Culture

Bebo Valdes Inaugurates Havana Times Music Playlist

Bebo Valdes was a masterful pianist, composer and bandleader. One of Cuba’s greatest. Yet, after a dizzying career in the ‘40s and ‘50s (which included a recording with Nat King Cole), international fame came late for him as he managed to lose himself in Sweden after falling in love on tour.

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From Luis Enrique to Luis Enrique: Songs for Nicaragua

The sixth literary festival “Centroamerica Cuenta 2019” closed in San Jose, Costa Rica with a “concert-talk show” by representatives of two generations from a family of musicians: Luis Enrique Mejia Godoy and Luis Enrique Mejia Lopez, who talked about their songs and about their lives as artists who have upheld the name of Nicaragua.

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The Lady of Old Havana’s Cafe Paris

There was (and still is) a Cafe Paris in Havana too, on the corner of O’Reilly and Compostela Streets, which an exclusive group of young dandies, musicians and intellectuals would regularly go to, including some of the writers and poets who have left their mark on Cuban literature.

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The Havana Biennial: Before y Now (video)

The Havana Biennial is a contemporary arts festival that used to be held every two years, then it became every three years. It is organized by the Wilfredo Lam Contemporary Arts Center in Old Havana. Enjoy this tour of the recently concluded event.

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Famous Cuban Musicians Criticize Repression of Gay March

Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez has subscribed to criticism by his colleague Vicente Feliu about the “absurd, shameful, dangerously evocative repression” of the LGTBI march Saturday in Havana by independent activists and without permission from the authorities, reports the EFE news agency.

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