A rich and varied cultural agenda for the second half of January
The second half of the month is full of cultural events in Cuba. The academic year at the University of the Arts of Cuba will begin with an inauguration ceremony. The Cuban Science Day on January 15th will be celebrated with various activities, including the presentation of the ISA 2023 Research Prize. The National Plastic Arts Prize will also be awarded to Zaida del Río at the National Museum of Fine Arts on Saturday.
On Sunday, the International Jazz Plaza Festival will take place in Havana and Santiago de Cuba, with a concert titled Beloved Music by Maestro Joaquín Betancourt at the Covarrubias Hall of the National Theater of Cuba.
The concert will celebrate the 15th anniversary of the jazz band he leads and his 50 years of artistic accomplishments as a composer and arranger. Nelson Domínguez and Rick Swing will inaugurate their photographic exhibition Musical Visions in Havana on the same day. In Santiago, Nachito Herrera and his guests will perform Cuba Lives at the Heredia Theatre.
Several exhibitions will open this week, including Four Hundred Years of Mexican Art in the Collections of the National Museum of Fine Arts and the Ángel Ramírez exhibition, which will be shown at the Experimental Graphic Workshop in Old Havana. Additionally, the Wifredo Lam Centre for Contemporary Art in Old Havana will host the European artist Dieter Nuhr’s exhibition Demarkation.
The 12th edition of the National Workshop for the Exchange of Experiences of the Jose Martí Brigade of Art Instructors will also be announced this week. This scientific meeting will bring together professionals for workshops, book presentations, panels, and conferences. Villanueva Days will also take place nationally with the Clowncert by Teatro Tuyo, directed by Ernesto Parra, in the gardens of the National Union of Cuban Writers and Artists (UNEAC).
The Trianón theatre will continue the tribute to Juan Piñera on his 75th birthday. On Wednesday, the Wind Symphony Band of Cornell University from the United States will perform under the direction of James Spinazzola at the Che Guevara Hall of the Casa de las Américas.
In the Fayad Jamís bookstore, El elogio oportuno will be held with journalist and critic Fernando Rodríguez Sosa as the host and the personality to whom this cultural program is dedicated. The program will be directed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrera, president of the Cuban Book Institute (ICL), and guests will include the prestigious writers María Elena Llana and Nancy Morejón, both winners of the National Prize for Literature.
On Thursday, the Nicaraguan Embassy in Cuba will coordinate a tribute to Rubén Darío as part of the La ruta del Alba project, and the Amanecer trio will perform at the Casa del ALBA.
Havana will also host the Serbian Film Week and the 10th International Conference on Communication, Culture, Marketing, and Community at the end of January.
Translated by Luis E. Amador Dominguez
