Chucho Valdes Honored by FAO for his New Grammy

The Cuban musician Jesus "Chucho" Valdes received the tribute of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), for his recent Grammy Award in Best Latin Jazz Album.

FAO representative to Havana, Marcio Porto, pointed out that a message sent by that organization emphasizes that it feels proud of having Valdés among its Good Will Ambassadors

During an interview with the French AFP news agency in September, Valdes explained that the name of his new group is a tribute to the Jazz Messengers, led by US drummer Art Blakey, who was his “first influence”.

Valdes won the Grammy in the category of Best Latin Jazz Album, during the 53rd edition of the annual awards of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States, for his production Chucho’s Steps.

This first album with The Afro-Cuban Messengers, Valdes includes, with beautiful style and complexity, the various forms of contemporary jazz,: hard bop, free jazz and modal jazz modal, with an excellent use of percussion. The CD pays tribute to great figures of jazz, like Wynton Marsalis and Joe Zawinul, and to the piece Misa Negra.

Standing out among Chucho’s Steps, composed of 12 pieces, is a danzon that opens with a cha cha cha rhythm, in which the musician combines several genres.

UN at Havana Book Fair

Book launches and a photo contest are among the activities being carried out by the UN representation in Havana at the 20th International Book Fair. Activities include a lecture on Afro-descendants and another one on youth.

Those events involve several agencies, including the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF).

Other participants are the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and FAO.

According to the Cuban Book Institute, more than 2,000 titles by Cuban and foreign authors will be on sale at 16 sites in Havana as part of the book fair.

2011 International Drum Festival in Havana

The 2011 International Drum Festival will run in Havana from March 8 to 13 at the Amadeo Roldán Theatre.

The Festival will be dedicated to drummer Guillermo Barreto and sponsored by the Cuban Music Institute and the Ignacio Piñeiro Center.

People interested can participate in five instruments: drums, pailas, conga drums, bongos and bata drums. Festival and competition organizers are also calling on self-educated drummers to compete in the different categories along with professionals.

Event’s President, drummer, composer and director of the band Klimax, Giraldo Piloto, says that the jury will be made up of prestigious national and international musicians. The winners will be given instruments in each specialty and free enrolment in the on-line Drummer School. A special award will be given to the best performer in the female category, and in the children’s category.

Festival activities will take place in the Palacio de la Rumba, the Occidental Miramar Hotel, and the Mella and Astral Theaters.

Daniel Chavarria Received National Literature Award at Cuba’s Book Fair

Renowned Uruguayan writer Daniel Chavarria received on Friday the 2010 National Literature Award as part of the program of the 20th International Book Fair of Cuba, which was inaugurated at the Morro-Cabaña Fortress Complex.

Chavarria, who lives in Cuba, received the award at the Nicolas Guillen Hall in recognition of his vast and outstanding work, praised by critics for its stunning imaginative richness and peculiar language.

Also in the context of the event, Havana’s ALBA Cultural House will host a meeting among scholars who will discuss topics related to figures such as Simon Bolivar, Francisco de Miranda and Jose de San Martin, among others.

As part of the Fair’s cultural program, the Nuestra America Hall of the La Cabaña Fortress will host the screening of a series of Argentinean films.

Some of the books launched on Friday are “Life and Work of the Apostle” by Cinctio Vitier, and “Jose Marti: Multiculturalism and Humanism”, by several authors of the University of Chiapas, Mexico.

The 20th International Book Fair is dedicated to Cuban writers Jaime Sarusky and Fernando Martinez Heredia. It will also pay tribute to the cultures of the member nations of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of the Americas (ALBA) and the bicentennial of the first independence of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Fair will run until February 20th in Havana and then it will tour all the Cuban provinces until March 6th.

Cuban Artists to Perform in Two-month Long Festival in New York

More than two dozen Cuban artists and groups will participate for two months in the “!Sí Cuba!” Festival to run from March 31st through June 16th in New York city, reported the New York Times.

The festival will include Cuban artists, musicians, dancers, filmmakers, photographers and writers who will showcase their work.

Groups from Cuba expected to perform include musical legends like the nearly century-old son ensemble Septeto Nacional.

The Cuban National Ballet, led by prima ballerina assoluta Alicia Alonso, is among the participants, along with Muñequitos de Matanzas, in New York for the first time in over a decade, and Danza Contemporanea de Cuba, making its debut in the United States.

The New York Times reported, “It is one of the most significant indications that cultural relations between the United States and Cuba are thawing after nearly a decade in a deep freeze.”

Cuban rapper and poet Telmary Diaz will perform and the Havana Film Festival New York is expected to feature contemporary Cuban cinema.

Danza Contempornea de Cuba will be making their United States debuts.

Fourteen city arts organizations will be taking part. Music, film, dance, painting, theater, photography and literature are all included.

Karen Brooks Hopkins is the president of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, one of the leading cultural entities in New York. She said, “We felt that this was the right time to do this, and New York the right place.¨

"There's optimism in the air about freeing up more interactions, which makes things feel very different than they did during the Bush administration and offers an opportunity for all of us to present work of a really high level in concentrated form."

Julia E. Sweig is the author of “Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know” and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Sweig said, “Both governments, Raul Castro’s and Barack Obama’s, have clearly identified the cultural space as a safe space for them to pursue connections between the two countries, so this fits very well into that context.”

The idea for the festival began after several arts groups in New York scheduled different Cuban events. They eventually came together to promote one big festival. Up to 14 city arts organizations will be taking part.

Organizers say their aim is to showcase the rich cultural history of Cuba and build bridges between American and Cuban artists.

Havana Book Fair

The 20th International Book Fair in Cuba opens Thursday at Havana's Morro-Cabaña Park, with more than 200 guests from 41 countries, including Nobel laureate Rigoberta Menchu.

Awaited every year by Cuban readers, this year's fair will honor the cultures of eight countries that make up the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America and the Bicentenary of the first stage of Latin American and Caribbean independence.

The event will also honor Cuban writer and journalist Jaime Sarusky, winner of 2004 National Literature Award, and philosopher and historian Fernando Martinez Heredia, winner of the 2006 National Social Science award.

As a new feature this year, fair venues include 10 different sites around the capital, such as the Casa de las Americas cultural institution, the ALBA House of Culture, the Dulce Maria Loynaz Center, and the Jose Marti Cultural Society.

One of the venues, the Pabellon Cuba on La Rampa, is especially devoted to young people. In addition to Rigoberta Menchu, other guests are Brazilian theologian Frei Betto, Mexican writer Pablo Ignacio Taibo II, Jamaican essayist and poet Keith Ellis, Argentine writer Vicente Battista, Belgian political scientist Eric Toussaint, French professor Herve Fischer, and culture ministers from several nations.

Some 160 different foreign and national publishing houses will be represented at this event.

At least 4.5 million books, including 515 new titles, will be put available for sale on the island during the 25 days of the fair.

After the first 10 days in Havana, the fair will be held in the rest of the provinces, and closing events will take place in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba.

The academic/literary program includes panels, colloquiums, round tables, forums and debates on current issues, such as a meeting with young writers from the continent, and anti-war poetry readings, Voices Against Nuclear War.

A Space for Youth in Havana Fair

Cuban youth have their space in the International Book Fair, in the centric Cuba Pavilion, one of the parallel venues of the fair in Havana where the artistic and literary program will take place until February, 27.

There will be several initiatives, one of them is Confluencias "Confluences" that brings together writers from different generations and "it will activate a natural dialogue of continuity and intergenerational rupture, always in the search of a bond."

An exhibition of watercolors of the Cuban anti-terrorist Antonio Guerrero, imprisoned in U.S. jails, will be inaugurated tomorrow, in addition to the book "Había una vez" (Once upon a time), by Gente Nueva editorial, and editor Esteban Llorach.

Voices against terrorism, forum sponsored by the International Poetry Festival of Havana, will bring together voices of poets and environmental activists from different latitudes.

One of the main moments of the Meeting Hall will be the circulation of the books "José Lezama Lima, ese misterio que nos acompaña" and "Así hablaba Lezama" (José Lezama Lima, the Mystery that Accompanies us; Thus Spoke Lezama), to honor the centenary of Paradiso’s author birth.

Besides, films will be screened and the public will have a varied gastronomic and handicrafts offer, while groups as Kelvis Ochoa, Aceituna sin hueso, and young DJs (disc jockeys), including Djoy Wichy D Vedado and Djoy D Cuba will provide entertainment