Cuba to host International Poetry Festival

The 30th Havana International Poetry Festival, to be held from May 27 to June 1, will be dedicated to African poetry on the 90th anniversary of the poet, anthropologist and Africanist Natalia Bolivar.

According to Festival president Alex Pausides, the event will gather around 82 foreign poets from some thirty countries who will participate in panels, poetry recitals, soirées, book presentations, writing labs and other events organized in venues such as Casa del Alba Cultural, the Havana Poetry School, the Ministry of Culture, the Jose Marti National Library, the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, the Fernando Alonso Ballet School, the San Alejandro Art School, and other educational and cultural centers of Havana.

The days leading up to the Festival will see the usual Virtual Poetry Meeting, which will assemble more than 200 Cuban and foreign participants—on a list headed by Haiti (18) and Mexico (16)—around nine of whom will come together to read poems dedicated to the Palestinian cause and to the Saharawi people.