CUBA CULTURE SECTION - Havana Journal > Music & Literature
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BY RAFAEL LAM | Granma.cu
SANTIAGO DE CUBA is the birthplace of Cuba’s trova music movement, a tradition that goes back to medieval singers who would wander from party to party, town to town, singing in plazas, parks, caves and homes. For this reason, every March, the Pepe Sánchez International Trova Festival is organized in Santiago, taking into account that the 19th is the birthday of the man for whom the event is named, which later became Trova Day. This year, the 125th anniversary of the first recorded bolero is being commemorated: “Tristeza,” by Pepe Sánchez.
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The publishers of Cuba Absolutely just sent me a complementary copy of the the 2008/2009 issue for review.
I am happy to say that this magazine is a pleasure to review. It is PACKED with all things Cuban and is a hefty 9” x 12” glossy magazine with a whopping 240+ full color pages filled with culture, arts and a true insight into the cultural life in Cuba.
The quality of the writing and photos is a playground for the mind. Too flowery? Not if you see the magazine.…
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BY FABIOLA SANTIAGO | Miami Herald
It is an art event of exceptional significance to South Florida—the first large-scale U.S. exhibition of works by the most celebrated Cuban artist of the 20th century, surrealist Wifredo Lam.
The show, which opens Thursday at Miami Art Museum, is a milestone. An attempt by the artist’s family a decade ago to bring an exhibit to a Miami museum failed because of perceptions that Lam had supported the Cuban Revolution. But now half the works displayed at MAM are on loan from Miami collectors, some of them Cuban Americans.
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They’re already a huge success in their homeland, and in many parts of South America, and now Cuba’s hottest pop/rock outfit, Buena Fe, have caused a storm across Canada.
Israel Rojas, Yoel Martinez and their group of talented musicians spent the best part of October playing to appreciative audiences in cities including Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.
Despite this being the group’s first trip to Canada, many of their concerts were a sellout and they’ve already made plans to come back next year.
Speaking about the tour, Director Israel Rojas said: “It was a real…
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Seems like this Fall might have a distinctive Cuban American flavor to it.
Gloria Estefan’s latest release will debut on September 28. “90 Millas” is Spanish for 90 miles which is the distance from Key West to Havana. On September 25th, CANE the CBS “Dallas meets the Sopranos” type TV show featuring Jimmy Smits as part of a powerful Cuban American family will begin its premier season.
Ms. Estefan is a well known Cuban American and has recently performed in Key West for a taping of a segment for Univision which will air on September 17…
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Inter Press Service
Hip-hop artists in Cuba are using makeshift studios to record music that goes to the heart of the country’s troubles, overcoming the indifference of record companies and the media toward their efforts.
While the hip-hop movement has a small following on the island, some residents have reacted negatively to it, perhaps afraid of hearing the country’s defects exposed in song lyrics.
“People are making hip hop music in a very basic way, that is, with a computer and a microphone. They just squeeze into a small room or a bathroom,” said…
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hola amigos
I am organizing a legal program to Havana and Matanzas for October 21, two weeks. I hope you’re interested. Please email me or post a message here and I’ll be back in touch with you very soon.
Just an FYI. Go to:
http://home.earthlink.net/~drumnart for pics from our last programs in Havana and Matanzas.
While we’re in both cities, we study drums,percussion and music with the true Masters of the art form. In Matanzas we study with AfroCuba de Matanzas. We play drums most of the day with these true…
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Reuters
Cuba has dusted off Ernest Hemingway’s books, records and stag heads, cleaned out his pool and weeded his dogs’ graves, hoping to attract more visitors to his cherished hilltop home overlooking Havana.
Yet the restoration of the American writer’s retreat and its contents—including mildewed rum bottles, a pickled bat in a jar and the typewriter he used to write The Old Man and the Sea —could take the cash-strapped communist island two more years to complete, officials say.
“It’s a process that requires dedication and time. I predict (a finish date) perhaps at…
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DTCuba.com
Cuba will carry out a series of activities to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the Finca Vigia Museum, housed in the former residence of US author Ernest Hemingway in Havana.
The festivities will run from April to July 21, on the 108th birthday of the 1952 Literature Nobel Prize winner.
As part of that initiative, a lecture will be given on the restoration of Finca Vigia, whose project has been nominated for the National Monument Restoration Award, while another lecture on Hemingway’s love of fishing and music is scheduled for May.
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FRANCES ROBLES - MCCLATCHY Newspapers
One by one, Cuban artists and intellectuals in Havana did something unprecedented last week: they stood before the government and criticized a particularly harsh era of censorship—out loud and in the open.
Perhaps even more surprising than the conference held Tuesday to discuss a dark period of Cuban cultural oppression was what happened outside: a protest by those shut out of the invitation-only event. Also out loud and in the open.
“I don’t know how important it can be, but what’s true is that I have never seen anything…
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