Literature in May will smell of coal from the south of the province.
Entre letras y carbones Festival will be held in Ciénaga de Zapata from May 14th to 18th, in a new edition of this event that responds to the Turquino-Manatí Plan.
Literature assumes its leading role in the province’s cultural heritage through actions that benefit young and urban audiences, with the particularity of extending to communities far from the big cities with the ratification of the XXI Festival Entre Letras y Carbones (Between Letters and Coal).
To learn more about the program for this month, we interviewed Efrahím Pérez Izquierdo, director of the Provincial Book and Literature Center.
«The month of May is a continuity of our work. We started the first one by participating in the parade for Workers’ Day and we also joined the tribute that the city offered to the Pharmaceutical Museum for its 60th anniversary. We presented this exquisite place, protected by a collective of merit, led by Marcia Brito, with the Concilio de las aguas, that famous combination of poetry and trova directed by writer Alfredo Zaldívar.
«We now join in the congratulations for Mothers’ Day, especially to the booksellers, writers, book workers of the province, for their selfless presence in each of the actions that with great pleasure we offer to the people.»
Inquiring specifically about the Festival Entre letras y carbones, to be held in Ciénaga de Zapata, he pointed out:
«It will be from the 14th to the 18th of the present month, in a new edition of that event that responds to the Turquino-Manatí Plan, in the wetland south of the province, to which, as every year, prestigious literati from different municipalities come to contact the cenagueros and recognize the figure of Nemesia Rodríguez Montano, the emblematic «coal flower», who inspired the Indio Naborí to write one of his most moving elegies.
«It is already coordinated with the Government, Education and institutions of the territory, together with the artistic projects Korimakao and Casimba together with the bookstores we have in Girón, Playa Larga and Pálpite.
«This year we want to return along the route of Caimito de Hanábana to visit the little house where our Apostle José Martí lived as a child and pay homage to him, on the occasion of the commemoration this May 19th, the 129th anniversary of his fall in combat.»
About what is coming up for the end of the month, he pointed out:
«The usual spaces are maintained: El sombrero de Zequeira, the Wednesday of Poetry and Café Mezcla’o at the Social House of the UNEAC, the San Juan Murmurante, with the repentista poet Orismay Hernández, at the ARTEX Cultural Center, on Narváez Street, those that take place at Ediciones Aldabón, at the Casa de las Letras Digdora Alonso and at the Vigía Publishing House.
«Likewise, at the José Jacinto Milanés Promotion Center, the Municipal Literary Workshop, named after the poet Ricardo Vázquez and led by Hugo Hodelín and Leymen Pérez, is in operation, and the Fernandito García Tenth Workshop, under the aegis of poet Reynaldo «Papito» Gil, among others, will be held. We also incorporate as our own the space A Different Saturday, led by oral storyteller Loreley Rebull, at the Lorenzo Padilla Art Museum.»
It is worth knowing that these days the writers are immersed in the preparations for a new event of international character for the month of June, which will reaffirm the condition of Matanzas as a Literary City and of which we will inform in future issues.
Written by María Elena Bayón.
