Lynn Cruz, Author at Havana Times

“They’re Using You”

I recently read Tania Bruguera’s statements about an artist’s rights. One of them referred to the artist’s right to dissent. Within an authoritarian system, the artist begins to live a double dissidence, first in art, then in society.

Resistance Theatre, Independent of the Cuban State

Kairos Theater is an independent group which came into being in 2012. An alternative project which tries to survive in an itinerant manner. Patriotismo 36-77 is the new piece that is currently in the process of being put together.

Illegality Proves that things Need to Change

Not too long ago, I was speaking to a historian who told me she was up-to-date with the news relating to acts of censorship that have taken place over recent months. With a gesture of political indifference she said: “This isn’t going to change.”

Making Political Theater in Cuba

After my furious state in front of the police and State security forces, when they tried to prevent my play “Enemies of the People” from making its debut (I say “tried” because, in spite of the pain it caused to have to bid farewell to all my guests, the play was performed for the only two people who had managed to enter), everyone is advising me to calm down…

Cuba Enters a New Phase of Artist Persecution

While watching the images of the latest wave of repression to befall independent Cuban artists , one word kept popping into my head: Shame. Arbitrary arrests, stopping people from walking down certain streets or entering certain homes reveal a lack of respect that not only exists with artists, but with citizens on the whole.

What’s Happening to Cuba’s Film Industry

Cuban institutions have become derelict buildings, where fear rules, while a select few pocket everything. The Cuban people’s reality is something like an emaciated buffet where everything is controlled, where plates come in and leave, but they can’t have access to the restaurant’s real menu.

The Mystery Surrounding a House Located on 13th Street in Havana’s Vedado

The sound of a sledgehammer banging on the walls, the ceiling of a house adjoined to my building, located at No. 851 13th Street between 4th and 6th streets, in Vedado, has been eating away at my nerves for some weeks now.

Cuban Artists and Civil Servants under Attack

Reprisals and acts of terror continue to be directed at Cuban artists. Adonis Milan, a talented and young theater director, has received a subpoena from the Interior Ministry, which has no grounds as he hasn’t committed any crime other than exercise his: “right to freedom of association.”

Our Work “Enemy of the People” Censored

After the vertigo of seeing empty seats during the performance, which only two viewers could come to, the collective of Teatro Kairos, especially we the author and the director of the play, want to share some of our impressions of this event.

Hamletmachine (A soldier’s cry)

In Cuba, those who were born during this tumultuous period in our History, called “Special”, were known as the “Transition Generation”, and maybe the tragedy of these young people lies in the fact that this change, which began to take root in Cuba after the Berlin Wall came down and the Socialist Bloc collapsed as a result, still hasn’t ended.