22.02.2016 / 7:00 p.m.
Harvard Club of New York City
35 West 44th Street. New York, United States.
Lecture
One minute out of fifty five years – space for freedom of expression in Cuba after restoration of diplomatic relations with the United States
An introduction to the political reconstruction of Cuba, focusing on the current struggle for freedom of expression under the new political and economic circumstances.
Following a brief overview of the history of artistic censorship in Cuba, coming to the conclusion that censorship is not a bureaucratic faux pas but a government strategy to maintain power.
Performance art can be used as a channel to open avenues for freedom among, not only the elite, but the general Cuban population. This is a time to redefine the international image of the Cuban project, in which the importance of civic education, as given by places like the Hannah Arendt International Institute of Artvism, cannot be underestimated. In order to achieve change, one must first lose one’s fear to speak and enact one’s civil rights.