Cuba to host international poetry festival

CUBA: Around 160 poets from over 40 countries and regions will attend the upcoming 15th International Poetry Festival in Havana, organizers said here Thursday.

The week-long event, starting on May 24, is dedicated to the centennial of the births of Cuban writer Jose Lezama Lima and Spanish poet Miguel Hernandez and also to the bicentennial of Latin America’s first struggle for independence, according to Cuban poet Alex Pausides, coordinator of the event.

Eighty writers will represent the host nation at the gala, which will also gather their counterparts from dozens of other countries and regions, including Russia’s Yevgeny Evtushenko and Spain’s Rafael Alberti, Pausides said.

He added that participants will perform traditional music and dances of their homelands and that some other cultural activities will also take place during the event.

A highlight will be a concert dedicated to the bicentennial of the Latin American struggle for independence at the local Lazaro Pena Theater, the same place where Alberti and late Cuban writer Nicolas Guillen chaired a meeting supporting the nascent Cuban Revolution 50 years ago.

The International Poetry Festival in Havana is registered at the International Federation of International Poetry Festival of UNESCO. It has gained a following from across the world and established connections with over a thousand poets.

HAVANA, Friday, Xinhua