Diplomats and personalities from the fields of culture and social research met in Havana over the weekend as part of activities to celebrate the United Nations International Year of Afro-Descendants.

Cuba Solidarity Campaign are offering a pair of tickets to each of 2 lucky winners of this competition for the Mujeres gala night of live Cuban music, dance and poetry on saturday 19th March 2011.

Thanks in part to the community of young Cubans in London, the capital city is currently a very exciting place to be for anyone making or searching for new music. The London based group Wara is one such example, a project created- and directed -by the talented and adventurous Cuban vocalist and keyboard player Eliane Correa. The band has recently produced this CD whose playful and positive titlerepresents well their eclectic musical landscape.

UK based Cuban musician Eliane Correa kicks off her new column on the current Cuban music scene with a review of Cuban fusión exponents Interactivo at the Bertolt Brecht theatre in Havana

The emblematic image used for this exhibition is the boxing prize belt by Alejandro Lopez.

It sports a portrait of Jose Marti to the right of a central collage of fragmented and faded images of faces and interiors encircled by the words Oro De Cuba (Cuban Gold).

Watch these two videos of the making of Chucho Valdes's latest album 'Chucho's Steps' which has just won a Grammy. They include interview with Chucho and other musicians plus performances.

Cuban pianist and composer Chucho Valdes won his fourth Grammy award to the Best Latin Jazz Album on the 53 annual awards ceremony of the American Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

Valdes won the award for his album Chucho's steps recorded with his new band Mensajeros Afrocubanos. The band is made up of his former quartet plus wind instruments and folkloric percussion.

The importance of the African legacy for Latin American and Caribbean cultures was acknowledged during a panel held at the San Carlos de la Cabaña Fortress, as part of the agenda of the 20th edition of Havana's International Book Fair.

The Cuban rumba and dance troupe Los Muñequitos de Matanzas hasn't performed in New York in nearly a decade. Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, which mixes Afro-Caribbean dance and classical European ballet and was founded in 1959, has never been to the United States. Neither have the socially conscious photographers Adonis Flores and Cirenaica Moreira.

Sustainable peasant agriculture, which first arose in Cuba in response to the economic crisis in the early 1990s, has been going from strength to strength. A recent study, carried out jointly by ANAP (the Cuban National Association of Small Farmers) and La Via Campesina, shows that the involvement of the peasant farmers themselves, that results from the Campesino-to-Campesino social process methodology, is a key element in accounting for this success.

The French beverage and liquor company Pernod Ricard expressed satisfaction last week at a Spanish court ruling in its favour on its rights to the Havana Club trademark.

Ian FitzSimons, legal director for Pernod Ricard, said in a press release that the Spanish Supreme Court decision to reject Bacardiâ�Ös challenge against Pernod's and Cuba's ownership of Havana Club confirmed the transparency of the French company's actions.

British musician Jimmy Page, former guitarist for the legendary rock band Led Zeppelin, made a surprise visit of several days to Cuba, it was confirmed here Tuesday.

Prensa Latina learned that the 67-year-old rocker left Cuba on Monday after a visit that included tours of historic sites, and purchases of souvenirs such as the famous photograph of Che Guevara taken by Alberto Korda and albums by local artists.

Rene Francisco has just received the 2010 Visual Arts National Award, the highest distinction that is granted in Cuba within that artistic field.

The Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies at University College London, in association with the Escuela International de Cine y Television in Cuba and Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada, is pleased to offer an intensive, hands-on Documentary Summer School in Cuba next summer, running from Monday 27 June until Friday 22 July 2011. The workshop will be held at the world-famous Escuela Internacional de Cine y Television which is situated just 30 miles outside Havana in San Antonio de los Baños. Founded in 1986 by Gabriel García Marquez, the International Film and Television School — known as a 'Vatican for Film-Makers' — is now directed by Tanya Valette, one of the first generation of graduates from the school in 1990.

The course will be taught by one of the School's regular professors, Enrique Colina, who has been making innovative documentaries and films for over twenty years, gaining many international awards for his work. He is also well known in Cuba as the host of an enormously popular TV show about cinema of the 1970s and 1980s called "24 x Segundo" (24 Times a Second). One of his recent films, Entre ciclones (Between Cyclones, 2003), was shown to great acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival. Professor Stephen Hart of the Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies at UCL, is the co-ordinator and co-instructor of the course and he will be travelling with the group from London to the Film School.

Santiago de Cuba is preparing to celebrate a great party dedicated to music and dance lovers in May 2011, during the 15th Cubadisco International Fair, a tribute to Son and to this city.