Solidarity grows around the world with Cuban poet Nancy Morejon

Personalities from different sectors and countries made up on Sunday the list of signatories of a French petition in solidarity with Cuban poet Nancy Morejón, who was stripped of her honorary presidency of the Paris Poetry Market.

Launched a few days ago after the decision of the event, which yielded to anti-Cuban pressures, to withdraw that symbolic status to the renowned intellectual of the island, the list of personalities and exponents of culture, arts, and politics that accompany the initiative, also open to other citizens willing to support it, increases daily.

The text was first presented last week by the coordinator for France and Europe of the World Poetry Movement, Francis Combes, and was echoed in the last hours in an article by Colombian writer and filmmaker Hernando Calvo Ospina in the debate site Le Club Mediapart.

"The decision to withdraw Morejon's honorary presidency of the 40th edition of the Poetry Market (meeting scheduled for June 7 to 11) saddens and shocks us", reflects the document, initially signed by poets, writers, men, and women of letters living in France.

Combes, Calvo Ospina, Serge Pey, Jean Portante, Jose Muchnik, Victor Rodriguez, Ignacio Ramonet, Yves Vargas, Philippe Tancelin, Jean Ristat, Franck Delorieux, Gérard Mordillat, Michel Ménaché, Fabienne Beaudeau, Delia Blanco, Fabien Marius, Olivier Rubens, Jean-Louis Cloët, Barbara Flamand and Charles Ducal are among the signatories.

Poets, writers, editors, philosophers, and historians have been joined by figures from politics, academia, and associative and solidarity work in Europe, in a long list that includes among others the academic Paul Estrade, the communist leader Massimiliano Ay, the leader of the World Federation of Trade Unions Quim Boix, the militant Léon Landini and former deputy François-Michel Lambert.

In addition to the uneasiness about the politicization of culture, the open letter includes a recognition of the career and commitment of Morejon, winner of the 2001 National Literature Prize and recipient of several distinctions in her country and at the international level.

"We have known Nancy Morejón, some of us for many years. We know that she is a true poet, one of the great female voices of Latin American poetry. A woman and black, she has been committed for years to the struggle for peace, against racism and social, racial and gender inequalities, and for the freedom of peoples".

The text also emphasizes that the poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator has never hidden her support for the Cuban Revolution.

In an interview with Prensa Latina, Morejon thanked the expressions of affection and support in Cuba and the world, following the decision of the Paris Poetry Market to withdraw his honorary presidency after the crusade of anti-Cuban sectors.

"I regret that hatred ended up imposing itself on art," she said.