UNLIMITED READINGS / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

HOWLABANA (Allen Ginsberg howls back in La Habana) Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo [Performed in La Madriguera (Finca de Los Molinos), at 9 PM in Friday 18 September 2009, as a part of the poetry reading of Mundo Beatnik/Hippie.] I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through … Continue reading “UNLIMITED READINGS / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”

Toe Shoes in the Night / Yoani Sánchez

Photo: Cuban National Ballet performs Don Quixote On the stage is a figure in toe shoes and a tutu, one of the principle dancers of the American Ballet Theater which is visiting Havana. The audience applauds to delirium for a dance troupe that hasn’t been in Cuba for 50 years. We’ve had a week of … Continue reading “Toe Shoes in the Night / Yoani Sánchez”

Subtleties of the Jaw / Claudia Cadelo

 Photo: Claudio Fuentes Madan The line for the bus at Coppelia is a special place, one of the corners so eloquent that if it disappeared one day Havana wouldn’t be the same. Yesterday at ten at night I was waiting for my P4 bus when a woman standing next to me with her daughter commented … Continue reading “Subtleties of the Jaw / Claudia Cadelo”

Neither Strawberry Nor Chocolate

The corner of 23 and L is the center of Havana. It is always lively. At any hour. Together, as if they were shaking hands, we have the Habana Libre hotel, the Coppelia ice cream parlour and the Yara cinema. There are too many blown bulbs amongst the neon lights of the cinema billboard which barely manages to announce a British film, … Continue reading “Neither Strawberry Nor Chocolate”

Calle 13 and their Havana Megaconcert

The megaconcert started at 5 p.m. sharp. The one in charge of warming up the 100,000 people crowding into the “Anti-Imperialist Rostrum,” popularly known as the “Protestodrome,” was Cuban singer Kelvis Ochoa. For nearly an hour, in warm spring sun and a gentle breeze, Ochoa went through his repertoire from top to bottom. He heated … Continue reading “Calle 13 and their Havana Megaconcert”