- The new Cuban feature-length film La noche de los inocentes (The Night of the Innocent) by director Arturo Sotto premiered in Havana and is already being screened at theaters around the capital.

The 100-minute film in digital format was co-produced by Cuba, Spain and Italy. Sotto also wrote the screenplay, Ernesto Granados was in charge of photography, Carlos Urdanivia on art direction and Ernan López-Nussa wrote the original soundtrack for the film.

The film begins with the brutal beating of a young man who looks like a transvestite and who is then abandoned on the doorsteps of a Havana hospital. Mercedes, the nurse who treats him, convinces Frank, a former policeman with whom she is involved in a relationship, to investigate the case.

Little by little, all of the characters who take part in the plot arrive at the hospital room of Federico, the transvestite. An extraordinary investigation reveals a Cuban family full of secrets and dark passions. The whole movie occurs on the night of a full moon, one December 28th: the Day of the Innocent (the Spanish equivalent of April Fool's Day.)

Arturo Soto is known for his previous films Amor Vertical (Vertical Love) and Pon tu pensamiento en mi (Think About Me). The director graduated from the San Antonio de los Baños Film School south of the capital. In last year's New Latin American Cinema Festival, he won the top prize for unpublished screenplay with Peter Pan Kids.

The cast for Noche de los innocentes includes Jorge Perugorría, Silvia Aguila, Aramis Delgado and Susana Pérez.

Soto commented that this film is nothing like his past efforts and is no more than an attempt to make a connection with the audience, bringing them closer to a very peculiar reality while narrating the adventures on one Night of the Innocent.

- Cuban film The Silly Age by young Director Pavel Giroud received the Chris Holter Humor in Film Award at the San Francisco Film Festival, the oldest such events in the United States. The intimate film is a Cuban, Spanish, Venezuelan co-production shot in 2006 which tells the story of the relationship between a grandmother and her grandchild in the late 1950’s, just days before the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. Pavel Giroud is part of the youngest generation of awarded Cuban film directors.

-Spanish ballerina Tamara Rojo and Cuban star Carlos Acosta mesmerized the audience at El Retiro Park in Madrid, with their interpretation of Odette-Odile and Prince Sigfried in the Swan Lak.

Directed by Cuban mistress Loipa Araujo, the production was staged on an open-air stage built on a lake.

Lithuania's corps the ballet, hired exclusively for the occassion, successfully supported the famous Petipa-Ivanov choreography with Tchaikovsky music.

More than 15,000 people, mostly standing, enjoyed the show.

- Indian Ambassador to Cuba Mitra Vasisht unveiled a bust of renowned Indian patriot, writer and poet Rabindranath Tagore in Havana. At the unveiling of the small monument, the Indian diplomat called Tagore (1861-1941) “an icon of humankind.”

On hand at the ceremony was Havana City Historian Eusebio Leal, as part of a tribute on the occasion of the 146th anniversary of the outstanding Indian writer’s birth.

Leal said that Tagore’s words and poetry sound like new each and every day, emphasizing the link of lyrics and philosophy in his works.

The book "Luna Nueva" (New Moon), a selection of poems dedicated to children and illustrated with Cuban children's drawings, was launched by the House of Asia during the activity.

Tagore, a Nobel literature prizewinner in 1913, is the top representative of modern Indian literature. Among his best works is "Gitanjali (Song Offerings)", 300 poems which the author himself translated into English. This book gained international acclaim in England and the United States.

Tagore was also dedicated to musical composition and painting.

- The National Performing Arts Council is calling the 13th edition of the Havana Theater Festival, from September 12th through the 21st. This year’s event celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the ensemble Teatro Estudio Theater Studio and pays tribute to its founders Raquel and Vicente Revuelta.

The group which became a school for young generations of actors, actresses, directors and playwrights created a social avant-garde, turning the stage into a space for artistic, human and social research.

The Festival will also hold the "Virgilio en peso" International Colloquium, on the life and work of Virgilio Piñera -– a poet, writer and modernist in Cuban playwrights.

The Cuban theater fiesta will continue being a space for meetings, solidarity and cultural integration of people from all over the world.

The companies interested in participating should send their entries with a DVD, showing the entire play, dossier and general information before May 31st, 2008.

- An exhibit on Cuba entitled "Cuba: Hearts and Minds, Past and Present," will open on May 21st at the University of New England Art Gallery in Portland, Maine, in the United States.

The exhibition explores the island of Cuba through the works of many of the country’s contemporary artists, as well as various US artists, as promoted by the keepmecurrent.com website.

A wide variety of visual and fine arts works makes up the show, including film, painting, photography, mixed media and sculpture to portray the country’s combinations of colors, landscapes, animals, people and politics.

A notable work in the exhibition is a nine-foot long ceramic tile entitled "The History of the Bay of Pigs" by Joan Gardner, the Development Director at the University of Oregon.

Other artists included in the show are Sandra Ramos, Arturo Montoto, Wifredo Lam, Jose Bedia, Blanca Acelia Escalante, Osvaldo Salas, Eduardo Casado, Kcho, Augustin Bejerano, Miguel Lobainas, Joel Jover, Virginia Valdes, Marta Morse, Barbara Goodbody and Karen Dietrich.

- Cuban artists will honor great Mexican painters, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, under the sponsorship of several cultural institutions.

The program, scheduled to run from July 6th to November 24th in Havana, will be dedicated to Kahlo´s 100th birthday and the 50th anniversary of Rivera´s death.

The program to pay tribute to the two Mexican paradigms of Latin American fine arts in the 20th century will also consist of two contests, a children´s creative workshop, theoretical events, the opening of a collective mural and exhibitions.

On this occasion, a delegation headed by researcher Teresa del Conde and two of the so-called four "Fridos" (Kahlo´s pupils) will travel to Cuba.

The program will begin on July 6th (on the occasion of Kahlo´s birthday anniversary), when an exhibition of paintings by Cuban artists Zaida del Río, Alicia Leal, Agustín Bejarano and Eduardo Roca (Choco) will be opened.

In addition, six second-year students from the San Alejandro Fine Arts Academy will paint a collective mural, and the exhibition "Long Live Frida", consisting of works by 40 Mexican artists, will be inaugurated.

The Pablo de la Torriente Brau Center will call the contest "A Song for Frida and Diego" -- in which all Cuban singer/songwriters can participate with songs whose main theme will be the struggle for social justice.

There will also be a poster contest in which Cuban designers and artists will take part, and 1,000 copies of the winning work will be reproduced.

Film and documentary screenings on the Mexican muralist movement are scheduled to form part of the tribute.

- The prestigious Pablo Neruda Ibero-American Poetry Award has been granted to Cuban poet and essayist Fina Garcia Marruz this year.

The announcement was made at a press conference with the jury, including Chilean academician Ana Pizarro, Peruvian writer Carlos German Belli and Cuban poet-essayist Roberto Fernandez Retamar.

The Chilean Culture Minister phoned Fina Garcia to let her know about the jury's verdict and greeted her husband Cintio Vitier, highlighting her Christian spirituality, opened to world social concerns.

Garcia Marruz said she greatly appreciated the award, which will be presented to her by President Michelle Bachelet during the Ibero-American Summit of Culture Ministers to be held in the Chilean capital in July.

The Pablo Neruda Poetry Award has previously been given to Mexican Jose Emilio Pacheco (2004), Argentinean Juan Gelman (2005) and Peruvian German Belli (2006).

Josefina Garcia Marruz, nicknamed Fina, was born in Havana on April 28, 1923. She became interested in literature when she was an adolescent, joining the literary group Origenes along with Cintio Vitier.

She has written for many Cuban and foreign cultural publications and her works have been translated into several languages.

- Cuban actress Daysi Granados, film director Fernando Pérez and editor Nelson Rodríguez have received the Cuban National Film Award for 2007.

The National Film Award was established in 2003 and granted to Alfredo Guevara for the first time. Guevara is one of the founders of the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC) and was its president for almost 40 years.

Julio García Espinosa received the award in 2004. García Espinosa directed “El joven rebelde” or The Young Rebel, and Juan Quinquín en Pueblo Mocho, or The Adventures of Juan Quinquín, and been a major figure in Cuban filmmaking for several decades. Humberto Solás, the awarded director of the famous Cuban film Lucía obtained it in 2005. Last year, the winner was Enrique Pineda Barnet, who has directed “La Bella del Alhambra” or The Beauty of Alhambra, among other movies.

Daysi Granados’ extensive film career has made her an unforgettable actress in the history of Cuban film. Her talent - shown repeatedly over more than four decades - and her outstanding emblematic presence enriching Latin American and Cuban movies have made her essential to Cuban culture.

Fernando Pérez is respected as one of the most important Cuban filmmakers over the past twenty years. Pérez first worked as a documentary maker before his feature film début with the highly praised and historic “Clandestinos” or Underground. He has directed and been the co-screen writer in a series of successful movies, such comprising “Hello Hemingway”, “Madagascar”, “La vida es silbar” or Life is Whistling and “Suite Havana.”

Nelson Rodriguez is an outstanding collaborator in excellent movies and with various Latin-American and Cuban film classics. He not only stands out as an indispensable asset to the film industry, but also works in a less well-known, but no less significant job as a prominent professor of young producers and editors.

- The Cuban movie El Benny, dealing with the life of renowned Cuban singer Benny More, was awarded the Cemi Prize in the category of best first work by director Jorge Luis Sanchez, in the Ninth International Festival Festival of Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic.

The film about the life of the famous Cuban singer also took home the Popularity and Best Actor Awards, for the interpretation of Renny Arozarena as Benny More.

The winner of the Cemi documentary was the joint 93 minute Cuban-US production "Kordavision," directed by Hector Cruz Sandoval, enthusiastically applauded by the audience at the closing ceremony.

"Kordavision" is a documentary of Leo Brouwer with images of Roberto Chile.

The ninth Festival's closing ceremony was held at the Pedro Mir University Library, with the presence of Santo Domingo Autonomous University rector Roberto Reyna and other Dominican cultural celebrities.

- Through the Centre for Caribbean Studies, the Havana based cultural institution Casa de las Americas has launched a call to participate in the Seminar "George Lamming´s Caribbean", to be held at its headquarters on June 7th - 8th, 2007.

The seminar will deal with George Lamming (Barbados, 1927), one of the pioneering voices of contemporary Caribbean thought. Prestigious writers, researchers and academics will deliver lectures on the scope and significance of the life and work of the poet, playwright, essayist and chief advisor for the Center for Caribbean studies, to mark his 80th birthday.


- Antigua and Barbuda will be receiving assistance from Cuba in the restoration of Fort James and other historical sites.

News of this follows a recent visit to Cuba by Minister of Tourism Harold Lovell, who led a five member delegation on the visit, during which time the officials negotiated technical assistance in the development of tourism in Antigua and Barbuda.

Under the agreement, a team of Cuban specialists will travel to the Caribbean country later this year.

Cuban Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero said that the group will visit the Fort James area, make an assessment and advise on the most effective means to proceed with the restoration of this and other historical sites. They will also identify how best to convert the sites for tourism purposes.

Antigua and Barbuda's Minister of Tourism is keen on receiving assistance from the specialists on this venture, after taking note of the Office of the City Historian, which has been instrumental in the restoration and conservation work in Old Havana since 1993.

Old Havana - declared a World Heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1982- is considered one of the most dynamic cultural, tourism and financial centers on the Caribbean island.

"With the restoration of historical sites on Antigua and Barbuda and the diversification of our product into the heritage tourism market, we can expect an enhanced visitor experience resulting in increased visitor arrivals, increased length of stay, greater foreign exchange earnings, and an improvement in the quality of life for residents of Antigua and Barbuda," the Minister said.

During the discussions, provisions were also made for Cuba to assist in the skills training of tourism service providers and individuals who want to pursue careers in tourism. Both short-term two week courses and five year university courses will be offered.

Minister Lovell thanked Minister Marrero for the contribution of the Cuban government, and said that his government was also looking forward to extending whatever technical support and assistance it could, to assist in the development of yachting in Cuba.

A Memorandum of Understanding outlining the terms of the agreement between the two governments will be signed at a later date.


- Famous French singer Charles Aznavour will perform in Uruguay along with the prestigious Cuban pianist and jazz musician Chucho Valdés in August, according to Uruguayan Culture Ministry sources.

Presentations are scheduled to be held in the South American country's capital of Montevideo, and also in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. The tour also included stages of Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay, aimed at promoting an album recorded by Aznavour and Chucho Valdés last October in Havana.

Aznavour will be accompanied by 15 musicians and Chucho Valdés, by his quintet. They will play and sing ten songs with Cuban and Caribbean rhythms and a Dominican merengue, which are part of the CD.

According to tour organizers, Aznavour requested that concerts include important local artists, including Inti Illimani and Mercedes Sosa, in Argentina.

Most of the program will be dedicated to the greatest hits of the French singer: Venice Without You, Die of Love, and The Bohemian, among others.

Chahnour Varinag Aznavourian, his real name, was born in Paris on May 22nd, 1924. He began his career as a singer at age nine when Edith Piaf took him on a tour through the United States.

That beginning marked his life forever, becoming the sole survivor of the three most important figures of French song, after the deaths of Piaf (at age 47) and Gilbert Becaud in year 2001.

- Cuban dancer and choreographer Carlos Acosta has been awarded the Outstanding Achievement in Dance Award at the 2007 Laurence Olivier Awards for his program of work and performances at the Sadler’s Wells Theater in London, Britain, in 2006.

Widely regarded as one of the world’s finest dancers, Acosta is a principal dancer with the UK’s Royal Ballet. The show about his own life, Tocororo, broke box office records when it ran at Sadler’s Wells in 2004. Last year, he returned to the venue with special guests from the Royal Ballet to perform a program of work entitled “Carlos Acosta and his Friends from the Royal Ballet" -- including extracts from Balanchine’s Agon, Bournonville’s La Sylphide and Fokine’s Dying Swan, plus contemporary works including premieres from Ben Van Cauwenbergh and Georges Garcia, for which he won the coveted award.

In December 2006, he collected an Honorary Doctorate in Letters from London Metropolitan University. In 2003, Carlos Acosta won the National Dance Award from the UK Critics' Circle, and was nominated for an Olivier Award in 2004. In 1998, Carlos joined The Royal Ballet, Covent Garden under the direction of Anthony Dowell, and remains there to date as Principal Guest Artist. Additionally, Carlos performs regularly with top national ballet companies, appearing in more than 20 countries including the UK, USA, Japan, Russia, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, France Chile, Argentina, Greece and Turkey.

- A 10-year restoration effort has successfully wound up at the El Santo Salvador Church, the main Catholic church in the eastern city of Bayamo, the second city founded by the Spaniards in Cuba.

A major piece included in the restoration process was the church chapel. The building is an architectural jewel linked to the island's political history, since it was the site where the national flag which led Cuba's 1868 independence war against Spain was blessed.

The church is also famous because the music of the Cuban National Anthem was played for the first time in the surroundings of the church on June 11, 1868.

The refurbishing and restoration of the symbolic cathedral in Bayamo, some 700 kilometers east of Havana, was financed by the local episcopate, the Provincial Center of Cultural Heritage, the UN Development Program, and some Italian institutions.

- Right before his 60th birthday, famous Cuban visual artist Nelson Domínguez is back at the National Fine Arts Museum with an exhibit of works mainly made with wood and paper. The exhibition runs through April 10th.

Under the title "Nelson: Wood and Paper", installations, sculptures and paintings show the artist's sustained passion for manufacture.

Domínguez is exhibiting a sample of his paintings on paper, thanks to his fascination for making different kinds of such material, a creative aspect which he began in 1971 and to which he goes back again.

The artist's special interest in experimentation became evident when he graduated from National Arts School. His first explorations in painting or engraving in stone, linoleum, wood or metal, his performance in ceramics and metal sculpture refer to his constant search for expressive possibilities.

Another one of his projections within the arts has been as an illustrator and a professor. He has been the head of the Painting Department at the Higher Institute for the Arts -ISA -- and joined the staff of engraving professors at that institution.

His work can be found in the Cuban National Museum of Fine Arts, the Cuban Council of State Collection, the Tertulia Museum in Colombia, the Latin American Museum Julio Cortázar in Nicaragua, Los Pinos Presidential House in Mexico, the Presidential House from Guatemala, the Miura Matsuyama Museum and the Soka Dakai Museum in Fuji, Japan, the Imperial Palace Collection from Japan, the Center for Cuban Studies in New York, the Queen of Holland Collection, among other centers.


- The main house at the Ernest Hemingway Museum in Vigía Estate on the outskirts of Havana reopened despite U.S. government efforts to thwart restoration works. The house is located on a hill in the Havana suburb of San Francisco de Paula some 20 kilometers from the capital. The house, the estate and the writer's documents, books and belongings are considered the renowned novelist's largest heritage outside the United States.

Hemingway lived in Cuba for some 20 years and wrote his famous novel "The Old Man and the Sea" in the house, leaving the island in the 1960s with good memories of his life there.

At the opening, the President of the National Cultural Heritage Council, Hector Palacios condemned Washington for boycotting the project to prevent U.S. specialists from cooperating with supplies, equipment, technical advice and financing. Cuba was thus forced to supply its own scant resources, Palacios said, adding that Cuba has invested more than $200,000 to restore the Havana house where the U.S. writer Ernest Hemingway lived, while the United States has refused to support the works.

The $200,000 was further swelled by one million Cuban pesos given by the Ministry of Culture and the government to rehabilitate La Vigía estate, according to the National Cultural Heritage Council President.

After a tour of the building and its surroundings, Palacios Soto told reporters that the restoration works should be completed this year or in early 2008 and the total cost will be over $1 million and four million Cuban pesos.

He regretted, however, that the U.S. blockade imposed on Cuba for more than 45 years is preventing any kind of financial solution for the development of the works agreed in 2004 through an agreement between Cuba and the U.S. Social Science Research Council.

Palacios said that until now 21,985 pages have been digitalized and 2,654 pages of documents and letters by the author of For Whom the Bell Tolls have been preserved. The Hemingway Museum treasures more than 22,000 items, including books, photographs, film, hunting trophies, weapons, and sports and fishing equipment.

In November 2002, the Social Science Research Council and Cuban Heritage Council signed an agreement to undertake the initial stage of the restoration of 11,000 letters, pamphlets and books that belonged to Hemingway.

He explained that the works included the restoration of a tower that the famous writer ordered built, the 40-foot Pilar yacht, the swimming pool that Ava Gardner is said to have used, the bungalow and the coach house.
 

- Cuban singer Pablo Milanés received Havana's Grand Theater Annual Award. The recognition is granted to outstanding people or musical groups that have reached artistic excellence.

Cuba National Ballet director and jury president Alicia Alonso presented Milanés with the award, who highlighted the Cuban singer-songwriter's merits and his contribution to the Cuban and Latin American New Song Movement.

Havana's Grand Theater is Cuba's oldest such institution. Other celebrities who have been granted the award before include Spanish opera singer Teresa Berganza, French mime Marcel Marceu and Cuban ballet dancer Carlos Acosta.

- An exhibit of Cuban posters from the 70s and 80s is delighting arts lovers at the Maisternaya Art Gallery in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. The gallery is located in the house of outstanding Ukrainian painter Valeri Viter.

The artist has collected a varied range of emblematic Cuban posters for more than 30 years and the show is considered the first in the so called post-Soviet era.

At the opening, Viter said that he visited Cuba in early 1970 as a member of a Ukrainian Folk group and was captivated by posters of the Cuban Film Institute, the Cuban National Ballet, the New Song Movement and others.

- A concert hall dedicated to Cuban and international vocal music opened in the Cuban capital at the former Santa Clara de Asís Convent with a concert by the men's choir Camerata Vocale Sine Nomine.

On the last Thursday of each month, the group -- directed by Alexis Rodríguez -- will host a show at the concert site located in the former convent, the headquarters of the National Preservation, Restoration and Museum Center in Old Havana, declared a UNSC World Heritage site.

The first concert included pieces by Cuban composer Esteban Salas, William Byrd from Britain, Spain's Juan Vázquez, Carlos Patiño and Tomás Luis de Victoria. Attendants also included a tour from the Renaissance period to Gospel music.

The Camerata Vocale Sine Nomine is an exclusive format choir that uses counter-tenors. Because of its unique work in Cuba, the group is involved in a project that combines its music and fine arts.

The first concert was supported by the work of the fine artists Carlos Guzmán and Sesti di Lucca, who are contemporary painters who mix contemporary arts and medieval mythology through sacred or profane characters.

- Nearly 20 classics of the Cuban film industry will soon be available on DVD format as part of the restoration process in which the Cuban Film Institue (ICAIC) is involved to rescue the island's movie heritage.

ICAIC sources reported that the movies "Hello, Hemingway", " Memories of Underdevelopment " and "Life is Whistling" have already been digitalized.

The digital restoration also inclues material featuring images of the Cuban Marlin Fishing tournaments, showing Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, heroic Argentinean-Cuban guerrilla Ernesto Che Guevara and U.S. writer Ernest Hemingway.

Also included in the anthology is "Feliz Feliz", made at the Animated Film Studos, which features videos of children's sons considered classics for the several of the island's generations, such as "Barquito de papel", sung by late actress and TV presenter Consuelo Vidal.

The process also includes the classic Cuban cartoos "Elpidio Valdés" and "El Negrito Cimarrón", and a DVD anthology of film posters entitled "Carteles son carteles", which not only gathers works of the island's revolutionary film industry but also works of the early 20th century.

- Renowned Cuban painter Pedro Pablo Oliva won the 2006 National Fine Arts Prize in recognition of his life work and career.

A jury summoned presided over by José Gómez Fresquet, nicknamed Frémez, who won the important award last year, valued the singular aesthetic and social impact of Pedro Pablo´s creation.

Considered one of Cuba's top contemporary painters, Oliva's work has gone beyond his important influence in several generations of artists. The 2006 National Fine Arts Prize laureate has also developed a remarkable work in promoting the Workshop "P.P. Oliva Home", the Cubaneo Award and his sponsorship of the Arts Museum in the city of Pinar del Río, his birth town since January 15th, 1949.

The annual award was set up in 1994 and is granted each year to Cuban artists living in the country, whose work has made a contribution to the development of fine arts and Cuban identity as well as to national and international arts.

A graduate of Havana's National Art School, Oliva has exhibited his pieces in Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Switzerland, Mexico, Germany and United States and in Cuba´s National Fine Arts Museum.
 

- Harvard University has been granted permission to perform a spring-semester study-abroad program at the University of Havana, despite tightened US regulations on travel to Cuba.

After an 18-month process, the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and the Harvard College Office of International Programs have obtained a one-year academic exchange license for a joint effort with Cuba´s top educational institution.

The U.S. government's 45 blockade against the island has prevented Harvard students from studying in the country under programs that were not College-affiliated.

According to US law, students cannot travel to Cuba unless they are from a university with an academic exchange license from the U.S. Treasury Department.

The 2007 program will be in effect from late January to early May, a period in which students will study in the outstanding Latin American university, live in Havana in a remarkably different social, political, and economic atmosphere and take a mandatory course on U.S.-Cuban relations.
- Renowned Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer has donated a work to Cuba, currently being erected in Havana and featuring the government of the United States in the form of a dragon facing men holding a Cuban flag.

In statements to Brazilian newspapers, Niemeyer, who is best known as the designer of Brasilia - the country's capital city - said that the work which is almost ready is a personal gift to Cuban President Fidel Castro. The sculpture is currently being installed in a new square under construction in the Cuban capital.

The 98-year-old architect added that seeing a sculpture of his in Cuba is a dream come true at a time when a normal life goes and the government is dedicated to the problems of the Cuban people.

 

- More than 600 artists and specialists from 30 countries will be on hand for the Fifth International Culture and Development Congress, scheduled to be held in Havana from June 11 through 14.

They will be discussing how to defend cultural biodiversity and the recovery of and respect for the peoples' culture.

Outstanding intellectuals have confirmed their attendance, including French journalist and writer Ignacio Ramonet, Argentinean storyteller Adolfo Colombres, Italian writer Carlos Frabetti and Argentinean pianist Miguel Angel Estrella.

They are to be joined by 250 Cuban delegates, including writers Miguel Barnet, Graziella Pogolotti and Reynaldo González, musician Jesús "Chucho" Valdés and filmmakers Rigoberto López and Humberto Solas.

The program includes a roundtable, as well as meetings, courses and workshops.

Founded in 1999, the congress is aimed at encouraging an exchange of experiences, ideas and projects to empower human creativity as part of efforts facing humanity and its current and future challenges.

- The recognition and exercise of cultural diversity and resistance to passive cultural consumerism and unidirectional messages conveyed by corporate transnationals and power centers will be topping the agenda of the Culture and Development Congress, set for Havana in the year 2007.

Sponsored by the Cuban Culture Ministry, the event is scheduled to be held at Havana's Conference Center from June 11th through 14th 2007.

At the congress, the peoples on Planet Earth will demand the right to preserve their languages and way of life. Africans and people of African descent will uphold their identity profile and claim their place in society, while women and homosexuals will struggle to break up discriminatory barriers against them.

The importance of culture in today's globalized world to defend humanity will be another essential issue up for discussion at the gathering. The event will try to find the true diversity of the people's voices, born on different spheres, with contrasting and complementary practices: the academic exercise and the experience of scarce cultural industries, the words of those excluded, of those who bear autochthonous cultures.