costa Rica), Yoyi Coda (Chile), Palmiro Soria (Bolivia), Mukoma Wa Ngugi (Kenya), César Toro, Gilmar Arias (Peru), and Alfredo Allegri (Italy).
Another of the attractions of this day will be to take poetry to educational institutions in the municipality of Marianao together with the Verso Amigo Project.
On this occasion, the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts will host a meeting with authors Ángeles Mohedo, Jorge Heraud (Peru), Brane Mozetič, Ana Mateja Rozman (Slovenia), and Julio César Sánchez (Cuba). Meanwhile, the University of Pedagogical Sciences «Enrique José Varona» proposes readings by Octavio Jiménez, Ana Gabriela López (Mexico), Rito Ramón Aroche and Caridad Atencio (Cuba).
There are countless activities every day at a festival of great importance, and this day will be no exception, as the International Writing Laboratory will be held at the Casa del Alba Cultural on the theme of African literature and culture in the United States, to be given by Mukoma Wa Ngugui.
This institution will be joined by the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, which will lend the Nicolás Guillén Hall to receive the Honduran delegation.
Meanwhile, the Hurón Azul space will present Seckou Ouologuem (Belgium, Burkina Faso), Ishion Hutchinson (Jamaica), Damarys Benavides, Nubelia Leyva, Lázaro Castillo, Carmen González, Alberto Marrero (Cuba), and the Daysi Braw and Obbareanlé Group, Querol y su Trova.
For its part, the Abelardo Estorino Theatre of the Ministry of Culture has reserved a meeting with the Argentinean bards Jorge Aulicino (National Poetry Prize), Alberto Cisneros and Lucas Peralta, and invites the online presence of authors Alfredo Rienzi and Mauro Ferrari.
Tomorrow, the Spanish-American poetry readings will continue at the National Museum of Decorative Arts, as well as the presentations of the Verso Amigo Project, which this time will be held at various institutions in the El Vedado neighbourhood.
The festival dedicates its 30th edition to African poetry and to the 90th anniversary of the birth of the recently deceased Cuban ethnologist, researcher and poet Natalia Bolívar.