The Puentes Poéticos of the city of Matanzas (+audio).

In Matanzas, the vitality of a millenary and everlasting way of communicating, which poets recognize as a way of life, will continue to be defended: poetry.

Hugs as bridges. Books as bridges. Looks and gestures as bridges. Bridges in strophic forms and in verses. Bridges with rhymes and free. Bridges as poems.

See also: https://www.radio26.cu/noticias-de-matanzas/cultura/el-lenguaje-universal-de-la-poesia-en-puentes-poeticos-audios-fotos-y-video/

Puentes Poéticos, the International Poetry Festival of the City of Matanzas concluded this Saturday as a great celebration dedicated to solidarity and love among human beings, among peoples.

The dedication to Palestine, the presence of the poet Najwan Darwish and his heartbreaking poems, the visit of the Argentinean-Chilean Daniel Calabrese, Victor Rodriguez Nunez, Cuban resident in the United States and his wife, the American Katherine Heeden, attested to the transforming spirit with which was born an event longed for many years in the city of rivers and bridges.

See also: https://www.juventudrebelde.cu/cultura/2024-06-16/la-humanidad-necesita-vivir-en-la-poesia

The closing ceremony was a summary of what happened during the previous three days; laughter, emotions, readings, celebrations, rain, expressions of support and friendship were combined to celebrate poetry.

See also: https://www.radio26.cu/noticias-de-matanzas/cultura/reconoce-la-ahs-a-escritor-palestino-najwan-darwish/

Puentes Poéticos was dedicated to Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés, Plácido.

In the Julio Sagebien hall of the Office of the Curator of Matanzas, Roberto Méndez’s master lecture on Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés opened the day. The essayist and poet shared with those present details related to the vicissitudes of the poet who was shot 180 years ago, the incomprehension towards someone who was not considered in his true dimension as a writer due to the prejudices of the time.

See also: http://www.uneac.org.cu/secciones/los-versos-en-matanzas-le-cantan-a-la-paz-y-a-las-esencias-patrias/

Then the participants of the meeting, which was also dedicated to the National Literature Prize Nancy Morejón, visited the cell where Plácido spent his last moments before leaving for the scaffold.

VIDE LUIS NEGRO SPIRITUAL

There, Luis Lorente, winner of the Casa de las Americas Award on two occasions, offered his Negro espiritual, a poem dedicated to the man who was among the initiators of criollismo and siboneyismo in Cuban poetry.

The readings of the poets from Matanzas, Cuba and abroad filled the cloudy afternoon with poetry.

The poetic journey between the five centenary bridges of the historic center of Yumurino, despite the rain and inside the transport that led them, enlivened the afternoon, between declamations and congas to then enjoy the statues of Noria, the performance, under a fine drizzle and the humidity of the puddles formed in the Plaza de la Vigía, of the students of Miriam Muñoz’s workshop, the poetic pregones of Israel Domínguez, the interpretations of Olga Margarita Muñoz, Mario Guerrero and Casuso and the readings of the poets of the patio, Cuban and foreigners.

VIDEO Reading by Nancy Morejón, to whom Puentes Poéticos was dedicated this year, and Miguel Barnet, who will receive the Festival’s tribute in 2025.

Crowned the afternoon in the portals of the Office of the Curator, before the eyes of passers-by who stopped to look, the delivery to the guests of photographic images of the bridges of Matanzas captured by the artists of the lens of this city.

The guests received the bridges of the city immortalized in photographs as a souvenir of the event.

During the recognition to the organizers of the International Poetry Festival of the City of Matanzas, the National Literature Prize Miguel Barnet described as original this event whose next edition, as announced by Alfredo Zaldívar, head of the managers of Puentes Poéticos, will be dedicated to the author of Biografía de un cimarrón (Biography of a Maroon).

Miguel Barnet, National Literature Award, was among the guests of the International Poetry Festival of the city of Matanzas.

A trip to Canímar in the panoramic bus and back to the Hermitage of Monserrate, with the scenic representation of Federico y la noche, by the National Theater Award Rubén Darío Salazar, closed the activities of this zero edition of Puentes Poéticos, whose celebration adds a new value to the intention of turning Matanzas into a Creative City of Literature.

See also: https://go.ivoox.com/rf/130302808

The event will take place again in 2025. In the meantime, Matanzas will continue defending the vitality of a millenary and everlasting way of communicating which poets recognize as a way of life: poetry.

…ONLINE AUDIO.

Written by Jessica Mesa Duarte.