The Peace Without Borders mega concert began on time at 2:00 p.m. in Havana with the group of Puerto Rican singer Olga Tañon. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans turned out under a blazing sun. At 4:45 p.m. Cuban time the Orishas band is on the stage at the Plaza of the Revolution.
Read MoreUS singer Harry Belofante is in Cuba with at least two objectives. One was to inaugurate an itinerant festival of Caribbean Cinema on Friday and the other is to attend the mega-concert on Sunday organized by Juanes and the Cuban Music Institute.
Read MoreColombian singer Juanes asked people to dress in white as a symbol of peace and “condemnation of weapons and any type of war” for the Peace without Borders Concert at Havana’s Revolution Square on Sunday afternoon. The request came in a message to his followers in the Twitter microblogging site. Juanes arrived in Cuba on Friday.
Read MoreFed by nationalism, it develops along a steep curve. It can be a force for independence and creativity but also promotes an insular and defensive disconnection, smug sense of superiority, energetic controls, withering of openness, and unwillingness to allow access to a free flowing exchange of ideas. Cuba’s nationalism showed itself capable of standing up to every kind of attack, and for decades. The jury was still out on how it would shape the country’s future.
Read MoreOn the day before Juanes leads his mega concert in Havana the question on many minds is: Is It Just a Concert? The singer has not been intimidated by death threats from the violent segment of the Cuban-American exile community.
Read MoreThe performance includes choreographies that represent different deities adored in the Afro-Cuban religion. Colors identifying each one of them, their accessories and movements accompany the rhythms that vibrate throughout the theater. The spectacle is called “Rhythms of Cuba.”
Read MoreThe Cuban Music Institute explained on Friday the reasons this Sunday’s concert featuring Juanes and numerous top Cuban and foreign artists takes place in the afternoon. The promoters had asked for the concert to begin at 2:00 p.m. EST so it could be broadcast live in Europe.
Read MoreMusic, like almost all cultural expressions, can become a vehicle for the legitimization of violence, particularly that of gender violence, believe more than a few specialists. “We are experiencing a sort of cultural assimilation of violence that is moving into other settings,” noted Manuel Calviño, a psychology professor at the University of Havana.
Read MoreFidel Castro came to New York City in the summer of 1960, fresh from his guerrilla triumph. I was a young writer and soon to be single mother, enormously pregnant with Gregory-my son who forty six years later would suggest we write about Cuba together-but I longed to see the hero up close, applaud his stance, express my personal appreciation.
Read MoreArtists from Brazil, Uruguay, Panama and Spain will participate at the 5th Arts and Health Biennial that opens on Tuesday and runs through October 16 in Old Havana.
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