US publishers demand an end to the Book Embargo Against Cuba

In February 2016, a delegation of approximately 40 American publishing industry representatives met with their publishing counterparts in Havana, Cuba. The two days of meetings, held with the support of the Cuban government, represented a historic milestone. Their purpose was to build bridges of understanding and explore opportunities for greater cultural and economic collaboration.

Musicabana: turning Cuba into the world centre of music for a week

The first edition of the Musicabana Festival, to be held next May, will bring to the Cuban capital city a handful of well-known artists throughout the world, like Jamaican Sean Paul, Brazilian Carlinhos Brown and the Cubans IBEYI. As a prelude to the event, US DJ and producer Diplo, who started from the underground and became a star of the electronic royalty, performed at the Tribuna Antimperialista with his project Major Lazer, which has toured the world with his powerful hybrid sound-famous thanks to the hit Lean On.

Cuban writer Leonardo Padura and his detective Mario Conde to reach the big screen soon

While waiting for the release this year of the film Winds of lent, of the Spanish director Félix Viscarret, prolific Cuban writer Leonardo Padura and his most famous character: Mario Conde, are today closer to cinema. Although the author of the famous tetralogy "The Four Seasons" is pleased with the tape, he confessed that writing for this genre is much more complicated.

The Rolling Stones announce free concert in Cuba: Concierto por la Amistad

The Rolling Stones will perform a groundbreaking concert in Havana, Cuba on Friday March 25, 2016. The free concert will take place at the Ciudad Deportiva de la Habana and will be the first open air concert in the country by a British Rock Band. Always exploring new horizons and true pioneers of rock, the Stones, who have toured every corner of the globe, will bring their high octane performance and incredible music catalogue to the Caribbean for the first time ever.

First Chinese-Cuban film to be shot in Havana

Love in Havana is the title of the first Chinese-Cuba cinema coproduction scheduled for shooting in Havana in early March, between a Chinese audiovisual producer and Cuban RTV Comercial film company.
RTV Comercial general director and Zhen Dawei, film director, signed the accords on Tuesday to implement the co-production project.
Ortega told ACN that the film is the first in a joint project to produce audiovisuals that reflect the cultures of China and Cuba. But the most important thing is that this project will bring Chinese and Cuban talents together to make a cinema that unites us, he noted.
The full-length film tells the story of Chinese students that fall in love here while taking their education courses and expose the difficulties of a relationship between people of different cultures.
Zheng Dawei thanked RTV Comercial and the Moncada music band, in charge of the soundtrack, for achieving a goal that was being pursued for the past two years.

This film will be the first in a project that will include another four joint movies in Cuba.

PRESENTE! Cuban art coming to London this Autumn

Paintings and drawings created by up to 30 artists living and working in Cuba will bring to London a taste of the exciting current art scene on the island when Presente! Contemporary Art from Cuba opens at the GX Gallery in London later this year. It will then move to the Searcy Gallery on the 38th floor of the Gherkin, one of London's iconic landmarks. The exhibition is a project of the Music Fund for Cuba charity in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture in Cuba, and organisers are appealing far and wide for support for this unique event. The island's music and dance have always enchanted audiences in Britain and now Presente! will introduce Cuba's visual arts.

Rogelio Martinez Fure wins National Prize for Literature 2016

Just like the African and universal culture he has helped us discover, Rogelio Martínez Furé is multifaceted and singular. His versatility reflects his ability to transform himself, to be a poet or a reciter of entire books, of myths and legends, making good use of his wondrous memory – which, he says, is a result of his connection to oral culture since he was a child, when he listened to living libraries, who sweetened his ears with songs and tales from all ages.

New Murals Born Among Earthquakes in Santiago de Cuba

Cuban and foreign artists painted three murals in Santiago de Cuba city during the 12th International Biennial InterNos dedicated to that artistic form and during the earthquake situation the region has been facing during the last 10 days. From the first days of January Cuban artists and others arriving from Spain, United States, Dominican Republic and Denmark began their artistic tasks and maintained such labour despite the seismic activity registered in eastern Cuba.

Review: Carlos Acosta at the Royal Ballet

It is hard to believe that over the last two decades, a young black man from Havana has worked his way up to being celebrated as a national treasure in this country, with a CBE from the Queen in 2014, no less. That man is of course Carlos Acosta, who has just said farewell to the Royal Ballet in London after 17 years as a principal dancer.